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We stayed in Dzongu which is to the south west of Mangan. This area is under special protection and is a reserve for, primarily, Lepcha people. I tried looking on google maps to pinpoint exactly where we stayed but failed, the roads are not marked in this area and the zoom and definition of the satellite images are very poorly defined.

Kanchenjung is the protector-deity of the Lepchas and their lands, and is the third highest mountain in the world. This is a view of Kangchenjunga from our hotel room in Gangtok.

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.

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.

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

Jon works only with 3 types of tool. Axe, knife and hook knife.
He now owns a set which he has helped design (apart from the hook knife) which are made by skilled craftsmen in this country.
Today Milo and I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with him and a visiting friend Haily. With new tools for me to have a play with, spoons had to be made. Milo got much love from Haily which meant she did not get much carving done.

I think this is the first time I have used an axe made in this country that is not older than 60 plus years. Eye candy it may be, but it also performs. Well done Nic Westermann a lovely tool indeed. A mild steel body with a silver steel edge. I like the rounded edges on the poll so that it can fit in comfortably in the hand, great for shaving cuts.

The other tool was made by Chris Grant, the MiniMaC, little brother to the MaChris a bushcrafter/carver. Lovely knife made from ball bearing steel, I am actually getting to like the handle on it. Some of you may know that I like thinner handles.

The hook is a Nic Westermann, called the finishing knife, and is throughly recommeded if you do not mind putting your own handle on knives. The way that Jon uses this knife is outstanding. I can match Jon’s technical level but not his power.

 This is no small kuksa and it only seamed minutes later that he had roughed it out. It helps that Jon is a big man with big hands. There is no way that I would do this myself, I do not like hurting hands. I would get the adze out, and even vice it up and use 2 handed tools to do this with.

 The nearly finished item ready for final shaping.

I bought 2 spoons  at Spoonfest. There are design aspects of these spoons that I love, both are great spoons and fulfil their function perfectly, and they look good too. I often find that if something performs its function well, it often looks good.

It was great to meet and spend time with both these craftsmen. The first is Jarrod from the USA and his is a small, in fact very small eating spoon, made quickly with a milk paint handle.

 The knife work can be easily seen, there is no messing around here. Facets or large knife cuts left on spoons can work really well, but you need to have confidence in your carving and more importunely experience. I have seen so many spoons where large cuts do not work and a spoon just looks unfinished.

 One of the things I love about Jarrods spoon is the handle crank. Turn a spoon over and lay it on a flat surface you can see it clearly. Try it with your spoons. I carved a number of spoons copying this shape and I was really surprised about just how deep I had to carve.

Look at how the spoon tapers towards the end of the bowl. It gets thin, really thin and this fits into the mouth just right, a real pleasure to eat off.

So this is one I made, it is a bit more solid than Jarrods, and with a longer handle.

I do notice that I tend to spend more time finishing my spoons, I cannot help it, I enjoy it too much.

The other spoon I bought was made by a Swedish craftsman Fritiof Runhall who makes some of the most beautiful and creative spoons I have ever seen.

Made from a crooked branch, a finely knife finished spoon with a handle with a forward curve in that is just so sweet. The way it fits in the hand is perfect.

Fritiof has a trade mark which is clearly seen on the inside of the bowl, this is not easy to achieve. He often carves finials on the ends of the spoons.

Again have a look at the bowl shape especially at the tip.

I have been carving hearts at the end of mine. What I love about spoons is their infinite 3 dimensional shapes, they are hand held sculptural forms and you can go on forever with all the possible variations.

 To finish off this post, a couple more Fritiof spoons, photos taken in the Spoonfest gallery.

Next post I hope to add the photos I took at the gallery which include Stuart Kings spoon collection.

Those of you who could not attend, here is some good news for you: it rained. Well. a few showers. The workshops were over subscribed, but more were put on to motivate this to some extent.
All tools had to be put away at 7pm, when the bar opened.
Not very good phone signals.
The grass was the wrong shade of green.

Well, you missed the best green wood event ever! Tough! Learn your lesson and buy a ticket for next year! We all loved it.
I was there teaching. I did not manage to book onto any workshops myself and would have loved to have done quite a few. I can safely say that we all learned, we were all inspired. Spoon making in the UK has now significantly improved, both in its teaching and in its practise.

What I loved about Spoonfest was that beginners, men, woman, boys and girls all got stuck in.

Here is a short video, mainly of Barn and Robin opening Spoonfest.

I have taken lots of photos of spoons, and I even bought a couple. Next post, I hope to talk about the various design aspects of these spoons and what about them really ‘floats my boat’. This all may take some time, as I have been travelling around a lot. Just off the the APF and then down to the Weald Wood Fair a week after.

I have a lot of posts to write, especially about the inspirational Spoonfest that I was teaching at. I have been busy and have just got back from Treefest. Another wet show and another day drying tents out, and I did some more filming  with JP. We are pitching an idea to TV companies, it is a fickle business and more than likely it will not happen, fingers crossed it will. All very exciting. More info if and when.

My friend Jon Mac came with me to Treefest as Lucy is on standby to run down to Cornwall as her eldest is about to give birth. It was great spending 4 days with Jon, and then the organisers turned up with this.

I have a load of shrink pots half finished in my workshop. This happens quite naturally as the making is split into 2 parts, working the wood when it is green and allowing it to dry, and once seasoned making the lid and finishing. It is always nice to make when the mood takes hold, so I finished this 10 inch diameter pot with its willow lid and elm handle. I do love handles and I make them for doors and cupboards, hint, hint, you can buy them off me. Handles to me are a bit like spoons: they have an infinite variation of form and are amazing 3 dimensional sculptural forms.

I could spend all day making handles. This one I wanted to be secured by “natural” means and so I drilled a couple of holes in the lid and made a long pin to pierce the handle tenons.

The inside of my shrink pots are caressed with pure beeswax and bathed in a relaxing heat to help it penetrate the wood. The outside and lid is drizzled in pure cold pressed linseed oil from the pastoral fields of rural sussex. I use beeswax as I do not know what people are going to use these pots for and beeswax is great for food and everything else, as well as sealing any gaps or holes.

 I have also finished my largest pot to date an 18 inch high ash one.

The willow elm and sycamore pot (the one in the front) has been sanded. As you all know I like a tooled finish, but sycamore has such a lovely smooth and pure creamy white white finish that even with a razor sharp spokeshave the grain was chipping out in parts. I know that I am a perfectionist and in this case it just seemed right to sand, and this contrasts very well with the tooled finish of the lid. I now find that a very sharp drawknife, bevel up is the best way to go. This seems to work better than a spokeshave.

On another note my good friend  and inspirational carver Jon Mac has introduced me to the Abranet sanding sheets, these are great for spoons and other 3 dimensional sanding. If you  need to go over to the dark side and sand then these sanding sheets come very highly recommended by me.

My favourite work of Jon’s are his snow goose drinking vessels which I very much lust over.