Fan Bird Carving Course

I’ve had a brilliant day teaching a group how to make fan birds. This is the third time I’ve taught fan bird carving at my workshop in Cumbria and I’ve made some modifications to the way I teach which really paid off.

The course was full which meant stocking up on extra tools for everyone and gave me the opportunity to make some new knives for splitting the feathers which worked really well. Extra wide chisels also made cutting the notches easier while the piece of larch I bought for the course was a dream, splitting almost on its own into billets.

Half of the group were complete beginners to woodworking which I really like as they can learn to work wood without dust or the use of machine tools. Jim, a forester from Perth, came especially to get away from the usual noise of his work.

With this course we work through each of the stages together and I demonstrate the cuts along with the important features of the finished shape. By the afternoon we were splitting feathers and, once the body was carved it was time to spread the wings. After making so many fan birds, I’ve got a lot of confidence in how far the feathers will bend but for beginners it’s a nervous time as the culmination of their work. This is the magic of fan birds and the thing that made me want to make them myself so it’s a great reminder for me of that trepidation and wonder.

We ended up with some terrific birds, a testimony to good work from the group and I got some new ideas of ways to make the course even better for next time.

Spooncarving Course in Scotland

I have been invited teach a spoon carving course in Dalbeattie on 25 & 26 May 2013. With my recent trip to Sweden I’m full of ideas and inspiration on spoon carving and really enjoying my own carving as well as the recent teaching I’ve been doing. Whatever level you’re at, I can offer exercises and advice to stretch you and progress your carving. Hope to see you there.

The two-day workshop is offered at the special price of £100.
Only  6 places - call Gavin on 01556 611380 or gavin.phillips@virgin.net

To read about previous courses visit stevetomlincrafts.wordpress.com/courses

Spoon Carving

with Steve Tomlin

Spend the weekend with professional spooncarver Steve Tomlin and learn the techniques of carving with axe and knives on this fun and inspiring workshop.

All tools & materials supplied

You will learn

·         How to select wood for carving spoons

·         Splitting blanks from branches and larger timber

·         Using an axe for fast, efficient carving

·         the 5 most important knife carving techniques

·         Hollowing the bowl with a hooked knife

·         Safe methods of working

The focus on this course is building skills so that you take home much more than just your completed spoon. You will learn a set of skills which are the foundation of any greenwood working and will enable you to go on carving on your own.

Steve Tomlin has been a professional greenwood worker for 10 years and is an internationally respected carver. In 2013 he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship in recognition of his skills and spent 4 weeks working one-to-one with master spoon carver Fritiof Runhall in Sweden. As well as selling and demonstrating his craft at shows around the country, Steve has taught dozens of people how to carve on his lively and engaging courses.

Spoon carving is an engaging pastime which is accessible to all, requiring only a small toolkit and easily-found materials. It makes an ideal introduction to woodworking for beginners while the design elements and particular skills will engage more experienced woodworkers.

The two-day workshop is offered at the special price of £100.
Only  6 places - call Gavin on 01556 611380 or gavin.phillips@virgin.net

Spoon carving in Wales

I arrived back from Sweden last thursday and was straight off to the Woodland Skills Centre in North Wales to teach a spoon carving course for the weekend.

They were a lovely bunch of folk and it’s always a pleasure to teach a group who are so keen to learn. As always we focused on developing and practising the different carving techniques using the axe and knives and made small projects along the way to the spoon carving on sunday.  My skills with my left hand have been improving over the last year which came in useful for demonstrating as both Justin and Simon were working left-handed. It’s much easier for beginners to see and understand how the grips are used when it’s presented in the same orientation that they’re using.

Sunday afternoon is my favourite part when the group teaching ends and everyone has time to work on their own spoons. The silence was deafening as they all concentrated on the work and I kept an eye on things, offering advice or reminding them of a technique as required. We also looked at various sharpening equipment and methods specific to spoon carving tools.

Everyone did a great job and went home very proud of their new spoon.

Snapshots from the V&A

As a craftsman, I can’t go to London and not visit the V&A so I was pleased to have a couple of hours in there before my QEST interview, helped calm my nerves to see all that great work from over the ages. These are a few snaps I took, mostly through a glass case and with poor lighting which don’t do the works justice – if you can, get there yourself and enjoy it in real life but make sure you’ve plenty of time.

First, a visit to the Japan Room and delight at seeing the sword guards and handles for scabbbard knives. I’d enjoyed them before but was looking with new eyes since I’ve discovered the sublime work of classical metal artist Ford Hallam. The tiger handle, signed Masayuki from around 1750-1800, reminded me of his video ‘Utsushi – in search of Katsuhira’s tiger‘ which is transfixing. The sword guard, depicting Sailing boats and Mount Fuji is signed Toryu Hagen (1804-1876).

