Steve Tomlin Crafts

Greenwood & Scythe course dates 2014

Posted on December 6, 2013 by stevetomlin

I’ve been working on this for a few weeks now so I’m really pleased to be able to tell you my 2014 course dates. I’ve been discussing the scythe dates in particular to ensure that we make best use of the grass at Sprint Mill and that the courses fit in with the running of the smallholding and their new goats.
Fan Bird carving 24 May – £80
Spoon carving 5 & 6 July – £145
Learn to scythe 25 May, 20 June or 6 Sept – £80

These courses can also be provided as personal 1-to-1 tuition or a course for your group.
To book any dates, please send me an email: steve-tomlin[at]hotmail.co.uk
If you’re trying to think of Christmas gift ideas then a craft course is a wonderful present. Based at the idyllic Sprint Mill near Kendal, Cumbria, I like my courses to be fun with small groups and plenty of time for individual attention. The memories and skills you take away will last long after the day itself.
Last years courses booked up quickly so please don’t delay once you’ve made your choices.

Posted in greenwood courses, scythe courses, Scytherspace, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2014, carving, course, greenwood, learn, scythe, scything, spoon carving, workshop | Leave a comment

Large and small spoons

Posted on November 30, 2013 by stevetomlin

A couple of spoons commissioned by a local potter and made to her designs. Really fun to make, the large spoon is 30cm long while it’s little salt spoon brother is just 7cm total.

Posted in spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged cherry, greenwood, salt, spoon, wooden | Leave a comment

Wooden spreaders commission

Posted on November 19, 2013 by stevetomlin

A small commission of wooden spreaders has gone off to London to be given as Christmas presents. The customer asked me to replicate one she had brought back from New Zealand and liked so much she wanted to share the design. Mine are handcarved from Cherry from the Sizergh estate, just down the road from me in Cumbria.

Posted in spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged butter, cumbria, greenwood, knife, London, spreader, wooden | Leave a comment

SteveTomlinCrafts & Scytherspace together

Posted on November 18, 2013 by stevetomlin

Some of you will already have noticed that I have brought my Scytherspace site and blog into the SteveTomlinCrafts site.
As well as making them easier for me to manage this will mean that you now get posts all year round and I hope that you will be as interested in both seasons of my work as I am to have that variety.

On the site itself you’ll find the main blog in the menu as usual but with two drop down options which will take you to either the woodworking or scythe posts, making it easier to browse and find what you’re looking for. I’ll also be sending out an occasional newsletter with details of courses, exhibitions and events to watch out for.
Thanks for following, I feel really lucky to have such interesting and varied work through the year and love sharing it with you on the blog. I hope you’ll enjoy what’s to come just as much but, if you change your mind, you can always unsubscribe by clicking the link in your email or at WordPress.com.

Posted in Scytherspace, SteveTomlinCrafts, Uncategorized | Tagged blog, scytherspace, Steve Tomlin | Leave a comment

Fresh wooden eating spoons

Posted on November 14, 2013 by stevetomlin

Three new eating spoons freshly out of the oil* this morning. These are my standard eating spoon shapes but I thought they were worth sharing for the beautiful colours, especially the spalted birch.
These will be in the Spoon Shop if you’re interested in buying one.
l-r: cherry, birch, birch.

* My kitchenware is finished with food grade cold-pressed linseed oil so there’s no nut allergy issues. If you’d prefer something unoiled that’s fine, please email me.

Posted in spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged birch, eating, sloyd, spalted, spoon, wooden | Leave a comment

Making bread in dough bowl

Posted on November 13, 2013 by stevetomlin

So Simon Thomas of Staff of Life had the dough bowl over the weekend and tweeted the whole process of mixing, kneading and proving 3kg of dough in my carved bowl.
This is a multigrain loaf with malted & rye flours and caraway. The dough was proved for approx 40hr due to Simon teaching artisan baking to a group on Sunday.
According to Simon: “The doughbowl is very easy to mix in and contains the rise easily too. Remained very stable while mixing. I put a damp tea towel under to stop it slipping on my steel worktops. I do like it.”
I will be carving more of these bowls, if you’re interested in finding out more please email me.

It certainly tasted good.

Posted in carved bowls, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged bowl, bread, carved, dough, handmade, Staff of Life, trough | Leave a comment

Baker's wooden dough bowl

Posted on November 9, 2013 by stevetomlin

This morning I took the new wooden dough bowl over to Simon Thomas at the Staff of Life bakery. It was a lovely busy place with plenty of activity and a steady stream of customers and a great atmosphere.
Simon thinks the trough will be big enough for about 5lb of dough with space for rising which is a good amount for home baking and he liked the solid feel of it. He’s now going to take it home and put it through it’s paces before reporting back.

Posted in carved bowls, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged bread, dough bowl, dough trough, Simon Thomas, Staff of Life, wooden | Leave a comment

Carved bread dough bowl

Posted on November 5, 2013 by stevetomlin

Some images of a new carved bowl that I finished earlier this year. Carved and finished by hand from local birch it measures 19″x11″x5″ and is designed as a dough bowl (or trough) for mixing, kneading and proving bread dough in. For scale, the final picture shows the some of my cherry cooking spoons which are just shy of 12″ long sat in the bowl.
I’ve been talking about dough bowls with Simon Thomas, owner of the Staff of Life bakery in Kendal and we’ll be working together to come up with the perfect design for modern home baking.

Posted in carved bowls, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged bread, dough bowl, dough trough, hand carved, proving, wooden | Leave a comment

Handmade wooden spoons

Posted on November 1, 2013 by stevetomlin

A couple of gratuitous spoon shots from the weekend of my own spoons which I’d taken along to the course to inspire. There are eating spoons, serving spoons as well as a couple of little scoops. Some of them were made a while ago and others, like the willow server I was making during the individual tuition with Gareth where I’ve deliberately left the marks from the hook knife in the bowl, are brand new.

Posted in spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged cooking, greenwood, hand carved, handmade, spoon, wooden | Leave a comment

Spoon carving course for London Green Woodworkers

Posted on October 29, 2013 by stevetomlin

I spent this weekend teaching a spoon carving workshop for London Green Woodworkers based in Abney Park, Stoke Newington. Abney is a beautiful old cemetery full of headstones and monuments which has reverted to woodland over the years and is very atmospheric.
The group had all carved wooden spoons before but wanted some additional tuition to develop their skills and improve their spoons. Spoon design, sharpening, carving technique, ergonomics and finishing all made for a full and busy couple of days which I enjoyed a lot. One of the things I wanted to put over was to look more at their work as they carved and we made one of my eating spoons the focus of the weekend with everyone aiming to produce copies of it. This is a great way to learn and develop new shapes and techniques and the results all came out different and individual which represented each carvers own style. On the course was Joseph Bloor who is currently carving a spoon a day for a year and was keen to learn to improve his skills as part of that project.

We finished the weekend with a session of a Spoon Club game in which each person carves a spoon for 5mins before passing it to the person to their left who continues the work. This can be a challenging and exciting way to work as you’re faced each time with a completely new spoon and can’t get too attached to a piece. After an hour we each got our own spoons back, carved as a collaboration of the group.

It’s great to find such a fun and keen bunch doing greenwood work in the middle of London and sharing what they do through free drop in sessions