Woodcarving lessons for visitors to the Tree Life Centre in Bristol

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, as I headed back to the Tree Life Centre in Kingswood to teach visitors to their Open Day how to carve wood.

We were carving a sign from oak that once grew on the Quantock Hills in Somerset. Most of those having a go were aged between about 5 and 12 years old, although I'd say that one young carver was less than 3. As her mum watched, I carefully let her hold the carving mallet and V tool, then held her small hands inside mine to make sure that she was completely safe as she carved. Despite some initial shyness, she quite obviously loved it!

A couple of the grown-ups also took a mallet and V tool for a spin and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Altogether, I'd say around sixty people tried their hand at carving during the day.  I asked a couple of the young people whether it was harder to carve than it looks. After some thought, they said that it wasn't always too hard, although as they did more of it they found some parts harder to do than others. Sounds fair enough to me.

The finished sign was finished with tung oil and will be situated next to the Tree Trail at the centre, which means that many of the visitors who live locally will be able to see it whenever they like. The trail has native trees growing along a path and the centre also sells native British trees and plants.

Whilst walking around the site, I also saw one of my favourite British wildflowers (although I'm pretty sure these ones had been planted there). It's called the snake's head fritillary.

These drooping tulip-like flowers, with their chequerboard patterning, always seem strange and exotic even though they are native to this country. They grow in damp meadows in the wild but are quite local in their distribution, so aren't commonly seen in most of Britain which made it even nicer to see them yesterday.

Making plinths for stone sculptures, running carving workshops and emergency while-you-wait lettercutting!

There have been a lot of different, smaller jobs going on recently, as well as finishing off the huge Downs bench (which is very exciting).

First off, I have made three sculpture bases for a commission:

The bases were shaped from Honduran mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Once very popular in woodworking, this species is consequently endangered now in many areas and Brazil has banned export of its timber. Illegal logging is a threat to the existence of some Swietenia species such as this one and is a massive and very real problem.

I have to say that I wouldn't buy or use this timber unless it was absolutely, definitely recycled. The timber used in these bases had been left lying around unwanted for years by at least three previous owners and was in danger of being thrown away. I was very content to utilise it in those circumstances, but it seems important to mention the issue here. Woodworkers in the USA and UK are the main market for mahogany and so it is directly our responsibility to source materials like these carefully.

Yesterday was very happily spent teaching volunteers at the Tree Life Centre in Kingswood, Bristol.

The centre is run by the Trust for Conservation Volunteers and sells native trees and plants. We have been carving 'way in' and 'out' marker posts as well as oak signs for their Open Day on the 10th April that show different areas of the site. The volunteers came up with some great designs for them and I think that the signs look fantastic.

 I'm really looking forward to another day's carving there with visitors to the Open Day.

One other interesting job recently was a new kind in my experience: while-you-wait lettercutting! The people who contacted me had a very small, specific period of time in which they could drop by my studio and have a wooden object engraved. Luckily, I could stop by after running some workshops and managed to do their lettercutting for them while they waited at the studio. It was nice to be able to help them in such a tight time schedule on a piece that was obviously very important to them.

Image by C.S.

Teaching woodcarving to young people at the Tree Life Centre in Kingswood, Bristol

The Tree Life Centre is run by the TCV (Trust for Conservation Volunteers) and is situated at the back of Grimsbury Farm in the Kingswood area of Bristol. The centre is looking to get local groups more involved, so that they can benefit from the resources it has to offer. As part of this, I was invited to run some woodcarving workshops there yesterday for children from various local schools.

It was a lovely day, just right for early spring; clear and sunny with daffodils nodding all around us.

The young people, some of whom had learning difficulties, really seemed to enjoy the chance to try a new activity. There were some promising young carvers amongst them too!