Next, spoons. If you want wooden spoons you’re better off visiting the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading, I couldn’t find any wooden spoons here but this display of metal spoons from the Koryo period of Korea caught my eye, particularly for the shadows they cast.

You have to find your way all the way to the top floor to get to the Furniture gallery and it’s only one room when you do, though of course there’s other furniture around the museum. The reward is a display, mostly of chairs, from a wide range of styles and materials. Favourite of mine were the Thonet display and Gio Ponti’s Superleggera chair.

Finally a few more contemporary pieces, including the classic ‘This Mortal Coil’ bookcase by Ron Arad and a single case intriguingly labelled ‘Handmade: Traditional Skills’ and featuring a basket by Jenny Crisp alongside one of David Pye’s bowls.

Ladderback chair heritage

I have received two interesting emails lately which add more detail about the background to the Castle Drogo and Jennie chairs. They tie in beautifully with discussions I’ve been having elsewhere on the web about crediting your craft references and inspirations and, by doing so, becoming part of a heritage of makers.

Jennie Alexander wrote to explain that the two-slat chair is a progression from a one-slat Shaker dining chair which she copied and taught during the first two chair making courses at Drew Langsner’s country Workshops in the late 1970s. This one-slat has straight back legs so is a simpler introduction to chair making. It wasn’t until the third of these courses that they bent the bent the back legs in order to build a two-slat chair. So the original credit goes to the Shaker craftsmen who designed the chair though Jennie admits to have altered the construction enough for it to be classed as the ‘Jennie chair’. Developments have continued on the construction so that a third edition of ‘Make a chair from a tree’ is underway at the moment.

Jennie also came to England and taught chair making at John Makepeace’s school at Parnham House “a long, long time ago”. During this class there wasn’t time to bend the back legs so they built one-slat dining chairs from that original Shaker design. Who was one the course? David Drew, who went on to build 100 of them for Castle Drogo in Devon where I found them.

Meanwhile Jane Schofield wrote with more information regarding those Castle Drogo chairs. Her husband commissioned the chairs for the restaurant following the ‘Great Storm’ of 1990 which felled many trees on the National Trusts properties. The actual timber for the chairs came from Knightshayes Court in Tiverton rather than Castle Drogo itself as I’d been led to believe. A set of photographs of the making process were also commissioned at the time and hung in the restaurant; I wonder where they are now? Something to follow up..

From the Shakers through Jennie Alexander to David Drew the stories of the two chairs are form a heritage with each successive craftsperson adding their own identity. I am even more proud to be making them now myself and hope I can do them justice.

A Gift of Spooncarving

Denise came and spent a day with me last week to learn to carve spoons. The day of one-to-one tuition was a Christmas present from her partner and so, after more than 2 months of anticipation, she was excited to get started. Even though she’d not worked with wood before I guessed that Denise would be good with her hands as she’s a bookbinder and, since she runs workshops herself, thought she’d also be a good student. I wasn’t wrong on either score and she was a pleasure to teach as well as good company.

Normally, I spend two days teaching people to carve spoons as there’s a lot to fit in and I want to spend enough time practising the techniques to get them right and so folk can remember them once they get home. Everything goes a bit quicker with just one person and with some modifications to the usual timetable I was confident we could get it all in.

We started as always with the axe which for most people is the most difficult tool as it requires strength as well as technique to use accurately. I was impressed by how Denise got on with but when, halfway through, she also admitted to being a drummer it became clearer why she had the forearm strength and good rhythm. We worked at different exercises to gain confidence and then develop the beginnings of accuracy.

After going through what I consider to be the fundamental grips for the straight knife we broke for some lunch. Denise was soon asking ‘What’s next?’ and the only real answer was ‘Okay, let’s make a spoon.’

I decided for this lesson to let Denise do the axework for her spoon with the proviso that, once her aim started to go or she felt her muscles complaining, I would take over. There’s no point in carrying on with axing if it means you are too tired for the knifework when it is a simple matter for me to finish off removing the waste. In the end, that wasn’t necessary and, apart from a couple of small refinements, the spoon is all her own work. I love to watch people learn to handle the tools, find the grain and enjoy those moments when their own experiences teach in practise what I’ve been explaining with words.

We had enough time to make a couple of decorative notches and refine the bevels of the handle for a handsome finished spoon that’s sure to be the first of many.

QEST Scholar

The news arrived last night that I have been selected for my Queen Elizabeth Scholarship. I am very excited.

It means I have the funding to spend 3 weeks in Sweden working and studying with Fritiof Runhall learning about greenwood carving, design, decoration techniques and whatever else we get excited by during the time. I’m especially keen to do some bowl carving with him, explore ideas for my own makers mark and, of course, carve spoons. Fritiof has been an inspiration for me since I did a short spoon carving masterclass with him in 2011

In amongst that, the scholarship will  enable me to visit several museums in the area as well as Skansen open-air museum and the Nordic Museum in Stockholm to research their collections of woodenware as inspiration for my work, spend a day with Ramon Persson, a maker of wonderful birch bark boxes, see craftwork on sale in specialist shops and hopefully enjoy the Swedish countryside. I’m going to be visiting, seeing, talking about and making as much woodwork as I can fit in with some amazing craftspeople, to improve my skills and open new avenues for my work.

