new jeans made in Wales

For a long time it has been possible to buy clothing cheap and not know the true costs, by that I mean the thousands of Indian cotton farmers that have committed suicide in the last ten years or the thousand killed in the horrific Bangladesh factory collapse. Well there are alternatives. Today my new jeans arrived in the post and they were made in Wales. If you are a craftsperson you should look long and hard at these jeans and think about how you would feel opening this package and then think how you send your own work out.

I loved them before I put them on, actually when I put them on at first I wasn't sure because they are very stiff, like jeans used to be, very tough, hard wearing and made to last. I am sure most folk would be horrified at the price but it is possible to pay more for naff designer label jeans. My last jeans were made by howies from tough thick organic cotton. They lasted 5 years. If these jeans do the same and I am sure they will they will cost less than £25 a year so they are good value. Why not treat yourself and wear your clothing with an easy conscience. see the story here http://hiutdenim.co.uk/ 

I can't wait for my boots to be ready they will go so well with my new jeans.

fun film, making a bowl and spoon

This is a friend Sharif who has been on several courses with me over the last few years. He has become a very good green wood worker and he clearly has a friend who is good at the filming and editing. I love the noddy head spoon dance with pounding beat.



You can see more of Sharif's work on his blog here  

old English chairmaking film

This is a nice one of the Chiltern chairmaking industry



And this one feels even more dated I grew up watching this stuff, the Generation game from 1974, with my mate Stuart King doing chairmaking unbelievable that Bruce Forsythe is still presenting today.

wisdom of hands, great film about woodwork

Professor Trevor Marchand is fast becoming a hero of mine. Why? because he understands what he calls "the remarkable skilled knowledge of craftspeople" Now I posted a film of this guy a few days ago but this one is better, it gets better the further you get into it and the questions from 30 mins onwards are great too.

Lots of folk understand handwork and there are a few academics who study it and write about it but I think Trevor is perhaps unique in his depth of understanding of both worlds. This is great as it stretches my thoughts about what I do in the workshop and it also gives those of us who work with our hands more credibility. I know that there are not many dim craftspeople but the level of intelligence that is required to be really good is not often understood from the outside.



Incidentally the title of the blog post is a tribute to Doug Stowe who blogs prolifically on the value of handwork  and I am sure will love the film.

recommend me a website designer?

I need help with my website, can you help or would you recommend someone?
I have a budget for the job but would love to find someone who has the skills I need and is also interested in craft (though that's not essential)
I have a website, a bunch of gallery pages on a blog site and this blog and need to pull them together in a more cohesive package that is easier for folk to find their way around, and more to the point find their way to the gallery to buy bowls. I have prepared a brief giving details of what I am after and would be happy to share and discuss it with anyone who would be interested in quoting for the job.

I need someone who can help set up a clean simple template and import the content from the various sites. I can edit so long as it is simple. I am thinking probably wordpress is the way to go. I also need the back end to be sorted with all the links redirecting so that folk with links to pages don't loose them.

These are a few of the sites I like

http://www.billambergstudio.com/
http://www.handfulofsalt.com/
http://hiutdenim.co.uk/

So if you are still reading maybe you have web design skills and like my work? I am happy to pay in money bowls or both let's talk. send me an email robin@robin-wood.co.uk

new bowls for sale

I spend a lot of time posting about my woodworking and other fun stuff here and often forget to update the most important bit of my various online sites, the gallery pages where people can buy my work. In fact most fo the pages have been showing "currently out of stock" for ages. I do have some nice bowls now ready for new homes and have just uploaded a bunch of photos. I'll put a few up here as a taster and if you'd like to see more pop over to the gallery page.

I was quite pleased with the photos too, I normally set lights up but did these with natural light which is easier and I think nicer though next time I would shoot off a tripod so that I could work with a slower shutter speed to get more depth of field.

The man who makes spoons

My mate Barn Carder carves spoons. The BBC just made a lovely little video of his work and his London spoon shop.

You'll have to visit the BBC site to see it, I hope it works outside the UK too here is the link

Barnaby Carder - who calls himself Barn the Spoon - spends his days sitting in a London shopfront, painstakingly whittling wooden spoons.

After being apprenticed to a wooden furniture maker, he spent three years travelling around forests - sleeping in the woods and carving spoons from the trees.

