Rakemaking Workshop

Posted on May 4, 2011 by stevetomlin

Despite the recent setbacks with tools, over the bank holiday I ran a one-to-one workshop for Mike Carswell on making wooden rakes. This was hosted by Edward & Romola in the wonderfully inspiring Sprint Mill workshop.
Mike has just completed a 3 year coppice apprenticeship through the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship scheme and now has his own business working the woods around Greater Manchester. He regularly cuts coppice ash and asked me to run a private course for him on using this for making rakes.
The pictures tell the process:
      
Through the day I wanted to impress on Mike the care and attention to detail that would result in a well-balanced, functional tool.  A straight stail (handle), even bends in the two halves of the split and carefully shaved and drilled head give a tool that is fit for work.
At times the stringy nature of the tough mancunian ash made the work more tricky but should lead to a very durable product. It was a full, busy day and Mike was surprised by how much is involved in making such a simple-looking item. I was really pleased with Mike’s work and he went home a happy man with a fine rake.

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Schröckenfux tshirt

Posted on May 4, 2011 by stevetomlin


Thanks to Christiane, I am now the proud owner of my very own Schröckenfux tshirt, as modeled here in Kendal on a rare sunny day.

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Workshop fire

Posted on April 27, 2011 by stevetomlin

I’ve recently moved house and so have been using space in a friend’s barn to do some of my own greenwood work. On Saturday morning I got a phone message saying there’d been a fire in the barn in the area where I stored all my tools and stuff. At first I thought maybe I’d misheard but it was still the same with a second hearing.  I called the friend who told me that thankfully no-one was hurt and the barn is relatively unscathed but everything in that corner of the barn was destroyed.
Yesterday I went over to have a look for myself and raked the remaining steel out from under the remains of a bench.


It’s hard to explain how it feels. I’ve never had a lot of tools, draw my inspiration from people  and cultures who can make with few tools and I try hard not to be attached to material possessions. I’m reminding myself that it’s not really the tools that are important; I still have the knowledge and skills in my head and hands, I can replace tools. Even so, these are tools I’ve worked with for several years, modified and refined for my hands and way of working. It’s overly sentimental to refer to them as friends but they were certainly familiar, special to me with stories behind them and I can’t help but feel sad to see them in this state.
What next?  I’m lucky that I have friends who will loan me tools in the short term so I can carry on with my work. An event like this raises thoughts and possibilities about what direction to take; it’s a crossroads.  Do I just buy an new set of the same tools or think about whether there’s actually other things I could be doing, or different ways of doing the same things?
‘What would you save if the workshop was on fire?’ is a popular conversation among makers to pass the time.  In truth I expect you rarely get the luxury or heartache of having to choose.

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Harvey Nichols installation

Posted on April 24, 2011 by stevetomlin

just a few extra photos from the Harvey Nichols installation.
timber in loading bay   Charlie & Harvey

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Harvey Nichols window display

Posted on April 22, 2011 by stevetomlin

I’ve been in Manchester this week, installing a new window display for the Harvey Nichols store. The scheme was designed and built by Charlie Whinney back in 2009 and since then has toured the group’s stores in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol. Each store is different in terms of window sizes so we adapt and modify the structures to suit. Made from steam-bent ash and oak, the structures are remarkably strong and flexible so we can get them into a shape to fit the space and placement of mannequins.
We were assisted by the in-house display team who helped with the assembly and gave valuable advice on what would be visible from the street and how to maximise the overall visual effect. I thought that working in the window of a shop in a busy city location would feel very awkward for being literally ‘on display’. Actually it was interesting how invisible it felt, as though we could observe the passing shoppers while being anonymous ourselves.
This was even more obvious on Tuesday evening when we worked through the night to install more loops and knots of ash onto the main entrance canopy. Lots of people passed by on their way to from a night out but few stopped to ask what we were doing or how the piece was made.  Maybe folk in the city see this sort of thing all the time.
The next day though we were pleased when the security staff on the front door said that, as professional people-watchers, they always keep an eye on the public’s response to a new display and had noticed that our steam-bent scheme was catching people’s eye and making them look.  Job done.
After it’s spell in Manchester, the final stop for the work is Harvey Nichols in Dublin so hopefully I will be on the installation team for that too, it’s certainly interesting to see the other side of how big stores work.

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Getting the meadow ready!

