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'. 

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.

Extreme wood workshops!

I've spent the last three days working with a company called Touchwood Enterprises, helping to run some workshops for them at Bannerman Road and Whitehall Primary schools in Bristol.  The children ranged in age from 4 to about 10.

The kids had a great time and got stuck into the jobs so it was a lot of fun, despite heavy rain and gale force winds. We even got a couple of singalongs going  - 'Singing in the Rain' anyone?!  It certainly put my new waterproofs to the test but they performed well, thank goodness!
I don't think I've ever taught outside in such foul weather for three consecutive days, but the shelter kept the worst out and the young people's enthusiasm was great.

We peeled sweet chestnut logs, used froes and mallets to cleave logs and then drawknives and shavehorses to shape pegs, which were fixed into already-fitted poles to make climbing routes. All the timber worked on is to be used in new play areas being constructed at the schools.

 

Drawknives and shavehorses are being used to shape pegs in the photo above, with an example of fitted pegs in the play structure shown below:

Benches at Stoke Park, Lockleaze

Last week, a group of young people worked with Steve England, Anna and I to install some larch benches at Stoke Park in Lockleaze, Bristol.

First, we cleaned off the bark using drawknives and scrapers.

I had previously cut the trunks in half with a chainsaw, so the participants all used drawknives, planes and chisels to smooth the surfaces. We then cut in mortices so that the roundwood legs would fit into the seats nicely. The legs were fixed on with coach screws, then the benches were installed (after a lot of hard work by everyone digging holes!). Finally, the benches were joined with coach screws and the recesses that the screws were in were capped with larch plugs.

As well as pitching in with the hard work on the benches, Steve led a few bushcraft walks when everyone needed a break and Anna sorted some great food out on the campfire. The photo above shows the smoke drifting through the woods.

The hexagonally-shaped benches will have a fire pit put into the centre this week and will be used for outdoors workshops by Steve, as well as being there for local people to enjoy when they are in the woods. Having a purpose-built  fire pit will hopefully also protect the roots of nearby trees (such as a beautiful old yew tree) from damage by random fires all about the site.
The larch used was very kindly donated to the project by our friends at Touchwood Enterprises in Bristol. You can have a look at their website by clicking on the link here.