Steve Tomlin Crafts

Paper flowers at Spoonfest 2014

Posted on August 12, 2014 by stevetomlin

One of the tutor’s at Spoonfest 2014 was the very talented Anja Sundberg from Sweden. She came to teach her own distinctive style of carving and decoration in one of the special pre-Spoonfest courses.
First though, a few of us had the bonus of being shown how to make fantastic big flowers by folding sheets of newspaper in an unofficial workshop for a select group of spoon carvers.
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Here are some of Anja’s fantastic spoons

Posted in greenwood events, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2014, Anja Sundberg, fritiof runhall, spoonfest | Leave a comment

A month of mowing

Posted on August 11, 2014 by stevetomlin

Summer is here and July was filled with the sounds of scythes mowing their way through the northwest as I taught 50 people how to mow over the course of the month.
These were all courses organised by conservation groups who are running hay meadow projects in Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire including Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Forest of Bowland AONB, Lancaster Castle, Yorkshire Dales National Park and North Pennines AONB. I’ve been teaching for some of them for a few years now and together we’re building a huge team of mowers here in the NW.
Some highlights for me were having Olivia Keith come to the Lancashire Coronation Meadow at Slaidburn to draw wonderful dynamic artworks of the scything, glorious sunshine (and one day of rain!) all month, working with Krishan who came and learned to scythe in spite of being blind, discovering more of the beautiful landscape and, of course, meeting so many interesting and friendly people.
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Posted in scythe courses, Scytherspace | Tagged Austrian, cumbria, lancashire, learn scything, nw, scythe, Yorkshire | Leave a comment

Spoonfest 2014

Posted on August 8, 2014 by stevetomlin

If you think Spoonfest is just about carving wooden spoons then you’d be only partially right. Sure, that’s the focus and there’s an awful lot of it going on there, with ever increasing levels of skill and quality from year to year. But it’s also just a chance for a big bunch of like-minded people to get together and share a few day in a field in Edale. I was super busy this year organising the workshops as well as teaching my own spoon carving courses so took very few photos of spoons (I prefer making sketches anyway). Instead here’s a few photos giving a taste of the atmosphere and some of the good people I had the pleasure of spending my week with.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2014, Edale, spoon carving, spoonfest | Leave a comment

My plate

Posted on August 6, 2014 by stevetomlin

When I talk to people about my craft and the pleasure of owning and using handmade objects I often mention how each item is unique and individual. While I was away at Spoonfest 2014 I had a brilliant demonstration of that.
I bought a wooden plate from my good mate Robin Wood several years ago and, although I use it nearly every day I’ve never really paid close attention to it and didn’t think I could describe it. Then, during the course of the weekend, my plate got mixed up during the group washing up. As you can imagine, there are a lot of wooden bowls and plates around at Spoonfest with many of them made by Robin yet, when I looked through the pile I recognised mine instantly without even a shadow of a doubt. It was lovely to think that I’d unconsciously made such a bond with it.

Posted in SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2014, plate, spoonfest, wooden | Leave a comment

Spoonfest 2013 – Spoon Olympics

Posted on July 31, 2014 by stevetomlin

Last year saw the epic first ever Spoon Olympics. Words cannot capture the magnificent displays of athletic prowess and spoon heroism that were witnessed on the field of glory, so instead here’s a slideshow of the highlights.
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Oh, by the way, did I mention I WON! I’ll be defending my title this year up against the cream of the world’s spooncarving athletes.

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Some of the photos here are used with permission of Sophie Standford who also made the Spoonfest 2013 videos. See more of her work at http://vimeo.com/user17195827/videos

Posted in spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2013, carving, fritiof runhall, spoon, spoonfest, Steve Tomin | Leave a comment

Wooden spoons at Spoonfest 2013

Posted on July 30, 2014 by stevetomlin

This weekend I’ll be at Spoonfest 2014 so here’s some of the work which was on display last year, hope to see you there.

