The Traditional Crafts Blog

can we define what craft is?

2012-01-21T13:28:00.002Z

Yesterday I was a meeting in London of the steering group for a major piece of government funded research into the state of heritage crafts in England. The first and perhaps most difficult task is to define very precisely what heritage crafts are in such a way as the research company can go away and start counting and measuring.

Crafts consultant Hillary Jennings had prepared us a draft discussion paper which runs to about 15 pages, we hope to be able to make this document public in due course but for now I can share a few of the most important points.

It was felt that heritage craft could be defined as practice which encompassed these points

Knowledge and use of traditional materials

Skilled use of hand tools and hand operated machinery

Knowledge and application of traditional, often functional designs

Then this was boiled down into an even more concise version for when we need a one line definition.

"Practices which employ skilled use of hand tools and an understanding of material and have their roots in traditional functional design."

It's not easy to define traditional craft, how would you do it? can you come up with anything better? One thing we were sure about was that heritage is not the same as old, it is more a question of what we value and wish to pass on to future generations.

To make the most of my London trip I also got to meet two people I have been corresponding with for a while. First was Adam Thompson who writes the excellent "manufacture and industry" blog here
We only had time for a quick coffee and chat but it was good to meet, his blog is well worth following.

Then last thing I visited potter Kate Malone. Folk who know Kate's work may be surprised as she is very much a high end art potter making pieces which sell for thousands of pounds, she does have very strong roots in traditional practice however and believes that it is crucial that ceramicists learn basic craft skills first before considering any sort of innovative self expression. Here is a lovely film of her studio.

I am in London next Tuesday and Wednesday for more meetings including John Hayes skills minister, Martina Milburn CEO of the Princes Trust, the BBC to discuss potential craft TV programs, Baroness Garden at the Lords and I am particularly pleased to be able to meet up with Betsy Greer, craft activist who is over from the US.

craft conference at the V&A "evolving craft communities"

2012-01-18T14:52:00.001Z

This year's Heritage Crafts Association conference at the V&A has the theme "Evolving Craft Communities"

Since you are reading this on the web and presumably have an interest in craft you are part of an online craft community which did not exist 20 years ago. At the same time many of us are also part of other craft communities whether local, regional or national with a particular craft theme. I am quite involved with the Association of pole lathe turners and greenwoodworkers who have a good online forum here but also an annual meeting where we all get together to exchange skills and ideas.

We are live in exciting times as we can exchange and source information freely across the web, how does this change our craft practice and how does it compare to past practices of passing skills? Is it possible to feel connected to other folk we have never met who live in other continents and what sort of meaning does that bring to our lives? How do we make the best use of changes that are happening and new opportunities available to us?

Speakers at the conference will include Professor Richard Sennett, talking about "Making and thinking". Richard is author of the well-received book The Craftsman, and professor of sociology at New York University and LSE. He popularised the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master a craft skill, he also talks from personal experience of hand skills having put those hours in training as a cellist.

Lida Kindersley runs the highly successful Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge. Lida was trained by David Kindersley who was himself trained by Eric Gill. She wrote a nice book on apprenticeship Her workshop practices solidly "old school" with apprentices learning letter-cutting alongside the team of experienced craftspeople.

Ele Carpenter is a curator, artist and researcher working within the field of visual arts and new media. She will talk about the open source embroidered digital commons

Stuart Mitchell's apprenticeship in the Sheffield cutlery industry was very traditional. He started at the bottom and worked all hours until eventually even his father took pride in the knives that he built. His workshop, and indeed work ethic, is still steeped in the traditions of Sheffield of old, but things have changed.

And then I will be talking about how I feel to be part of a global online woodworking community but how I still value physical get togethers and particularly working on craft projects together alongside other people whether sharing my knowledge through courses or learning from others.

Here is the full program, you can book here and this year we are offering an £5 early bird discount to save us having the stress of last minute bookings. It will be a great day, hope you can join us.

