Dragon headed serving spoon.

Shows and workshops 2013

I teach a fair amount of people and have been doing so for 15 years or so. I do not have many workshops this year as I have committed myself to teaching at the Husbandry School. Carol and Jonty are good friends of mine and are committed to growing food and teaching Husbandry as well as various earth based crafts. To find out more about the ancient art of Husbandry click here.
Anyway I have one definite date for a fan bird carving workshop
I may schedule in some more but I am also busy with other teaching, demonstrations and shows.
My wife is doing an exciting project and I hope to travel to India in the autumn with her, which cuts out a couple more dates for workshops.

If you want to learn various skills I teach then do book up to do a 1 to 1 with me, it is a bit cheaper if you bring a friend, or book up for more days. This tuition is tailored to what you want to learn and we map out the time in advance to make sure we can cover the skills you want to learn.

People also book me for private workshops at my or their venues, email me to talk through ideas and prices.

I will be teaching at The Husbandry School click here for the workshop dates

5-6th April you will see me demonstrate at Yandles Woodworking show in Martock

10- 12th May Bodgers Ball

29-30th I will be demonstrating at the Staffordshire in the woodland area with likes of Doug Joiner, Gudrun Leitz, Owen Jones and Jeremy Atkinson

5-6th July Exeter Cathedral Green craft Fair, I will be demonstrating and selling

2nd- 4th Aug  teaching at Spoonfest

14th of Aug more or less Teaching at the Sussex and Surrey Coppice week. Fan birds and balancing dragonflies

17th Aug Fan bird workshop

24-26th Aug Westonbirt Treefest not confirmed yet

20th - 22nd Sept Bentley Woodfair with the Sussex and surrey coppice group

5-6th Oct Cranbourne Chase woodfair

In amongst this I have a couple of talks with various wood clubs.

So if you are at any of these events please drop by and say hi.

Plant sticks

Great fun to do, and you can just let your imagination run wild. These are painted with milk paint and gold leaf. I thought I would make some for my Mums birthday after seeing them on various Swedish web sites.

Click on the images to make bigger.

The Commons

I want to share something that I find inspiring and resonates deeply with me. I know a lot of regular readers of this blog will agree with these ideas. So onward into 2013, a year of positive change.

http://onthecommons.org/sites/default/files/celebrating-the-commons.pdf

Why we do not leave an axe in the axe block

One thing that I always teach my students is that you never leave an axe on or in your axe block.

An axe can easily be knocked out and fall. A potential source of injury and a damaged axe. The axe belongs on the floor under the block or in its mask or holder, or may be on a large surface.

Have a look at these photos and you will see that bits of wood have stuck to the axe. If there is any moisture in the wood this can start rusting as well. These bits of wood are really stuck and do take effort to remove. The other problem with this, is that the could stop the edge biting into the wood. The skipping axe is another potential injury, very small, but lets keep the odds in our favour.

You will see that the axe in the above picture has its whole edge in the wood. I have been told by many different people about injuries caused by the tip only being in the block. The hand or a digit can get caught between the block and the inclined axe edge. Go on set your axe in a block and see what happens if you reach, for say, a knife on the block, not looking properly. The digit will get trapped and badly cut. Really not nice. Now who would set an axe in a tree trunk at 6 foot above ground? You know, to keep it safe. Do you want this falling on your head or shoulder? Again I heard of someone doing this and then stringing up a hammock on the same branch, caught his hand between axe edge and tree.

What stories do you have about your axes? How do you keep them safe? Finally what are the most stupid things you have seen or heard? Do let me know, and post a comment. When I first started teaching at camps and festivals once or twice people would chop the axe into the ground "to keep it safe". The horror, the speechlessness, the time then spent grinding out the damage.

Personally I prefer cross grain blocks rather than end grain block. The axe does not get stuck in a cross grain block. More importantly it is harder to chop your axe into, so you are not able to store your axe this way.

On another note my friend barn and talented spoon carver has posted a video on axe blocks, well worth a watch.

My Axe Blocks from barn carder on Vimeo.