Robert Nicholson; Fritiof Runhall; Nigel Leach
Simon Hill; Alastair Dargue
Jarrod Stone-Dahl; Steve Tomlin; Sean Hellman

Posted in spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged carving, green wood, handmade, spoon, spoonfest, wooden | 1 Comment

Good scythe posture

Posted on July 28, 2014 by stevetomlin

My mate Dave Oliver sent me this montage of images which he took from the video I made last year of mowing the orchard. He was interested in looking at the posture and body position of a good mowing style to assist his own technique. By aligning the images to keep my feet level he could watch to see how my body moves as I make a cutting stroke with the scythe.
Note that my head stays level throughout and how my arms work to move the scythe through it’s arc. My legs are providing the power for the cut, shifting my torso horizontally and moving the weight from my right foot to the left.
Dave also took a video of himself mowing to compare his own technique and said it helped highlight some areas of improvement. It’s a great set of photos and I hope others find it useful too, thanks.

Posted in Scytherspace | Tagged mowing, posture, scythe | Leave a comment

Scything rocks!

Posted on July 11, 2014 by stevetomlin

I often get emails and questions from people asking if the scythe can cope with cutting grass in what they think are difficult situations. The answer’s pretty much always ‘yes’ so I thought nothing of it when I was invited to teach a day of bespoke tuition for Mike and Rachel who said that the mowing on their smallholding was “challenging”.
On the day we were joined by their friend Clive and the four of us spent the morning setting up the scythes and mowing their meadow in the sunshine with fabulous views of Ribblehead Viaduct, Ingleborough and Whernside.

Then, in the afternoon, came the challenge; some rocks in the lower part of the meadow which they wanted to clear around to benefit the soil but so they could appreciate the rocks themselves. What fun! I showed them how the scythe can be used in confined spaces and methods to clear right up to the rocks without damaging the blade or rocks.

Posted in scythe courses, Scytherspace | Tagged Austrian, learn, rocks, scythe, workshop, Yorkshire | Leave a comment

Scything for bad backs

Posted on July 10, 2014 by stevetomlin

Some great feedback from Jen, who I taught how to scythe a couple of weeks ago. Over the years I’ve taught many people with bad backs how to mow with an Austrian scythe including a woman who’d previously broken her back and on two-day courses people often comment that they wake up on the second day without their usual stiffness. Mowing is gentle, rhythmic and symmetrical work so it’s ideal for loosening any stiffness while building core strength but, as with any exercise, you should get professional advice if you have medical issues.

Hi Steve,
Thought you might find this feedback useful for others. I’ve been scything now almost daily since our lesson. Prior to that, my lower back was always (and I mean always) stiff in the mornings and evenings -just where I have a bad curve with the scoliosis. For the last few days, its gone completely. I can also feel my posture is getting better as I am increasing my core strength in my abs. Far from being simply “not a problem” for problematic backs, I’d say that the scything is actually improving my condition.
Thanks again, Jen

Posted in Scytherspace | Tagged bad back, health, scoliosis, scythe, scythe feedback, scything | Leave a comment

Learn to Scythe course 7th Sept 2014

Posted on July 3, 2014 by stevetomlin

My Learn to Scythe courses this year have been incredibly popular and booked up long in advance so, to try and accomodate the demand, I have organised an additional course on

7 Sept 2014 at Sprint Mill, near Kendal in Cumbria, UK. £80

Together we’ll set up the scythe to fit your body, adjust the blade for efficient cutting and practise the tai-chi style motions for easy, efficient mowing. You’ll learn to sharpen the blade safely and effectively and discover how to maintain the blade including peening the edge.
Small groups ensure you have lots of individual attention. These places are sure to fill quickly so please steve-tomlin[at]hotmail.co.uk to book your space or visit my Learn to Scythe page.

Posted in scythe courses, Scytherspace | Tagged 2014, Austrian, course, learn scything, learn to scythe, mowing, scythe | Leave a comment