The Forest of Avon Products Cooperative is in the news!

I've been a member of the Forest of Avon Products cooperative for about seven years. The 'coop' itself has been going since 1999 and has given woodworkers concerned with ethical production methods a huge boost in the local area. People involved have skills ranging from fine cabinet making, through carving to businesses concerned with building large timber framed structures.

The Bristol Magazine have an article about us in their current edition. In case people can't see it before next month's edition comes out, I've reproduced the pages here from the online version, which is the property of MC Publishing.

More extreme wood workshops for Touchwood Enterprises!

The last two days have been spent in Dorset, working with my friends at Touchwood Enterprises to deliver a bench and run carving workshops around it. Local children were invited to carve images onto the bench, which has been installed at Tucker's Field in Poole.

Unfortunately, the first day coincided with gale force winds and heavy rain sweeping across the area, so the carving sessions had to be cancelled in case our shelter blew away!

In the absence of anyone to teach carving to, Nick and I walked to the nearby seafront to have a look at it instead.

Surprisingly, there were no ice-cream sellers about so we walked back. We had managed to get some carving done on the now-soaked bench before the rain hit hardest. 

The next day, the bench had dried a bit and we had much better weather. About 32 young people from the area got the chance to try some carving and they seemed to really enjoy it.

By the end of the day, the seat was covered in carvings and everyone was happy. Hopefully, the bench in Tucker's Field will be enjoyed by local people for a long time to come.

Bristol's mayor visits my studio

A couple of days ago George Ferguson, the mayor of Bristol, visited our workshops to have a look at the work being produced there. He seemed very interested and took quite a few photos. Also in the group were representatives of the local Neighbourhood Partnerships and Tess Green of the local Green Party.

It was great having visitors and we got to briefly discuss the future of the woodworking cooperative that we are all members of with the mayor.

We hope that when our lease on these workshops expires in two years time, we can renew it. That would mean that we could continue renovating the nearby derelict council-owned listed buildings, so expanding available workshop spaces in them with the aim of continuing to promote local, sustainable timber use and making Bristol a national and international hub of woodworking expertise.

Without the workshops, it will be difficult for the Forest of Avon Cooperative, which has been in existence for over twelve years, to continue operating. It would also make life very tough for the twelve successful small businesses operating from them. We shall wait and see...

New Forest of Avon Products Cooperative website!

After a long process of designing, the new Forest of Avon Products Coop website is online! I've been a member of the coop for about 7 years. It aims to encourage the use of locally grown and sustainably sourced wood products wherever possible. There are about 35 members at the moment, who range from bespoke furniture makers and fine carvers to roundwood framers and timber growers.

Why not check out the site? It's at:
http://www.forestofavonproducts.co.uk/

Forest School Leaders Course

Over the last couple of months, I've been working towards getting  my OCN Level 3 Forest School Leader qualification. The sessions have either been at Lawrence Weston City Farm in Bristol or at 'The Retreat' near Bitton (which is between Bristol and Bath) and the course was mainly taught by Jon Attwood from the Forest of Avon Trust.

Forest School is an educational system which is becoming more popular in recent years. It draws some ideas from other teaching systems such as Montessori, Waldorf Steiner and Sloyd and is about giving young people a chance to interact with and learn about the natural environment.

This also includes using tools and lighting fires, which many conventional schools can have difficulty in doing because of insurance worries, lack of facilities etc. The element of carefully controlled risk is important to Forest School as it allows young people to learn how to deal with risk in a sensible way.

My teaching work often involves using sharp tools and being outdoors and so it was great to be given the chance to learn more, not only from Jon but also from the other people on the course. One highlight was Asafo teaching everyone how to do gumboot dancing around the fire.

We also took campfire cooking to levels that I've never seen before! Grilled caramelised pineapple slices anyone?

Teaching Woodcarving in the Sunshine at Bradley Stoke in Bristol

There was a lot of fun had in Bradley Stoke today. It has been a lovely sunny weekend and I've been teaching local people woodcarving on behalf of Touchwood Enterprises, a local company which makes play structures using local, sustainably sourced timber whenever possible. Both Touchwood and I are members of the Forest of Avon Products, a not-for-profit cooperative based around the Bristol area.

Touchwood are making a play structure for Knightstone, a housing association, and asked me if I would work with them to carve some larch poles with local residents. It will be fitted into a green space in Bradley Stoke for them to enjoy.

Working alongside me, Katie and Ellie from Knightstone and Nico, who led the peeling of the bark off the larch poles and the digging of holes, everyone got stuck in and worked really hard.

We had some very keen hole diggers at work:

Who checked the quality of the holes very carefully after they had been dug:

Everything was also helped along by a plentiful supply of free tea, coffee and delicious cupcakes, supplied by the 'Dandy Cabin'. 

Talking about the Forest of Avon Wood Products Cooperative at 'Bristopia', part of the Bristol Big Green Week

I was invited to give a talk today at 'at-Bristol' as part of an exhibition called 'Bristopia', which looks at the future of Bristol as a centre for sustainable development.This is especially relevant as the city has just been declared European Green Capital for 2015.

My talk was about the not-for-profit marketing cooperative that I'm a member of: the Forest of Avon Products. We try to promote local, sustainable wood use and recycling of timber and have been part of the woodworking scene in Bristol for 14 years.

The co-op is based around the Bower Ashton Woodyard in Bristol and we are currently trying to secure an extension of our lease from the council. This would allow expansion of the companies who are already tenants (including renovating the derelict historic buildings in the courtyard around us) and would also open more workshop space for other designers and makers. Eventually, the woodyard could easily become a national or international hub of expertise in supplying and processing local timbers.

If you would like to see more about the Forest of Avon Products Cooperative, follow this link:
http://www.forestofavonproducts.co.uk/

You can also see more at this previous post:
http://carvingswithstories.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-forest-of-avon-products-cooperative.html

The Forest of Avon Products Cooperative at Bower Ashton Woodyard, Bristol

We had a bit of a get together last Friday at the yard where I have my studio. The purpose was to raise the profile of the Forest of Avon Products Cooperative and let more people know about what we do.

There was homemade cider and axe throwing (but not at the same time!) and all the tenants at the yard got to show off some of our work. Bob Slade also demonstrated timber milling using a chainsaw mill.

Joe Cooper, who owns Touchwood Enterprises, also delivered a presentation about the Cooperative to a group of invited guests.

All of the tenants of the Woodyard are members of the FOAP Coop, which promotes sustainable, local timber use.