He ended up saving enough money to open his tiny shop in Hackney last year, from which he creates the spoons using timber harvested from Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.

The spoons are then sold - for between £12 and £15 - to passers-by.

BBC News went to meet Barn the Spoon to find out more.

Video Journalist: John Galliver

great film about what craft means

This 10 minute film was made to celebrate the craft skills awards, it includes film from the finalists workshops with their insights into why they do what they do and what it means to work in craft. The awards judges (I was one) also add their thoughts, I think all together it gives a good overview of what it means to work in craft. I love the comment from Cowley's "There are more astronauts walking about that parchment makers."

film of brilliant talk on anthropology of craft

I heard Trevor Marchant give this talk at a conference last year and it is fantastic in that it shows a serious academic with a genuine understanding and reverence for the skills involved in traditional crafts and how they are passed on from generation to generation in traditional cultures. I am delighted to discover that Trevor has been elevated to the position of professor and his inaugural lecture is now online. If you want to skip the intro his talk starts at 15 mins in. It is longer than most stuff I post here but I think his work is very important for traditional craftspeople. It's a shame you can't see the fantastic pictures of buildings that accompany the talk but the words are worth listening to.

fixed my own footwear

These are my work clogs. They are about 10 years old and going strong, the thick supple leather is like saddle leather and the stitching unbustable. The wooden soles are great so long as you keep something underneath them. I am not good at the stitch in time saves nine stuff and wore through the treads and have been walking on the wood for some time. You can see how much I wore the heals down but as of this weekend I now have composite clogs with new oak heals. I made the treads from old conveyor belt I have been using this stuff for several years for my pole lathe drive strap and it seems to be pretty well indestructible so I'll see how it lasts underfoot.

I remember my dad telling me about wearing clogs as a kid on the farm, back then clogs had irons rather than wooden treads and they kept a box of spare irons and nails for fixing clogs. It was the kids jobs to keep their clogs in good order and if they were ever found wearing them without irons they were in big trouble. Having work down the wood and had to deal with building it back up again I will from now on be making sure I keep the tread on them. 

I find it an empowering thing to be able to fix my own footwear. Particularly this week as the news is again full of the horrors of another factory collapse in Bangladesh and the appalling effects of the West's insatiable craving for cheap throw away clothing and footwear. There are alternatives and they don't need to be any more expensive than the throw away stuff. These clogs were made by Jeremy Atkinson and so far have cost me about £16 a year but they will go on a while yet and are getting better value all the time.

carving wooden bowls

The last three days I have been teaching a bowl carving course, these are the bowls we made

Here is the early stage Steve adzing out the hollow

 everyone made two bowls, the first is a standard design just to get to grips with the tools and techniques.

Once that is done we start again with a larger piece of wood and carve a second bowl with everyone choosing different pieces and making different shaped bowls. This is my daughter Jojo who wanted to make a duck bowl, mine is copied from one I saw years ago at Saterglantan the national folk craft school in Sweden.

 Martin made an alder bowl, it is a nice wood to work but often has hidden dead knots, Martin found one but it was solid wood and seemed to be OK, I really like the shape pf his bowl.

 After adzing we follow up with the gouge

When used well the gouge quickly pares off lots of crisp shavings, a joy to use.

 Once the inside is completely finished and smooth we take to the axe again, this is a realy good strong stance with the right leg back safe out of the way if the axe were to glance off and swing through and the wide stance gives lots of stability

 Michael makes traditional early instruments and was interested to learn more about the green woodworking techniques that would have been used to make instruments centuries ago.

 Jojo using the Hans Karlsson dog leg gouge, again a good wide stance with the weight of the body pushing the tool.

 The duck bowl hollowed out and the model alongside.

 carving the head with the axe.

 Pete making a lovely big dough trough.

Then on to fine finishing with the knife.

 and the finished bowls

Prince's Craft Pavilion Ideal Home Show London

With my Heritage Crafts Association hat on I helped organise 18 different craftspeople demonstrating over the 18 days of the Ideal Home Show in London. Here are some pictures.
Phil Gregson Wheelwright

Wendy Shorter Upholstery

Beth Tilston Scyther

a bunch more of Phil with my daughter Jojo helping out