As part of a teacher of the Waldorf Learning Foundation PG Dip, I was teaching the third cohort of learners on this course. The sessions included Bushcraft (ancient tech Firelighting) and Green Woodwork (carving a utensil from cherry). In the Spring part 2 will follow with: Re-wilding & Tree Identification; and Traditional Blacksmithing. As always it is great fun to do these weekends!
I was asked to carve some nibble sticks for a recent Royal visit to my place of work! A fun little project...
I was lucky enough to get hold of some apple, plum and cherry wood in recent days, so here are some carvings with the various fruit trees. I was particularly pleased with the plum colours...
After the first couple of Swedish Butterknives, I refined my design a little with this next carving. Quite pleased with how the handle transitions into the blade now...
I had a number of unfinished carvings... So I finally managed to spend a little time tidying and finishing various items and made a couple new things too. Feels good to have a tidy up - not least of all to create space for new things!
Feeling inspired by Swedish father and son woodcarvers Wille and Jögge Sundqvist, I revisited the humble Swedish Butterknife. I used some cherry I harvested during recent felling work I completed at work. I also wanted to test out my new Svante Djärv Carving Knife (16x70mm)...
I went on a semi-wild camp last year and started carving a naturally curved Elm Spatula. Finally managed to finish it and love cooking with it...
I had some cherry and some wild rose wood and carved a couple of regular spoon this afternoon...
Here is a little progress report on my giant Cedar Spoon. Far too many knots for a spoon, but I am persevering with working out the design. It is a fun project, and we will see how functional it becomes when approaching the finishing stages... Still a bit to go!
For many years I had the privilege of being able to look at this Cedar tree from the place I lived in. Sadly, one 2021 winter storm took the giant out and I was lucky to be able to get a log from the tree!
I decided that I needed to do something with it and, though it was a challenging piece of timber and not traditional spoon carving material, I just went ahead anyway. Here are some pictures of the tree, the aftermath of the storm and the first few stages of the carving process... Watch this space!