10.15am - Registration in the Lecture Theatre.
10.45am - Conference starts. Welcome from Patricia Lovett, Vice-Chair of the HCA.
10.55am - Professor Richard Sennett - 'Making and Thinking'.
11.55am - Lida Kindersley, lettercutter in stone - 'Learning by Doing'
1.00pm - HCA Annual General Meeting - all welcome.
2.30pm - Afternoon session begins. Patricia Lovett.
2.35pm - Presentation of Marsh Awards for trainer and volunteer in Heritage Crafts by Alex Langlands
3.00pm - Ele Carpenter, 'Open Source Embroidery Project - the embroidered digital commons'
3.25pm - Robin Wood, wood turner and Chair of the HCA - 'Bringing Craft out of the Woods'
3.50pm - Stuart Mitchell, knifemaker - 'Web Mester'
4.15pm - Closing remarks and HCA updates
4.30pm - Conference ends

lettercarving in stone

2012-01-08T09:38:00.001Z

Memorial Arts are a charity set up to help folk find artists making memorials, particularly letter-cutting in stone. They promote excellence in lettercarving in various ways including running a successful apprentice scheme. They are affiliated members of HCA. Whether you are looking for a special piece of artwork or just interested in the craft their website is well worth a visit also see their linked website Memorials by Artists.

Crisp beautiful letters take time to produce by hand, this video shows the process start to finish in real time.
http://media.memorialartscharity.org.uk/video/letter-carving.ogv

and lets finish with some lovely pics of lettercutting from their site.

Steve Jobs

2011-12-11T18:27:00.001Z

These inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs were put together by Mike Press for his great blog here the most craft related ones are at the end but I think they are all great.

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.”

“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

And whilst looking back at Mike's old blog archive I came across this remarkable post from 2007. It seems quite visionary now showing the way handmade crafts using web 2 software, blogs, etsy etc are in a position to grow rapidly, comment, and be far more proactive in addressing issues about the way we make, work and consume in the 21st century.

"Craft 2.0 is the true inheritor of the Morris legacy. Unlike the professionalised 'art school' educated craft makers it has an ideological position which, while largely ill-defined and diverse, represents a constructive reaction to the inequities and politics of the market economy. It is clearly using the market economy as a means of developing sustainable livelihoods, but is bringing economic and cultural innovation to it. Above all it is dealing with the politics of work and consumption in ways that the professionalised sector cannot."

life is a gym for head, hand and heart.

2011-12-11T09:38:00.001Z

It seems to me that the life many people aspire to at the moment involves spending the working day in important meetings or at a computer or doing similar cerebral work, then in the morning or evening jogging or pumping iron at the gym to get that perfect body.

These gyms seem bizarre places to me, I have walked past them in London full of folk pounding away like so many hamsters on wheels. The bizarre thing is that all those machines are consuming electricity, I'd like to see a gym that generated electricity or better see those folk out carrying shopping for old ladies or some other useful physical activity. Besides that I struggle with the idea of pounding away just to get the current trendy body shape. I think far better to live a balanced life that involves a mix of cerebral and physical activity. At the moment I am converting my ex village police station into a holiday cottage, there is a lot of hard labouring work which a hard nosed business annalist would say I should pay a labourer £50 a day to do whilst I got on with more lucrative work. I earn an average of £80 a day so I can't argue with the economics but there is something more important than economics to me. By doing the labouring myself I get a feeling of empowerment, and also a good workout which would cost my cerebral friends a hefty gym fee. Here I am starting to demolish the old wall separating the old garage from the police station office, I reckon you could charge for this it was such fun.

Why is it that doing this stuff as part of the working day is looked down upon whilst paying to sweat in the gym is viewed as a good thing? This is all part of my philosophy of living a balanced life with work involving hand, head and heart. Past posts on the subject here

traditional craft in a music video

2011-12-08T16:08:00.001Z

Often folk picture heritage and traditional crafts as being backward looking, and having nothing to say today. Whilst the modern art of the craft spectrum is seen as "innovative" and "cutting edge". This is a misunderstanding, today in times of global financial adversity people tend to reassess their priorities and question what good work and a good life means, what is of value and what is not. The traditional crafts have always been closely linked with the politics of work, from William Morris to Eric Gill to Mahatma Gandhi craft, work, philosophy, politics all together.

Craft is still relevant today and far from being backward looking the Heritage Crafts Association are at the cutting edge of debate about what is good work today. Music sometimes also carries political messages and one of my favourite young punk bands are the King Blues. This is their new video shot on a very cold day last spring and you might notice a clip of me in the workshop.

It was quite an eye opener being part of the video, we had an afternoon in the workshop them most of the day starting at 8am in Manchester and it was cold....
This quick clip taken on my pocket camera gives an idea of how it was made.

and a few stills

two great craft films

2011-12-07T13:56:00.001Z

Here is a really nice film of Finnish blacksmith Jesse Sipola, he has developed a system of using hand held air hammers for fine forging work, particularly faces, it's a nicely shot and edited film too.

