Tag Archives: wood

Adults, Education, Making

Revealing The Treasure

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Pictures from last months relief carving class. Warm light, playing over subtle tactile traces, left as our students stripped away whatever wood wasn’t necessary for telling their own creation stories: Tales that sometimes shifted in the making/telling. Watching the tools move over the wood, skillfully revealing a little more of these beautiful designs each moment was as special and surprising as seeing the tide recede from an unknown and sunken treasure- it was there all along but who knew!

A more sedentary, contemplative craft than some, but no less demanding – changing angles, shifting grain, ambidexterity, staying sharp, sitting at the bench all day can be exhausting!

For folks who have joined us for the relief carving class, we’ll be starting regular weekend/after work sessions to give space to develop skills and work independently.

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, 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, 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!
Adults, All, Education, Making

Three legs better

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Four legs good, two legs bad, three legs better! With apologies to George Orwell.

It was wonderful to be back on the Learning Land this past weekend, in the warm & hazy sunshine, the day so still that the smoke from the fire rose in a perfect column (apart from when we sat down to eat of course!)

Working this way, gently by hand, it’s the clarity of sound that resonates –  fibres cracking as the wood splits, trancing-out to complex axe rhythms, creak and groan of straining shave-horses, all the birds joining in the purposeful music of making.  Many thanks to our friendly and entheusuastic group of builders for making the day such a joy.

Only wish we’d got a proper picture of Des juggling his legs!

 

 

Adults, All, Education, Making

Getting some relief

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A wonderful day spent this weekend with talented members from the Rufford Arts Society, all relative newcomers to the craft. Precise mallet blows resounding regular as clockwork resulted in some beautiful, tactile and ambitious relief carvings. I came away inspired too, by the willingness to experiment, general fearlessness and good humour! Even their practice peices turned into wortks of art.

Wonderful day, great tutor, great tools and materials -Loved it! Hope we can do another day…

All, Education, Making

Can’t wait for spring!

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Decorative Wood Carving
Spoon Carving
Spoon Carving
Stool Making
Decorative Wood Carving
Stool Making

When we’ll be back out on the Learning Land at the Iona School. Each month there’ll be another opportunity to learn, to make, to shape & create with wood.  Follow the links to find out more about making a stool, shaping a beautiful spoon, & creating your own decorative wood carving, or download the PDF. Book right here online, or get in touch.

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