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.
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.
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.
I 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 🙂
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.
Meanwhile, whatever happened to the Epcot ball origami project? I took my half of the units over to Austria and left them with Christiane to assemble – she’s much more patient with these things that I am. I’m glad I did, it’s even more tricky than it looks. So far she’s put it together and taken it back apart 4 times working on getting the pattern correct. The current plan is to make the two halves separately and try to join them. I’ll let you know when it’s done, can’t wait to see it myself.
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