Jesse Sipola, Seppä | Blacksmith (2011) from Eero Y on Vimeo.

and here is one for the woodies it is an absolute gem, recorded in 1984 two "bushmen" Bill Boyd and Mark Garner fell a tree, split "slabs" off it and hew them to make house timbers. I have worked with some seriously talented hewers in Japan, Germany and the best from the UK, when I watched the first few seconds of this film with these two chaps sat on the porch sharpening their axes I thought it all looked a bit hammed up for the cameras but just stick with it, they are as skilled and effortless as anyone I have ever seen with an axe.

Britain to be proud of?

2011-12-03T13:50:00.001Z

An interesting piece of research has just been published looking at what British people are proud of.

Respondents were more likely to take pride in the things that were closest to them – for instance their family and home – than in the ‘nation’ more generally:

87% said ‘I am proud of my family’.
77% said ‘I am proud of my friends’.
62% said ‘I am proud of my work’.
80% were ‘proud of my attitude to others’.
90% said ‘I am proud of my values’.
Gosh we are beginiing to sound like a smug lot now how about this
79% said ‘I am proud of my knowledge/intelligence’.

"Overwhelmingly, British people believe that we are – collectively – less proud of Britain than our forefathers: 53 per cent believe that Britain is less patriotic than it was 25 years ago and 61 per cent argue that patriotism has declined over the last 50 years – over half of British people believe that we are ‘a lot less proud’ than we once were of Britain.
However, four in five British people are still happy to declare themselves ‘proud to be a British citizen’ and levels of patriotism in the UK are – when compared with those in other European nations – relatively healthy."

81% said ‘I am proud of how Britain looks (eg landscape, architecture and style)’.
74% were ‘proud of British culture’.

"British citizens had a strong disengagement from ‘patriotism’ People felt that ‘patriotism’ meant the last night of the Proms, the Union Jack and singing ‘Jerusalem’.... while they are proud of Britain and of being British, assume that the term ‘patriotic’ just doesn’t, really, describe them:

"Patriotic means flying the flag and standing up for the national anthem and things like that. I think it’s fine that people do that but it’s not really me, if you know what I mean? I suppose I’m not really ‘patriotic’ but I do think I’m proud of British things."

"It’s a bit weird to be really, really patriotic. I don’t think it’s racist or anything, like people say, I think it’s harmless really but it’s more that it’s old-fashioned. It’s sort of more for posh people, isn’t it?"

"When you ask about what’s best about being British I think of all the people that give up their time to help other people, or to do good things in the community. That’s what makes me proud of this country."

"At the same time, shame and embarrassment in Britain are strongly felt. More than half of British people have been ‘embarrassed to be British’ "

"The British are among the most likely people in the world to give up our time to volunteer. We have significantly higher levels of social action – and a greater and more established independent charitable sector – than most peer European countries."

"I think of being British as being about littler things, more boring I suppose. Like doing your bit and manners and helping out. The thing about British people is that we do things for each other, you know? Being British is more about the way we are than things like Buckingham Palace or Parliament."

"We find that pride in Britain is strong but that people are alienated by the way in which politicians talk about patriotism. British people are highly dubious of efforts to politicise their everyday, felt patriotic sentiments and they deeply distrust efforts to intellectualise their pride in their country. British politicians are at risk – through their wide-of-the-mark ventures into the discourse of patriotism – of turning British people off their sense of themselves."

"I’m always a bit dubious when the politicians see something good and then say ‘that’s what I believe in’ because usually they take that thing and they ruin it."

"Sometimes when they [politicians] talk about volunteering and all that, it sounds like they think they invented it or something. I don’t volunteer because the Government tells me to, I volunteer because I want to – I enjoy it and I think it’s important,"

"our research undermined many of the traditional narratives about patriotism and British-identity. Participants identified a mis- match between history presented as a ‘great island story’ and what they felt was important, and inspiring, about modern Britain."

and here is one last statistic which shows that folk answering quesions from research companies maybe say what they would like to think they do in an idealised vision rather than what they actually do in the real world.

"74% of respondents agreed with the statement ‘it’s important to buy British’.

Full report can be downloaded here

NIACE craft "tool kit" project

2011-12-02T15:44:00.001Z

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education NIACE want to know how you got into the crafts, the results will be published on their website with links back to your website so worth 5 minutes to answer a few questions.