In addition, I hope to use the connection with QEST to promote not only my own work but greenwood carving in general to a much wider audience as a contemporary, high-skill craft. I feel very honoured to have been selected as the list of scholars is full of makers with great talent.

There’s lots to prepare now as I can’t wait to get there!

QEST interview for greenwood carving

Yesterday I was in London for an interview with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust. The trust, which was established in 1990, gives funding to support practising craftspeople in gaining training or experience to further their careers. My scholarship, if I’m selected, will enable me to spend 3 weeks in Sweden working with Fritiof Runhall, one of the best greenwood carvers in the world as well as visiting other craftspeople in the area and researching old wooden spoons in several museums there.

The interview was just 20 minutes long with a panel of craftspeople and designers, most of whom are Royal Warrant holders for their craft and including two woodworkers. I did feel quite daunted to be presenting to them but I’d had some good advice in advance that it would be relaxed and that proved to be right. I took a selection of my wooden spoons, a large carved bowl and a shrink pot container to show and, by the time I’d got in the room and said hello, the various members had the work in their hands – always a good sign. I’d been told that I would have 10mins to present my proposal followed by questions from the panel but actually I talked for just a couple of minutes before they jumped in with questions on how I work, the advantages and problems of greenwood, why I want to learn from Fritiof, pricing my craft, creating a carved finish instead of sanding and where I think I’m headed. It was all pretty intense but exhilerating at the same time and was over in a flash; it reminded me of teaching at Spoonfest – trying to put across a lot of information about what I do in a short time to a group of highly interested people.

I should find out by friday whether I’ve been awarded the Scholarship but in many ways I already feel like I’ve been successful. The fund website states they are looking for “Well thought out proposals which will contribute to the excellence of modern and traditional British crafts” from craftspeople who can demonstrate they “already have a high level of skill and are firmly committed to your craft or trade”. To have been selected on that basis from 300 applicants for one of only 30 interviews is a huge compliment and mark of recognition, not only for my own work but for the relatively unknown craft of greenwood carving and spoon making in the UK.

Keep your fingers crossed and I’ll let you know when I hear the news.

Jenny Chair frame complete

I’ve just finished assembling the frame for the Jenny Alexander side chair. I altered the rungs slightly, to give this chair the same seat size as my other dining chairs and put in just 4 rungs with different postitions. I wanted to lighten the look of the chair  and give it some ‘lift’ so it appears more free. I’m confident that the structure, based on oval tenons and interlocking joints in the seat, is still strong enough for everyday use and I’m very happy with the final look.

The instuctions I followed from Drew Langsner’s ‘Chairmaker’s Workshop’ take the legs through a shaving process from square to octagonal and then round but I decided to stop at the octagonal shape to give the chair a contemporary feel, a feature I’d really liked on the David Drew oak and willow chairs from Castle Drogo. The slats were steamed and dried before fitting rather than springing them in as Drew suggests since that’s the method I’m used to and avoids the need to plug the gaps which result from the slats drying and shrinking in their mortices, the top slat is fixed with shaved oak pins which give a nice detail feature.

Overall I am very pleased with this chair, I’ve only been able to sit on it with an improvised seat but the design of the back posts gives excellent support and comfort, as you’d expect from a chair which has such excellent heritage. I’m still considering what to seat the chair with but will post more photos when it’s complete.

Jennie’s legs

Back to post-and-rung ladderback chairs this week, steam bending the back legs for a new design of chair. The ash was lovely to shave down with the drawknife and bent very easily after about an hour in my steamer.

Actually, this isn’t a new design of chair at all but it’s not seen in the UK. The chair is the style made by Jennie Alexander in her book ‘Make a chair from a tree’, which kicked off the greenwood working revival at the end of the 70′s. If you live in America, this is a very familiar chair as it’s the one taught by Drew Langsner on his chair making courses at Country Workshops but in the UK I’ve never seen one or heard of one being built by a green woodworker. Over here the most common chair designs are those from Mike Abbott’s books (based on chairs made by Philip Clissett in the 19th century) which don’t seem to be made in the US. It’s a lovely looking chair and I’m curious how it feels so I decided to make one to add to my range; I think it will make a terrific office or cafe chair.

The main difference of the Alexander chair is in the back legs. Rather than being curved over their whole length, there is a dramatic bend between the lower and upper slat to give the curve necessary to fit the sitters back. I think this also gives a very clean and stylish look to the chairs and I’m looking forward to seeing how comfortable it will be.