Steve Tomlin Crafts

Ladderback rocking chair

Posted on November 9, 2012 by stevetomlin

A couple of photos from a rocking chair commission I’ve been working on. This is a ladderback style chair made of ash from the Edenhall Estate near Penrith with specially narrow slats to lighten the effect of the frame.
For this chair the customer has requested a rush pattern seat in real rushes. I would normally recommend the use of paper rush for this kind of seat since it’s becoming quite difficult to source good natural rushes and they are more time-consuming to weave. Fortunately I’ve got a couple of bolts of rush that I cut down in Somerset with Linda Lemieux from Devon so I’ll be weaving them over the next week.

Posted in chair making, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged ash, chair, green wood, ladderback, rocking, UK | Leave a comment

Fan Bird video

Posted on October 28, 2012 by stevetomlin

With Christmas approaching I’ve been busy preparing fan birds which are popular as decorations and gifts this time of year. At shows during this summer, a few people have asked how they’re made and not completely believed that they’re just one piece of wood so I’ve made this short video showing how the split and carved blank is spread out to create the wings and tail of the bird. It’s still a magical thing for me each time I do this, to see the bird take shape and feel how strong and flexible the fibres are at the hinge.
I’ll be teaching a Fan Bird carving workshop on Nov 17th near Kendal in the Lake District. If you’d like to learn to make these wonderful birds yourself. They’re a great little project, suitable for everyone and you’ll never any problem finding homes for your creations. More details on my courses page or email me steve-tomlin[at]hotmail.co.uk for details.

Posted in fan birds, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged carving, christmas, course, decoration, fan bird, learn, making, video | Leave a comment

I teach spooncarving, that my part

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevetomlin

Earlier this month I ran one of my Spoon Carving workshops with a great group, here they are at the end of a really fun weekend.

When I teach spoon carving, I want people to go away with more than just a wooden spoon that they’ve made over the weekend, I’m trying to teach them skills that they can go away with to carve more spoons, kuksas, bowls or whatever they want. The skills of understanding wood and carving with axe and knives is the most valuable thing to take away. I also believe that to learn to use these skills, they need to be practised until you really understand them and how they work. This all means that the emphasis is on learning to use the tools and we don’t make a spoon until the second day.
This is a bit of a surprise for some people but think of it like Daniels training in the classic ‘Karate Kid’ (the 80’s version, not the terrible remakes). Our first day of cutting sticks and making butter spreaders is my equivalent of the ‘Wax on, wax off’ sequence, training specific muscles and movements ready for the main event. It means that we build up the techniques progressively and, when we come to carve spoons on the second day the work goes much more easily.

Meanwhile, Alex had already done a spoon carving workshop with my friend Robin Wood who runs excellent courses on the same basis as me. My courses are suitable for complete beginners but people with experience also sign up and I can add in extra exercises to progress their skills and challenge them. Alex had a great eureka moment with the ‘chest expander’ cut which became his new favourite and worked on cutting long smooth facets, particularly on the underside of the spoon. His work was really nice as you can see below:

So sit back and reminisce a while then get to and practise.

ps I don’t subscribe to the ‘I say you do, no questions’ part, questions are really fun on a course and help me learn too.

Posted in greenwood courses, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged course, cumbria, green wood, spoon, Tomlin, UK | Leave a comment

Hay Meadow seminars in Brussels

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevetomlin

Barbara Knowles, who organises the Hay Making festival in Transylvania has just sent me details of these two events taking place in Brussels looking at the issue of supporting Europe’s hay meadow.

Europe’s hay meadows in decline – what are we losing and what can we do?

A test case for EU agriculture and biodiversity policy
You are cordially invited to this policy seminar in the European Parliament
Time: Thursday 8 November 09:30 to 11:00 AM
Place: European Parliament, Brussels
Summary: Traditionally managed hay meadows full of flowers, insects and other animal life are among the most biodiverse places in Europe and a source of joy, inspiration and beauty to everybody. They are a living part of our shared culture and heritage. They provide many environmental, social and economic benefits. They are protected by EU policy and subsidies. Yet they continue to disappear, through abandonment, intensification or conversion to other uses. This policy seminar will discuss how European institutions can protect these treasures and support the farmers who manage them more effectively.
With a video message from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
RSVP: Please send your name and organisation to Richard Kovács richard.kovacs@europarl.europa.eu by 1 November. If you need a badge for entry to the Parliament, you must send your full name, date of birth and nationality, ID type (eg passport, ID card, driving license), number of that ID, postal address (as in the ID) and bring the ID with you.
Organizers and Sponsors: Pogány-havas Association (RO), European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralismwith support from the European Commission (DG Env), SÓGOR Csaba, MEP, Society of Biology (UK).

