Wednesday 21 May 2014

Students chairs and workshops

I run and afternoon and evening workshops on wednesdays. Trevor and Martin have just completed their chairs, Trevor comes along in the afternoon and Martin in the evening.

Both of them are really chuffed, as am I. All the work was done on the pole lathe and with hand tools.

If anyone local to me wants to take part in ongoing workshops I have a space on Wednesday afternoons - drop me a line.

The other workshops I am running this year will be Fan bird making on 11th Oct

Tool making on 25 - 26th of Oct. Make a knife and hook tool and maybe whatever edge tool you need.

See my website for details.


Thursday 15 May 2014

Rip saw, Japanese style

The Bodgers Ball was a bit challenging for me this year. The wind. The wind would not stop, and I had to lower my stall so that it would not blow away. So I do not have much to report, but I did manage to take a few minutes of video of Roy sawing with a Japanese  rip saw. This is the only Japanese tool that I have lusted over. I made a decision years ago to mainly use only western style tools. It partly comes down to money, but also because of the tradition I work in. I have access to lots of second hand western tools and no oriental ones.
I want to make one of these saws because it is used by one person, and it is a cool looking saw. I do have an old crosscut saw lined up to repurposed. Watch this space, but it could take a long time. Lots of other money earning stuff to do in the mean time.

Monday 12 May 2014

The Art of Broken Pieces

This film came up in my blog feed and I had to share it. It is about the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken objects.
 If you want to know more about Japanese and Korean craft then The Unknown Craftsman, an insight into Japanese beauty, is a fascinating and worthwhile read. It is always good to have our ideas and beliefs challenged.