It’s a nice feeling anytime someone buys something I’ve made: the idea that the person likes my work enough to want to swap some of their own time, skills and labour (through the exchange medium of money) for some of mine is a huge compliment. It’s especially pleasing when that person is a fellow craftsperson and someone I admire.
So you can imagine my inner glow when Robin Wood decided my fan birds are nice enough to want to buy one to for his van where he’ll see it pretty much every day. I’ve got one hanging from my own rear-view mirror, it’s great to watch how it glides and banks as I drive around the windy roads of the Lake District. Visit the site to grab your own fan bird.
Although I make as part of my living it is still also my favourite hobby and now and then it’s lovely to work with a new material and make something just for the pleasure of it. This weekend I got out some of the birch bark that I collected on a North West Coppice Association day in the spring. It’s thin, delicate stuff to work with and needed a fair bit of preparation to clean and smooth out the surface. I followed a traditional pattern, cutting notches into each end of a strip of bark which is then curled round and interlocked. A second piece of bark is glued inside to add strength and so the inside and outside of the pot can have the smooth inner bark showing though I decided I wanted the outer bark on the inside for texture. While the glue sets I used carved blocks and wedges to press the layers together. A handy hazel stick was cleft and shaved to make the base and lid. I carved the lid with a taper so it is a snug push fit and the pot makes a satisfying subtle ‘pop’ when opened. The handle is another piece of hazel with a round tenon carved onto it which passes through the lid and is fixed with a tiny peg inside.
I started with practising axing with the left hand which was a brilliant experience. I kept swapping the axe back and forth to feel the action in my dominant hand and try to copy it in the other. The key is to relax and be confident at which point I started to feel comfortable with it and quickly got the accuracy to start axing spoon blanks with both hands. After that I worked on some simple knife cuts and straight away saw the benefits. It was also really fascinating to have to ‘learn’ to carve again, examining the way my hands normally work together and transpose this across to the other side. It’s a brilliant exercise for anyone thinking of starting to teach spooncarving. You also see how the ‘non-dominant’ hand is doing just as skilled work in holding and manipulating the spoon while adding support to the cut.
Last week I spent 3 days in Edale as a student on a spooncarving course organised by 
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