Category Archives: Making

Adults, Education, Making

A Spoonful of Sunshine

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On Sunday it felt as though the world had run right past spring and into summer without stopping or looking back. The air was so warm, but the acid green hawthorn leaves, cherry blossom and bluebells coming through planted us firmly in the season.

Carving spoons is a wonderful way to connect with the here & now: You have to be totally aware of your body, the tools, the wood, the form you are trying to find or imagine out of the tree…

It is always a special moment to notice the changing quality of sound – the heavy drumming of axes slowly giving way as the almost silent, meditative work of whittling away everything that isn’t spoon commences. If the birdsong weren’t so clear and lovely, & the woodchips so deep on the ground you could have heard a pin drop.

 

It was a real gift to be able to share time with Simon (already an accomplished whittler by any measure) and a glad company of his friends and family. May these spoons serve you well, either in the cooking, eating or as a reminder of spring’s inspiration.

Adults, Education, Making

Rustic Sensitivity

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Two words that describe an intensely physical day, working in what must have been the warmest room at Lakeside Arts Centre (was it our relentless energy or the muggy weather?) with attentive makers, turning a recalcitrant tree or two into 8 beautiful stools (give or take).

Wonderful. Hard work, handful of blisters, but so rewarding!

Struggling to split stringy acacia wood, & iron-hard maple, revealing the beauty of weather-beaten pine and patterned lime – meeting the challenge of each twist in the grain, and listening through our fingertips to hear what the tools and trees whisper to us. Finally, shimmering smooth surfaces emerge from underneath wet bark.

Not enough time or thought left at the end of the day to get good photographs of the finished articles! If you were there it’d be great to get a picture of your work out ‘in the wild’…

 

 

Education, Making, Schools

Experiencing work

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Monday morning didn’t feel quite right somehow.
Last week we spent a wonderful 5 days in the company of Haydn who chose to do his work experience with us. So engaged and commited was he, that we almost wonder what we’ll do without him.

During the week, he worked so hard, and all over the place – learning that work doesn’t have to happen under strip lights, that it can include laughter and friends, and sometimes that it’s difficult to tell where work ends and play begins. We’re both so glad he’s taken that away with him (along with a few scrapes!)

At the end of Friday we sat down to try to cram a list of all that he’d done into a tiny box, on his school paperwork – he mused that it’d be easier to say what he hadn’t done… he gently supported others to make in day centres, schools & childrens homes, and he found time to make for himself, visited a saw mill, filmed, photographed, animated, hefted, stickered, carved, whittled, sawed, chopped. Time to go back to school for a rest!

Adults, Education, Making

Mencap Woodwork

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For the last couple of years as well as a weekly drawing lesson, we’ve been introducing the folks at Nottingham Mencap to the joys of working with wood. Building our skills together, cutting straight to the line, measuring success in beaming smiles & sweat on the brow.

Paul’s P
Ready for treasure
Nailing the sides
“Fred”
Finished relief carvings
Staining the wood
Beautiful texture
Brian shaping the puppet
Final sanding

It’s jsut a beginning, but already weve seen beautiful treasure boxes, created characterful dancing marrionettes & rod puppets, and excelled at relief carving. It’s been such fun being with people who have such strong ideas, and a will to learn & make them real, to work with laughter always in the room.  Lets hope the sawdust never settles.

Adults, Making, Young folk

Contrast

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From the tranquility, and zen-like concentration of relief carving on Saturday, to the explosive and unpredictable creativity of Family Making on Sunday. Our weekend at the Learning Land was a time of opposites, the textures, & the temperaments.

Finishing touches

It was a delight to watch these beautiful carvings emerge from the wood. Sinuous curves, precise lines & hard edges, the subtle textures only glimpsed when the light falls just so, but that felt so good to run your hand over.

On Sunday families imagined and built together: A tank with turning turret, a podium for a posing rabbit, a hayloft, ladder and hurdles, a real bow and arrows. Later, wild whittling warriors battled amongst the trees, and we all took turns to pause & quietly sit on the suprisingly comfortable meditation stool. Ah, full circle.

