hand weaving in Spain and cochineal production in Lanzarote

Regular readers might remember my visit to Galicia in Northern Spain last October to visit hand weaver Anna Champeney and basket maker Lluis Grau blogs here, here and here
I was there to help with an internet marketing for craftspeople course and since Anna has set up a very nice blog which I would recommend to anyone with a broad interest in crafts.
http://www.textilesnaturales.com/

assorted photos from japan

Last few photos that didn't fit in earlier posts from our woodworking tour of Japan. Big cypress at a shrine.

This is the shrine and after making a donation the appropriate bows, handclaps and ringing the bell you get a go on the taiko drum. I have wanted to have a go on these for years since first seeing performances like this.

Japanese carpenters working practices

This is perhaps the most important thing I learned in Japan; for people who work with their hands the most precious tool of all is the body. I had previously noticed when working with German carpenters that they have good posture and lift things well, bending the knees even to lift light objects. The Japanese take things further and each morning started with 5 minutes warm up exercises. I would love to see this adopted on English building sites, we have a macho culture that just gets stuck in and then gets a bad back! We now find it normal for kids at school as well as top athletes to warm up before sport, and a few simple stretches could save many days off work. 

Japanese woodworking a remarkable chairmaker

Meet Takahiro Yoshino a remarkable chairmaker we met in Japan. What made him remarkable was that he is the first chirmaker  I have met (and I know a lot) who makes truly bespoke chairs that are tailored (I can't think of a better word) to fit the user.

Japanese woodworking yariganna

Before we head for 2011 I am going to share the last pictures from my woodworking trip in Japan. This one is about the forerunner to the plane the spear plane, yariganna or yari-kanna. Here is the yariganna in use.

sad personal news

I don't normally blog about personal stuff being quite a private person but feel the need to pass on some sad personal news to my regular blog readers.

craftpeople are you selling your heart and soul?

I think it is common for craftspeople to have very ambivalent feelings about selling their work. On the one hand it can be a wonderful experience when we meet someone who really apreciates what we are doing and will enjoy the objects we make, on the other it can leave us feeling cheapened, as if our work has been turned into a mere commodity. Most craftspeople find it difficult to actively sell their work.
What is the problem?

I think it comes down to what we put into the work.  Louis Nizer said.

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist”

wooden bridge in the snow

Here it is, click the image for a big picture.

Thanks for a great 2010 and best wishes for 2011

The Heritage Crafts Association year in brief – 2010

2010 has been a fantastic year for traditional crafts and for the Heritage Crafts Association in particular. We would like to thank you for your support and share a few of the highlights.

We started the year with the prediction on our blog that 2010 would be the year that traditional crafts became recognised as part of our heritage and ended with John Penrose the Heritage Minister giving us a statement recognising “crafts which are valuable parts of our heritage”.

how to fit a new axe handle

This blog post shows how to fit a new axe handle, it could be a new store bought handle or one you made yourself following the instructions in the previous blog post on how to make an axe handle. This is the old head and new roughed out handle I made in the previous post. The handle should be thoroughly dry before fitting.

First thing is to put the head on the end and draw carefully round the inside. The new line is pencil, the red line was drawn before it dried. Notice how it shrinks mostly around the tangential rings.

cool woodworking tool

Now I am not about to rush out and buy one of these but I like it and I like the video.

how to make a new axe handle

I wrote this article a few years ago before I was blogging and thought it might be of interest to have here. Fitting an axe handle in this blog post.

First wood selection. The perfect wood is nice straight grain ash fairly fast grown, if it gets more than 6-8 rings per inch it is much more brittle, 4-6 rings per inch is perfect. Having said that a hewing axe like this is nearly always used one handed and the handle does not get the same stress as a felling axe so I would use pretty well whatever wood you have though with a preference for more fibrous species, ash, oak, elm etc.Split your log in half and half again then if it was a fat log you may be able to go down to 1/8th sections.

Walsall Saddlers, Frank Baines

In 1901 there were 6800 saddlers working in Walsall. Little wonder then that the train station is in the saddler centre and the football team are nicknamed the saddlers but how much of the craft is alive today?

This is the workshop of Frank Baines one of the twenty or so saddlers listed in Walsall yellow pages.

This is Frank in the saddle tree room with Carol Robinson a distant relative and trustee of the Heritage Crafts Association.

flat plane woodcarving

This is a style of woodworking very popular in Scandinavia and the US but very little known in the UK. I have to say most of the work done today I find rather kitch or twee. Folk for some reason often use the style to carve elves and gnomes or goofy caricatures. I am going to ignore all that stuff and show the work of the man I consider to be the master of this work and the source and inspiration back in Sweden where it originated Axel Petersson. (1868-1925)

250 year old birch bark canoe found in Cornwall

National Maritime Museum Cornwall and one of the oldest, and most influential families, in Cornwall are working together to conserve possibly the oldest Birch Bark Canoe in existence.

Estimated to be over 250 years old, the canoe has been discovered on the Enys Estate near Penryn, housed in one of the Enys family’s barns. 

 

Cutting bowl blanks in the snow and trying out new whetstones

Under this snow is the beech log I am currently working my way through. It is one of the nicest I have had for a while and is making beautiful bowls.

 I cut a couple of rings off, one for plates one for bowls.

green woodwork spoon and bowl carving courses 2011 dates

My spoon and bowl carving courses are great fun and a really inspiring start in green woodworking. Whether you are an absolute beginner just thinking of trying your hand at woodcarving or someone with more experience that wants to take things to another level I hope to have courses to suit. 2011 dates have just gone on the website here.

My foundation course concentrates on really mastering the basics of using a knife and axe safely, efficiently and accurately. These are useful skills that are transferable to all sorts of green woodworking projects. We also cover the basics of sharpening, different properties of suitable carving woods and make various projects from spatulas to simple spoons.

Here are some blog posts from past foundation courses. 

 and another

traditional pottery in Korea Onggi jars

A 7th generation Onggi pottery operated by the Kim family and lead by Kim Il-Maan, a Korean National Cultural Treasure, filmed by Adam Field who was apprenticed there for most of 2008

Winter in Edale

On the way to the workshop this morning I took a quick diversion up Mam Tor (it means "mother hill" and is an iron age hill fort) It is a 2 minute diversion and the view is quite stunning, my workshop is at the far end of the valley toward the left, last building at the foot of the hills.

Edwardian farm crafts

It has been a pleasure to watch Edwardian Farm. HCA Patron Alex Langlands has been trying out more crafts this time joining Nigel Legge lobsterpot maker, artist, fisherman. He seemed like a lovely bloke with a fine accent. He also seems to have a perfect lifestyle with a mix of making lobster pots, painting and taking holiday makers on boat trips. Next time I am down that way I shall definitely look him up. Alex said "Nigel was a top chap - really understated his skills - a great painter too. It was one of those magical days spent down there in Cornwall."

 

snow

It's unusual for us to get much snow this early but it has been around a few days now. Road outside the house.

riving slate in Westmorland

Following last blog mentioning old slate workings in Langdale I should post about Englands last

working slate mine at Honister, a real good news story. The notes below are taken from their website. 

 In 1986, after three centuries of near continuous slate mining at Honister, the mine closed down after a protracted period of decline. With it, it seemed, went the last vestiges of traditional extraction and finishing techniques, as well as more than twenty local jobs. For the next ten years, any attempts to revive the industry were vexed by legal and financial issues and there was a real danger that the mine would fall into irreversible decay.