A week of courses

I had a wonderful start to my summer of teaching with several different craft courses within the space of a week.
First off was a fan bird carving day for a terrific group including a couple of experienced greenwood carvers who’d come along to expand their skills. Lots of interesting chat and some excellent birds made for a very enjoyable day.

Then the following day was my first Learn to Scythe course of the year. These courses have been very popular this year and booked up long in advance with some of the students having got their place as Christmas or birthday presents so they were all keen to get started. The weather was with us and we mowed a huge area of buttercups, refreshing the land where the goats graze at Sprint Mill.

Finally Adrian Lloyd, an aspiring greenwood maker, came for two days of 1-to-1 spoon carving tuition. He had some clear goals including carving spoons from crooks, improving his designs and the flow of his work and learning to carve incised engraving for decorative lines and letters like I had on last years wooden Christmas card. I also introduced him to the use of an adze for hollowing the bowl of the spoon, carved ball finials, discussed spoon design and a whole lot more. It’s great to see new folk getting into greenwood craft and Adrian is certainly building up an impressive range of skills.