Adults, Education, Making

Spooning

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A trio of spoons whittled and hewed, from trunk to tableware, in just one day. One Goliath and two Davids, ash & honey locust sawn & split, crazy sapwood scent of fresh bread dough!

A trio of makers learning, not only how to make a spoon, but the skills to work with wood, to follow grain, to safely shape with sharp axe & refine with a blade, how best to hold and make use of a knife to create something unique and useful. Nothing so simple, or so demanding of complete attention!

A gorgeous, sun kissed Saturday spent on the Learning Land. Thank you all.

Adults, Making, Young folk

Unicorns are real!

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We can lay another myth to rest too, the folly that says that old dogs can’t learn new tricks, or that younger ones don’t want to interact with anything unless it flickers and yells from behind a glass screen.

Yesterday was an exhausting, exhilarating experiment. Our first day Family Making on the learning land. We didn’t quite know what to expect, no rules, anything might have been possible. And it turned out that way!

A comprehensive catalogue of things made:

1 unicorn with rainbow mane (fully ridable)
3 rustic stools
1 spoon
1 bowl
2 mallets and 1 almost marking gauge
Half a motorbike
A whole rabbit playground (with ramp and tunnel)
3 juggling clubs (or bludgeons depending on which way the light falls)
An assortment of coloured nailed pictures and sculptures.

An incomplete list of beautiful happenings:

3 generations working together
Making a tool from scratch, then using that tool to make something else!
Parent and child sharing skills and time together
Children guiding adults
Families supporting each other, taking joy in each others creations
Young people using sharp “grown up” tools, carefully, safely and with skill
The land holding us all
Sounds: Talk, trees, tools, birds and quiet
Suprise & delight at unknown abilities
And only a couple of plasters on fingers!

We’re looking forward to seeing what happens next time

All, Commissions, Making

As seen on TV…

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Just off camera to the left! Blink and you’ll miss it.

The commission to create not one, but a trio, of identical drinking bowls arrived shortly before Christmas; A present perhaps? A set of three as a gift?

No, props for CBBC’s fourth series of Wolfblood!

In last night’s episode the healing concoction was ground and stewed in the carved mortar and pestle made by Martin. Only one bowl featured, but we were asked to make duplicates, suitably aged and dirtied, as it was due to be cast down onto the floor, incase of breakages. The vagaries of script and editing knife conspired to keep the props from being featured too heavily, but it was a super-fun project, and in the process of diligent research we became more than mildy addicted to the show!

HooOoOoOowl!

All, Education, Making, Young folk

More Meadows

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Another glimpse into the lime-tree-legacy being spread from the Meadows.

Spiralling grain
Proud makers
Future furniture makers!
Giving thor a run for his money
Three finished stools
Almost there
The axe does the heavy work
The drawknife and the shave horse are a perfect combination

We worked with the Meadows Youth Club, introducing traditional hand skills & building beautiful stools from the wood felled for the tram works, filling the room knee deep in curled shavings. It was heartening to see the young folk’s suprise & delight at the quality of things they had made for themselves!

All, Education, Making

Stools with a story

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While we’re on the subject of stools, here are some splendid seats carved lovingly in the Meadows at the end of last year.

The stools tell the stories of the hands that made them; each one a unique piece of furniture. They also add a new chapter to the lives of the 150 year old old trees that were cut down for tram works in the area.

The centenarian limes, former inhabitants of the Meadows, have been worked with sharp tools, careful guidance, and plenty of enthusiasm.

Pat, at The Meadows Art Gallery, along with local residents, rescued the trees from the chipper and moved them appropriatley enough to the derelict site of a former old peoples home. She’s responsible for this project (and many more) using this beautiful wood.

Rough shaping legs with the axe
Shaping legs
Shaping legs
Riding the shave horses three!
Refining stool legs with the drawknife
A good team.
Making holes with the brace and bit.
Shaping the seat
Trying out the fit
A beautiful bevvy of finished stools
Proud Makers!