Mountain hay meadows: hotspots of biodiversity and traditional culture

Time: Tuesday November 6 (from 13:00 to 15:00)
Venue: Brussels, DG Agri, LOI 130 – 11th floor room A
Title: Mountain hay meadows: hotspots of biodiversity and traditional culture
A one-hour film to be followed by a Q&A session with the speakers and a discussion among participants
Speakers: Gergely RODICS and Laszlo DEMETER of the Pogány-havas Association (RO).
Summary: Traditional hay meadow management in Transylvania created and maintains outstanding biodiversity and landscape, provides healthy food and sustains rural economies and communities. In this seminar we present and discuss our award-winning film which documents a disappearing lifestyle and describes the contradictions and challenges in European policies aimed at protecting these threatened habitats and the small scale farmers who manage them.
Copies of the film are available in English and Hungarian.
Contact: Barbara Knowles barbara.knowles@yahoo.co.uk – places limited
More about the project at www.mountainhaymeadows.euX

Posted in scythe festivals & events, Scytherspace | Tagged Brussels, hay, meadow, transylvania | Leave a comment

Brantwood Winter Craft Fair 2012

Posted on October 13, 2012 by stevetomlin

It’s time again to get out to Brantwood House on Coniston Water for their annual Winter Craft Fair on 10 & 11 Nov, which this year features my fan birds on the flyer. I’ll be in the Studio upstairs with fan birds, chairs, and lots of carved kitchenware including some new products I’ve been working on recently.
If you would like to learn how to make your own fan birds, I’m running a workshop in the Lake District on 17th Nov – see my courses page for more info.
There are loads of stalls with some excellent crafts on offer and the setting is amazing on the edge of the lake. Hope to see you there.

Posted in fan birds, greenwood events, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2012, brantwood, christmas, craft, fan bird, winter fair, xmas | Leave a comment

The magic of sparks and small toolboxes

Posted on October 3, 2012 by stevetomlin

While I was at Elvaston Castle at the weekend I got to talking with Mark Constable of the Al Fresco forge. Mark was demonstrating lighting a fire using a flint and steel, making it look easier than lighting a match and at the same time explaining how it works. Pay attention now, here comes the science:
Turns out, iron is pyrophoric which means that it spontaneously ignites in the presence of air! Of course, it doesn’t normally do this while I’m working because the surface area of my axe is too small compared to it’s mass. To make it ignite you need to make tiny particles which then burn (actually they rust but it’s the same thing). Why weren’t we told this in school?
So the way to make tiny particle of iron is to knock them off a bigger lump using something hard like a piece of flint. Now iron on its own is too soft to chip off so the iron is hardened by mixing in carbon to make steel, heating up that lump and cooling it very quickly (still with me?). Now when you hit the hardened steel tiny flakes of hardened steel are chipped off into the air where they oxidise and burst into tiny flames. That’s a spark and, for me anyway, it’s even more magical now I know the science behind it.
Anyway, Mark & I then got talking and he explained how he’d wanted a trade where all the tools could be carried around in a small box. He studied to be a jewellry maker and discovered certain techniques (namely damascus and mokume gane) that led him to become a blacksmith. Several years into a successful career he suddenly thought ‘Hang on, what happened to the idea of the tiny tool box?’ Since then Mark’s scaled back, from a 5 tonne truck to a van, to a hatchback and now he’s considering making ‘Only stuff which fits in my pocket and that I can make in a day.’ This is something that definitely rings true for me with my own work as it’s all too easy to accumulate more and more tools in the aim to make the work faster, easier or accomplish more complicated projects. In the end though, I’ve always been most impressed by craftspeople who can make with the simplest tools and find that, by having fewer tools, not only do you become more expert in their use but the limitation becomes a source of inspiration in my making. As Mark poses on his website, if you could only have one tool which would it be?
I was so mesmerised by the sparks demo and our chat that I completely forgot to take any photos so I hope Mark won’t mind me using some of his.

Posted in SteveTomlinCrafts, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Rakes at Elvaston Castle

Posted on September 26, 2012 by stevetomlin

It’s a rake making month as I’m just back from a great weekend demonstrating at Elvaston Woodland Festival. I get to camp in some brilliant places during these events and Saturday was a beautiful morning so I got up early to have a look around the park and enjoy the parterre garden and topiary.

The festival is a free event so folk wandered in and got the chance to see a really first-class collection of craftspeople demonstrating around the site. I spent the weekend bashing tines through the cutter and putting together a hill rake I had seen during my last visit to the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in Reading. It has the head set at 45degrees to the handle with the teeth showing top and bottom and is intended for rowing up hay on steep hillsides.
These events are a very social occasion for lots of craftspeople who only meet up during the show season. I met loads of new folk and my mate Rob came over from his stand to try out my stail engine for rounding up tapered rake handles.

