Steve Tomlin Crafts

Beech leaf noyau country liqueur

Posted on May 10, 2019 by stevetomlin

It’s spring and the leaves are coming out on the trees. It’s such an exciting time when the woods and meadows come alive.

Each year, I make the effort to head out on a sunny day like today to pick the first soft beech leaves before they go waxy. If you’ve followed my blog for a little while, you’ll know this is to make beech leaf liqueur, a wonderful drink, using this recipe.

The recipe takes a couple of weeks but the results are well worth it and improve with age: I’ve still got a little left from my original 2014 batch and it’s fabulous.

Let me know in the comments if you’re making noyau or other country liqueurs this year.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beech noyau, liqueur, recipe | Leave a comment

Spoon carving in Yorkshire

Posted on April 19, 2019 by stevetomlin

My most recent spoon carving workshop for beginners was at Broadrake Bunkhouse at Chapel-le-Dale in Yorkshire. With views of Inglebrough and the Ribblehead Viaduct, the gorgeous Bunkhouse to stay in and the fabulous lunches, it’s one of my favourite venues for courses.

The course was over two days with us making cooking spoons on the first day and then more complicated eating spoons on the second day.

I love to see students increase their confidence and skills with the tools over the weekend and the quality of their wood carving increase in such a short time. These are their brilliant first ever spoons, each one carved by hand from greenwood.

You can learn to carve your own unique spoons on my one and two day courses – visit my courses page for dates and details.

Posted in greenwood courses, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2019, beginner, course, spoon carving, workshop, Yorkshire | Leave a comment

Stave basket making in new QEST book

Posted on April 15, 2019 by stevetomlin

I’m incredibly proud to have been chosen as one of 100 QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) scholars for their book ‘A Celebration of British Craftsmanship‘.

Photographer Julian Calder and I talked over my craft and decided to highlight the endangered stave baskets which I am working on as part of a Heritage Crafts Association project to preserve them. Rather than be pictured inside, I suggested we take the baskets back to the woods and he leapt at the idea. We were blessed with good weather and glorious green leaves as a backdrop to the portrait

It’s a real privilege to be part of the book, not only to be among such an amazing array of crafts and craftspeople featured, to be promoting an almost-extinct craft and bringing it to a wider audience but also as proceeds from sales of this book will enable QEST to support the next generation of professional craftspeople.

Posted in baskets, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged Devon stave basket, endangered crafts, QEST, Stave basket | Leave a comment

Spoon carving workshop at RHS 2019

Posted on April 9, 2019 by stevetomlin

Four people joined me last weekend for a couple of days at RHS Harlow Carr in Yorkshire to learn how to carve wooden spoons.
We started with making cooking spoons and introducing the axe and knife skills needed to work safely and efficiently. They’re a familiar shape and the design simplifies some of the carving while producing a unique item that you can go straight home and cook with. I love seeing the concentration on everyone’s faces as they get engrossed in carving.

If you’d like to learn to make your own wooden spoons you can join me on 22nd June or 23rd November in Chorlton, south Manchester. Book your place on Eventbrite: Spoon Carving in Manchester

Posted in greenwood courses, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged beginner, course, RHS, spoon carving, workshop, Yorkshire | Leave a comment

Spoon carving courses in Manchester 2019

Posted on April 6, 2019 by stevetomlin

Following on from the success of my recent spoon carving workshop in Chorlton, Manchester, I have added a couple of extra dates for courses in 2019.

Saturday 22nd June 2019
Saturday 23rd November 2019

Book your place via the Eventbrite page

The course is held just minutes away from Chorlton-cum-Hardy tram stop and runs from 10-4:30. During the day you will learn to use an axe and two special carving knives to create a unique wooden cooking spoon from local hardwood. Numbers are limited to ensure you receive lots of individual help and leave with lots of new skills as well as your own bespoke spoon.

Spoon carving kits, including a Robin Wood axe and two Mora carving knives shown in the photo above, will be available to purchase on the day.

Posted in greenwood courses, spoon carving | Tagged beginners, course, Manchester, spoon carving, workshop | Leave a comment

Wooden hay rake making at Stott Park Bobbin Mill

Posted on April 2, 2019 by stevetomlin

It’s always a treat to go up to Cumbria and spend some time in the Lake District, especially in spring when the countryside is coming to life. This weekend, I’ve been teaching a small group to make wooden hay rakes at Stott Park Bobbin Mill at the bottom of Windermere. The smell of wild garlic was everywhere, mixed with the scent of fresh ash timber as we worked in the sunshine.

We used greenwood for the parts, shaping them with axes and drawknives though some of the group did also use some more modern tools.

Everyone made a very handsome rake, ready for a summer of haymaking. More importantly, we enjoyed a couple of days in good company and the group learned lots of new skills.

Posted in greenwood courses, SteveTomlinCrafts, wooden rakes | Tagged Lake District, Stott Park, wooden rakes | Leave a comment

Cherry wood cooking spoons

Posted on April 2, 2019 by stevetomlin

When I’m teaching spoon carving, I always make a few spoons myself so that I can demonstrate the techniques during the course.

This lovely cherry wood came from a local woodland in south Manchester and travelled just a few miles to the workshop in Chorlton. The colours are really gorgeous and look fabulous in the sunshine. Two of these are destined for my own kitchen, can you guess which?

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Stave baskets in endangered crafts article

Posted on March 28, 2019 by stevetomlin

There’s a lovely article in Countryman magazine this month about the Heritage Crafts Association’s efforts to preserve endangered crafts and the Radcliffe Red List of crafts. The Devon stave baskets that I am currently learning to make are featured alongside wheelwrighting, riddle making, paper marbling and oak swill basket making. I’m very proud to be helping to keep these skills alive and bringing the baskets to wider attention.

Posted in baskets, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged Devon stave basket, endangered crafts, HCA, Heritage Crafts Association, Radcliffe Red List | Leave a comment

Spoon carving workshop in Manchester

Posted on March 25, 2019 by stevetomlin

Part of my interest in moving to Manchester city was to bring the crafts I do, which are typically considered to be countryside based, into the city. I’ve already had success with my Learn to Scythe courses which I’ve held at a few locations in Manchester and this weekend I put on the first wooden spoon carving course in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Crafts are a fantastic way for people based in urban areas to engage with natural materials, tools and the pleasures of making and really important in my opinion as a counterpoint to most people’s screen-based daily routine.

We spent the day talking, laughing and making together using axes and knives to create unique cooking spoons from some lovely locally-sourced cherry wood.

I’ll be running more of these spoon carving workshops in Manchester, please sign up to my newsletter to be the first to hear.

Posted in greenwood events, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts, Uncategorized | Tagged course, Manchester, spoon carving, workshop | Leave a comment

A craft trip to Slovakia

Posted on November 7, 2018 by stevetomlin

I’m just back from a fantastic week in Slovakia as part of a traditional craft skills project organised by Grampus Heritage. We were based at Lišov Museum where Jakub and Adriana are working to preserve the local cave houses and crafts of the area.
During the week, our main tasks were based around repairing and renovating the cave houses which are dug out of the local cliffs as homes and also wine cellars. They were still in use during the 20th century but many are now suffering from neglect or inappropriate work on them over the years.

Our lunches for the week was cooked by Danka, a local woman, using food from her smallholding. Her hospitality was fantastic and was a highlight of the trip. Also during our stay, I took time to visit one of the local cemetaries where candles had been lit for All Saint’s Day.

There was also loads of traditional crafts around and, of course, I took my own tools along with me so I could do some carving there. I’ll write more about those and post the rest of my photos in future posts.