Bowl Carving Course

Bowl Carving course 29/30th July 2017

I am teaching a 2 day bowl carving course at the Greenwood Centre, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire close to the Ironbridge Gorge. Details available here: carving course

Learn to make a beautiful, functional wooden bowl using simple hand tools. 

Starting with a locally grown greenwood log, you will cover properties, function, design, tools and processes needed to make your own unique bowl. 

Suitable for novice and more experienced woodworkers, the course should give you sufficient confidence to continue carving at home. 

Contemporary Craft Festival

Check out spoonsandbowlsuk.blogspot.com for details of this exciting show!

Craft & Design Fair, Henley on Thames 24-26th June

This Friday to Sunday I'll be demonstrating at the Craft & Design Fair in Henley on Thames. The show is open 10 to 5 each day and there will be bowl and spoon carving going on throughout. I'll also have new work on display including the biggest bowls I've ever carved!

Showing Off autumn exhibition

New venue for this exhibition at Ludlow Castle on 17th and 18th October. Makers from both the Shropshire and Worcestershire guilds will be 'showing off' their latest work.

large poplar bowl with Venetian red detail

ladle in figured maple

poplar bowl with carved detail

Showing Off, Ludlow 14th June 2015

My new work will be on show at Ludlow Brewery along with others from both the Shropshire and Worcestershire Guilds.

I have built a new stand to display the bowls. The extra height from the plinths allows more space to show each bowl to better effect.

Pearwood from a local very mature tree showing lovely colour, 26cmx12cm.

Carved poplar, 43cmx17cm.

Painted poplar, 42cmx12cm.

Painted poplar 47cmx16cm.

Painted poplar, 51cmx18cm

RHS Spring Show 2015

My new work will be on display at the RHS Spring Show, Malvern from Thursday 7th May until Sunday 10th May. Come along for a feast of flowers and craft at the Three Counties Showground.

large poplar bowl in ultramarine

butter spreaders in natural damson

breakfast bowls in alder with hazel spoons

International Spoon Carving Competition

The judges have made their selection of 15 spoons/ladles from over 200 entries from around the world. They are now on show in Sweden and I have been fortunate to have a ladle selected.  Visitors to the exhibition, which runs until October, can vote on which spoon they like the best. Voting is also possible at online voting bearing in mind the brief  for judging '• The criteria for the selection will be functionality, execution, form and choice of material'.

Showing Off in Ludlow 26th and 27th April

Lots of new work will be on show this weekend in Ludlow at the Showing Off exhibition.

New Spoon Racks

New spoon racks for 3, 4, or 5 spoons will be launched at the Made in Shropshire fair next Saturday in the square Shrewsbury. I'll also be demonstrating spoon carving throughout the day.

New Spoons

Some new spoons for sale. Top row from left: serving spoons in Alder, eating spoons in Sycamore, Beech bent branch spoon. Bowl is from the stump of a garden rose, scoop to right is apple, and the other scoops are all hawthorn spalted and aged.

A few recent spoons

Some new scoops and caddy spoons which will be available at the next Made in Shropshire craft fair on Saturday 13th July 2013. All made from very local woods using only simple hand tools. You are very welcome to come and see spoons being made at the fair every second Saturday of the month in The Market Square Shrewsbury. I will be at a family wedding on 10th August so will miss that one but all the rest up to Christmas are already booked.

A Stirring of Spoons.

I've just had to decide which single spoon to choose from this pile for the first International Secret Spoon Swap.

The names have been randomly drawn and I now know who to send it to. It is all ready packed to go as soon as the post office opens again after the bank holiday. It is a secret so we will have to wait until the person receiving the spoon shows it on facebook. No idea who is sending me one so will just have to wait. It could be anyone from a pro carver to a first timer so it may be expertly finished or bathed in blood! Either way a lot of effort and care will have gone into the making of it so a special spoon is guaranteed.
The title 'a stirring of spoons' is my contribution to the ongoing debate about what should be the collective noun for spoons.

Liquid Gold!

Maple Syrup Day!!!!

For the first time ever the conditions were just right for trying this. Firstly, the maple tree I planted 25 years ago in the garden is over 12" diameter, there was frost in the ground, daytime above freezing and before bud burst. So, a quick check on tinternet and out with the drill and a piece of pipe - blimey, it's working - quick get a jug!

Within an hour it was clear I would need to big up the collection device so brewing kit to the rescue.

After a few hours had collected about 4 litres of sap, so into the pan to reduce it to syrup.

And what it boils down to, literally, is about 4 cm in a jam jar!

Tastes delicious, and I won't ever complain about the price of maple syrup again!

A few new spoons. Some individual photos on the gallery page.

'Made in Shropshire' craft fair, The Square, Shrewsbury.

I will be showing and demonstrating spoon carving on the second Saturday of the month excluding May and August.

New banner for craft stall with Made in Shropshire 2nd Saturday of the month starting tomorrow!
Been busy making stock which is why I've not posted recently. Will put up pics of the stall next week.

Season's Greetings

Season's greetings from soggy Shropshire!

Had a brief window of sunshine yesterday so went to see how the woodland and wetland were doing.

Well. that's a couple of meters deeper than usual!

There is some interesting growth in the woodland on dead wood.

Sunshine highlighted the interesting colours and detail.

Back to very soggy today.

Genuine antique stool?

My first school woodwork project was this 16 joint stool with a seagrass top. This was in 1962 which makes it a genuine antique at 50 years old!

 Amazingly, the underside still shows the original red and green of the seagrass.

Christmas Show and Sale

Coloured Wood

No, I haven't had the paint out recently! These are natural colours created by time. This bent branch spoon is damson from a branch I found which had been cut off last year. The wood was fairly dry and hard as hell to work. The pink is a layer just under the bark so I left it on to show the natural curve of the bowl rim.

This next one is in Hawthorn which is carved green and left for the sap to stain the surface to a lovely golden brown.

Spalting works well with some woods and this Aspen scoup shows very marked colouring after being left in the log for 9 months.

We had a 60 foot Silver Birch blow over in the early summer. The base was rotten and had sent a brown streak up the trunk a short way. There was only enough of this colour that was sound enough to make a few spoons. Easily confused with Walnut at first glance!

Nearly all my work this year has been with 'firewood'. I keep interesting bits to one side for carving. Last week the carving pile was bigger than the firewood pile! Think I need to be more selective otherwise we'll be relying on heat generated by carving and not burning. That's OK for keeping warm but won't get the dinner cooked! There is a lot of spalted Birch which has reached its peak so I am roughing out as many bowls as I can.