Posted in SteveTomlinCrafts, wooden rakes | Tagged Elvaston, hay rakes, hayrake, rake, wooden | Leave a comment

Rake making at Beamish

Posted on September 17, 2012 by stevetomlin

I’m back in the modern world after a weekend spent at Beamish museum making wooden rakes as part of their 1913 Show of Agriculture. My rakes are traditionally made using cleft timber and hand tools as working implements so I was happy to be asked to take part in their 1913 agricultural show among the veg stalls, weavers and displays of animals. It was a busy weekend with lots of visitors as befits this award winning museum. I was camping in the grounds for the weekend so had a chance to wander around in the evenings and early mornings soaking up the atmosphere – I can imagine it being pretty spooky on a misty night.
I was kitted out in costume and set off with my bag of vintage tools to their show site in the fields across from Pockerley Old Hall. Once the cars are gone, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve stepped back in time as you walk along the cobbled streets through town with brass bicycle lamps and wash tubs on sale and see old trams and buses going by. My own tool kit fits this era anyway as I work almost always with hand tools finding them much more responsive and versatile than most power tool equivalents. Over the weekend I demonstrated every aspect of making wooden hay rakes including lots of bashing of billets through my tine cutter to make teeth, shaving out and drilling the head by hand and eye and rounding up the handle with my homemade stail engine. Most folk just stayed long enough to knock through a few tines or reminisce about using rakes during the harvest but one or two either stayed on or came back several times and saw the full process.

The highlights for me were meeting Helen Moran and Jim Elliott. Helen is an expert in the history and making of corn dollies, a very old rural craft tradition. We chatted about old wheat varieties while I watched her nimble fingers weaving up another of her perfect patterns which range from simple knots and horseshoes to intricate fans and statues.

Outside, Jim was busy in the field ploughing with his horses. A champion ploughman, it was a pleasure to watch him and his team at work, making a better job of the work than the vintage tractors and quicker too.

Posted in greenwood events, SteveTomlinCrafts, wooden rakes | Tagged Beamish, corn dolly, hay rakes, hayrake, rake, rake making, stail engine, tine cutter, wooden | Leave a comment

Old tools

Posted on September 12, 2012 by stevetomlin

This weekend I’ll be demonstrating making wooden rakes at Beamish museum’s Show of Agriculture which recreates an agricultural show from 1913. I’ve been measured for a period costume and working through my tools, sorting out which will be suitable for the show.
Thankfully, I”m a hand tool worker and often use old tool because the skills I employ were most common in the pastand they’re very often better quality than modern tools. This means my tool box consists of an axe, drawknife, spokeshaves, brace and bits, knives and proper saws with teeth you can sharpen. To add to those I’ve sharpened and fettled up a wooden smoothing plane which is a pleasure to use, made a simple measuring stick for the rakes instead of my normal tape measure and built a bucksaw to cut the logs to length.
People often ask why I use these old-fashioned tools nowadays but for me, combined with fresh greenwood, they are the most efficient and pleasurable way of working. They are versatile and ergonomic, will work anywhere (they’re the ultimate cordless tools) and even survived a workshop fire last year. I’ve already had years of use from them and the names stamped into them show that they’ve already done service for one or more craftsmen. To be part of that heritage fills me with pride when I use them.

I’m really looking forward to being at the museum for two days of making rakes and demonstrating how effective these simple tools are at a fair based around a time of hand working. I can’t wait to see what other demonstrations are there so if you’re in the area, call in and see what’s going on.

Posted in SteveTomlinCrafts, tools, wooden rakes | Tagged Beamish, wooden rake | Leave a comment

Spooncarving Workshop

Posted on August 31, 2012 by stevetomlin

Spoonfest was a really exciting and inspiring weekend so I’ve been carving a few more spoons since coming home and trying out new ideas. One of the most interesting talks was by Terence McSweeney, a professional osteopath who gave a talk on body posture and good tools use. This is something I’ve been interested in for a while and I incorporate warm-up exercises and stretches when I’m carving or teaching courses. Terence demonstrated a very dynamic looking stance for axing which has a rock-n-roll look to it but allows you to keep your back upright while working at the block so I’ve been practising that and feeling the benefits.

Christiane was working on a spoon in very spalted birch based on one made by Jarrod Stone Dahl which she bought at Spoonfest while I was developing my eating spoon designs including adding some colour to the handle.

If you’re interested in learning to carve or build on your existing skills, I’m running a two-day Spooncarving Workshop 6 & 7 October at Kendal in the Lake District. During the weekend you’ll learn to select timber for carving, axe work plus a range of safe and efficient knive techniques to produce your own kitchen utensils from local native woods. The cost of the weekend is £125 which includes tea & coffee, all materials and use of my tools.
More info on my coursese page, to book a place, please send an email to steve-tomlin[at]hotmail.co.uk

Posted in greenwood courses, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged course, cumbria, greenwood, spoonfest, UK | Leave a comment