A Bodgers Bog

Began to get an uneasy feeling about the weekend when I started packing the truck at 6am on Saturday morning and it started sleeting quite heavily. I mentally prepared myself for a bad situation at the showground .... but.... it was MUCH WORSE than I had imagined.
We were given a stand space with its own private bog behind it.

This got quite a bit worse over the course of the weekend due to almost constant rain, hail, sleet and snow plus it was very windy and freezing cold.
Well, where would you have rather been, tucked up at home with some Easter eggs, a nice bottle of wine and a DVD? or at the craft fair? So on Saturday and Sunday we all played "Spot the Punter" - today a few more came in but we only took £39 over the three days!
Thank God for the demonstrators fee!

"Geisha Girl"

I spent quite a long time on Saturday roughing out some tough old bits of yew to make the parts for a candle stand for a guy who was coming yesterday (the same one I made the rush light bases for-see earlier blog) to show me exactly what he wanted. My attention kept getting caught by the beauty of this ornamental quince which grows just outside my workshop. It doesn't always look great and is easily ruined by wind and rain. I took some amazing photos of it a couple of years ago which I lost when I accidentally deleted the whole of my 2006 iPhoto library (before I discovered iPhoto Library Manager!).
Anyway I went and got the camera and took a load more and I think this one has turned out OK - makes a good desktop image.

Unfortunately all that standing on one leg battling the yew really exacerbated a problem which I have suffered for some time and I woke up on Sunday at 4 am with pins-and-needles and numbness in my hands - so had to phone the guy up and cancel the candle stand. Plus it was pouring with rain, very windy and freezing cold.

Glad I took the photo when I could.

We're demonstrating at a Craft Fair at St Marys, Bexley for the Easter weekend so if you're in the area why not drop by and say hello . .
http://www.treewright.co.uk/diary.htm
http://www.oakleighfairs.co.uk/bexleystm/

Switched on Designer

This is David Stovell who came on a course today. He sent me a mission statement which began :
"I am a designer from Greenstead Green nr Halstead in Essex and have been producing pieces made from old news papers and magazines, I also make small tables use printers waste. The newspaper furniture has been used at the British Library, Royal Festival Hall, Frieze art fair and I am interested in using materials in new and interesting ways. As a small designer I turn to organisations like Hidden Art and Metropolitan works for support with access to machinery and presentations. I am becoming increasingly curious about green woodworking and how it can be used in my work."
"There is an unquestioned assumption amongst many of my fellow designers that once a design is to be made we should look to China, Poland or Turkey for cheap production and I am getting increasingly uncomfortable with this. I am sure that for some projects I may have to go to these places but at the moment I am interested in small batches made here, and what value this bestows upon an object when it is not just presented as a function but as the end result of skilled toil by people with faces, sourced from places people may know and materials that have a bit of soul."
"I was recently a visitor to the international Furniture Fair held at Birmingham NEC and found a strange parallel between the furniture on show and Tesco in that what you saw was what you got, no idea of where the products had come from, who had made it or where it was sourced from."

He's interested in using waste and recycled materials to make his products and after today I think he'll get some tools, make a lathe and try to incorporate these lo-tech skills into his high quality, contemporary design.

Have a look at his website .. . www.stovelldesign.co.uk



Find out more about my courses at . . www.treewright.co.uk

Maple bowl

Made this Rob Wood style porager out of a nice lump of field maple. My god he earns his money making these . .
Firstly it took ages and I had to sharpen the tools twice (Maple and sycamore take up silica from the soil so this blunts the tools quicker than say beech or birch). The flange took most of the time and then you cut most of it away to form the handles! This trimming of the flange I thought I'd do mainly with the axe but ended up using a 1" chisel in the vise.
Had a go with a ring tool I acquired and thought it was rubbish.

It's very satisfying to eat from a bowl you've made yourself. We also have a spurtle for stirring the porridge that I made 6 or 7 years ago. The abrasive nature of the oats has given the end an almost glassy surface.

Chestnut coppice

Just spent the day at Gaynes Park with my mate Gary. It's a lovely estate but unfortunately is bordered by the M11 on the south side and the M25 on the west so almost everywhere you go you can hear vehicular noise.
Saw Tony, the keeper, who let us help ourselves to whatever we wanted plus he gave us a load of really fresh laburnum and sycamore which was dumped at the bonfire pile!

Gary cutting the chestnut coppice.

I want these chestnut poles for building an 'A' frame structure on our plot - somewhere to shelter, have a fire and a cup of tea.

The Bord

Found the perfect belt in an army surplus store so I've been having a try-out of the Bord.

It needs a bit more work such as chamfering all the sharp corners, fixing leather (or rubber) pads to the faces of the head to give a better grip specially on thin things like the spatula I was making.
It takes a bit of getting used to the working position but I like it and I'm into doing demonstrations where I can use more portable 'props' than the vanload of gear I have to cart around at the moment.
It also folds up nicely and is quite light.

Bugs, Kanga & The Bodgers Bord

What's just happened . . . ?
What's about to happen?
Took this slightly surreal photo of soft toys hanging out to dry in the neighbour's garden. She's collected them for a childrens home and is washing them all first. I said to her that I was waiting for the giraffe to come out and apparently there is one in the collection. She has a roomfull!

I've been playing with wood and making a Bodgers Bord out of a plank of poplar that I had. A very nice wood to work but with some mad patches of wild grain. Nice and light for the Bord which is a small shavehorse with no legs that sits on your lap and is held on by a belt round the waist.
These are the plans I downloaded - It's his copywrite and his web address is on the lower left if you click on the photo.
I have radically altered the design for mine . . like made it from one piece with flexible ramp.
I'll put up a photo when it's finished - if I remember to take one.