Author Archives: stevetomlin

Anna Karenina extras "scandal"

I got back last night from the second round of filming the mowing scenes for Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. While we were away somebody told us about that the filming had made the papers because of extras being supposedly underpaid. … Continue reading

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Recovery kayak launching

My skin-on-frame recovery kayak attracted a fair bit of attention as soon as I drove into the campsite at Ullswater with it on the roof of the car. I was suprised how many people remembered and recognised it from 2 … Continue reading

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Improve Your Peening workshop

I like peening for all sorts of reasons but one of my favourite aspects is the amazing rhythms which are created by several people peening scythes together. The hammering comes in and out of sync in a way I find … Continue reading

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Skin on frame kayak

Way back in 2008, the guy I was working with asked me to go to the library and look for a book on currachs, Irish fame boats. Instead I found ‘The Aleutian Kayak’ by Wolfgang Brinck and fell in love … Continue reading

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Damson spoons

The Lyth Valley, close to where I live is famous for it’s damsons which are out at the moment. It’s a good year in terms of the crop but difficult harvesting, I’m told because of the wet weather. I’ve used … Continue reading

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Mowing on Romanian TV

Our group of hay-tourists certainly drew plenty of attention from the local media. During the week we were photographed and interviewed by two newspapers and filmed by a local news station, an independent film-maker working with the festival organisers and … Continue reading

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Haymaking poem

I’ve been sent this poem by Neil Diment, community officer for the HayTime project in the North Pennines AONB. Neil was one of the participants on the Transylvania Haymaking Festival and writes, “Having, at long last, tried my hand at … Continue reading

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A well used spoon

Nearly everything I make is designed to be used, whether it’s a chair, spoon, bowl or rake. I especially like it when someone meets me at a show and tells me how they’ve been using something they’ve bought from me. … Continue reading

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Leela's rake

Last October I met Miss Kathloon Peart from Bishop Auckland who told me how she’d received her first hayrake when only 3 years old and had been making hay on her farm for the 50-something years since then. So I … Continue reading

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Romanian Rakemaker

I’ve been in the Transylvania region of Romania taking part in an International Haymaking Festival. During the week we called in to visit Viktor-bacsi (an honorific for older people translated for us as “Uncle Viktor”) who, despite ill health makes … Continue reading

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