Posted on April 22, 2011 by stevetomlin

Finally spring is in the air – even in Austria. It feels we’ve waited a long time for it to come. With it the grass in the meadow I’m taking care of has started to grow but I could still see the marks of the mice; hills, passageways just under the surface and all the rubbish that was either blown into it or thrown or forgotten by children.
So Saturday was the day when I went to clean the meadow. It feels great to walk through it and see all the different grass and flowers starting to grow again. Meanwhile I picked up garbage, stones and sticks and used the rake to flatten mouse hills and pathways.
I do this to save my blades getting blunted because of mowing into them.
I also raked away some of the old grass. Some kind of grass, even though mown the latest possible in fall is making thick mats and if I didn’t rake it, it would be so much more work to mow it. All this is preparing for mowing with my scythe, which I can’t wait to do.
I like to get in touch with the meadow before I start mowing it. I can decide by the look of it where I’m going to start mowing this year – it will be the place where I can see that the grass is thicker already and I can tell the bits were it is going to be really easy to mow because of what is growing there – Ranunculus spp. – “Hahnenfuß” as we say in Austria. It is poison and farmers don’t like to have it in their fields but to me they have a nice yellow color and are easy to mow. If I mow them shortly after they have started to flower they will not spread too much.
Wild saladI also carried a paper bag with me to pick ingredients for our dinner; young leaves of yarrow (Schafgarbe), dandelion (Löwenzahn), sorrel (Sauerampfer), buckthorn (Spitzwegerich), daisies (Gänseblümchen) and pilewort (Scharbockskraut). Where I live it is not very common to go and get your salad from the meadow but I’m happy to see that since I’m taking care of it (3 years) more and more Turkish women are doing the same. And this is what it’s there for – to be eaten. Another good thing of more people walking through the meadow – the mice don’t like it too much 🙂

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Hand exercises

Posted on April 9, 2011 by stevetomlin

In my work I use my hands a lot. Carving with knives, axe work, operating powered sanders, bending steamed wood, fine manipulations, gripping and holding work in place, lifting, pushing, typing, even using them as a hammer. It’s a cliché but they’re the most useful tools I’ve got and I’ve realised I should be looking after them more.
It’s a bit shameful to say this after working with my hands for a living for a dozen years or more but I’ve finally started to clean them properly and add moisturiser regularly. I’ve been noticing how they can ache when writing or doing small work and started to worry about the possibilities of arthritis, carpal-tunnel or worse.
Then a friend pointed out that, like any well-used muscles can be, those in my hands are just very developed and, as a result, too tight.
Try this: put your hands together in front of you and, keeping the palms together, flex your fingers back away from each other. This is me doing it in the photo below. I know, it doesn’t look like I’ve even started – I bet yours are better.

So now I have exercises to add flexibility to the strength I already have in my hands. They don’t need any equipment so I can do them while I walk or sitting at a table. I’ve been doing them a couple of weeks and I can see a change which is very inspiring. I’ll post new pictures from time to time to show developments – and to remind me to keep doing it.
 

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Pembrokeshire Snath

Posted on April 9, 2011 by stevetomlin

A couple of weeks ago I went to London to install a sculptural staircase bannister as part of my day job as a woodworker.  While I was in the south-east I took a side trip to Reading and spent a wonderful few hours looking at and measuring hay rakes and rakemaking tools at the Museum of English Rural Life.
During my visit I was given permission to look through their full collection which isn’t open to the public and found this interesting snath from Wales. It looks like a cross between a curved English snath and Eastern European straight snath. Unfortunately there was no blade to go with it to show the fixing method and style of blade.
Does anyone have any more information about this style of scythe?

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Sculptural bannister installation

Posted on April 6, 2011 by stevetomlin

It’s always the same: the more interesting things that are going on, the less time there is to write about them.
The week before last I went to London to install the steambent oak staircase bannister with Charlie Whinney. For me this was an important installation. I had made the former which we bent the oak around in the workshop so it was more satisfying than usual when everything fit beautifully into the space. I am the first person that Charlie has trusted to build such an important former.
From the existing square painted bannister rail there is now a sinous curve of oak which seems to have a life of it’s own, curling up through the house and seeking out the light from the skylight above. As both functional bannister rail and sculptural artwork it fits wonderfully into the house.

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Epcot Ball finished

Posted on April 3, 2011 by stevetomlin

The Epcot Ball is finally together. On Saturday Christiane took it apart again and then constructed the model in one 90min session. I wonder what she’ll do with all the free time now?

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