Details of NIACE craft "tool kit" from Jan Lasnon

"Rather than me phoning individuals and (as is always the way) choosing the most inconvenient time, I’m hoping that you will contact me – either by phone or email – at a time that suits you.
The information I need from as many craft practitioners as possible is:
Name:
Location: (Where you are based)
Discipline: (General description of your craft)
How long you have been working as a craft practitioner:
Please describe briefly how you learned your craft:
Detail any training courses you have attended (these can be accredited or non-accredited, from half-day workshops through to degree courses)
Advise any courses which you would like to have access to (include any that may have been discontinued)
State how/where your work is sold: (ie website, galleries, etc). Please include here your website details if you have one so that people can look at what you do.
If applicable add alternative career information (this may be a former career or paid work you currently do to prop up your income)
You can either email the information through to me at jan@craftanddesign.net (in which case please also give me a contact number in case I need to clarify anything) or just email with the best time to call and a number you can be reached on and I’ll give you a call.
This is the most major project that’s taken in place in crafts for decades so I really hope that you can spare five or ten minutes to be part of it.
Thanks to everyone for your help,
Jan"

and a follow up note from Jan explaining how this relates to the Mapping Survey which HCA have been working on with John Hayes's team and CCSkills.

"The exciting announcement Creative & Cultural Skills have commissioned research agency TBR to map the heritage crafts sector seems to have caused a little confusion as to how that impacts or sits with the work I’m doing with NIACE so I thought I’d explain how it all fits together.
When Skills Minister John Hayes first featured in craft&design magazine he explained that he was looking at how to address training the next generation of craftspeople.
The first issue recognised by the Minister was the need to harness the expertise and knowledge of the sector so he set up a BIS Craft Skills Advisory Board which has already been holding meetings.
The Minister pledged to undertake a national mapping exercise for heritage craft skills sector, working with a range of sector bodies.
John Hayes has also invited NIACE to produce a map of apprenticeship frameworks that support the sector and to look at opportunities for future growth. NIACE is also developing a tool kit – this is what I”m working on specifically.
The toolkit is basically a micro website which can be accessed by anyone but in particular people hoping to pursue a career in craft. I am collecting case studies from people currently working in the industry which details their chosen discipline and how they got there.
These human stories will be really helpful and, in some cases, inspirational. And, as we are now adding photos, they may also generate new business.
Some of the people that have contacted me also run their own workshops. There is a separate part of the toolkit dedicated to courses, both through educational institutions as well as independently run. I’m preparing a list of these as I go and will ensure that any courses advised to me will also be included in the toolkit.
In short then, the mapping exercise will show where heritage craft is at the moment. The toolkit will be preparing craft for the future.
I have had a great response so far – thank you to all those who have contacted me. However, I would still love to hear from more of you please. And don’t forget, if you are running short courses and workshops, include them in the information you send me or, if you haven’t got time to write it, just email me with a convenient time to call you and I’ll write it for you.
This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a craft-focused project that is the biggest of its kind and it costs you nothing to get involved. Just a few minutes of your time.
I urge you not to miss out."

raising the status of art and craft?

2011-12-02T08:47:00.001Z

How do we raise the status of studying artistic rather than pure academic subjects? There has been much discussion recently about how society values academic vs tacit knowledge, skills minister John Hayes said "In my view, the skills of a bricklayer are in no way less admirable and certainly no less hard-won than those of a stockbroker. Matt Crawford's book "The case for working with your hands" made a similar case but how do we convince parents and bright kids that a career in the arts, crafts or trades is a viable choice and not something for academic low achievers?

I just came across this wonderful witty ad campoaign for the College for Creative Studies in Detroit mimicking anti drugs campaigns. Entertaining and makes the point but does it reinforce the image, challenge it or change it?

“Talk to your kids about art school”

Information / Credits

1 in 5 teenagers will experiment with art. Talk to your kids about art school.
Advertising Agency: Team Detroit, Dearborn, MI USA Chief Creative Officer: Toby Barlow Creative Director: Gary Pascoe Art Director: Vic Quattrin Copywriter: Joel Wescott Published: October, 2011

Folk art meeting in Sweden 2012

2011-12-01T08:04:00.001Z

HCA have had good links with the international Organisation of Folk Art IOV

They are organising a youth congress next year in Sweden, and by youth they mean up to 35. The event looks great and is fully funded so the only cost is your air fair, all food accommodation transport etc is free. Max 5 places available from the UK, I wish I was younger. 2012 is also the centenary of the National Association of Handicraft in Sweden so there will be plenty of craft events.

YOU ARE WELCOME TO APPLY FOR THE THIRD IOV WORLD YOUTH CONGRESS
“Youth empowerment in the Intangible Cultural Heritage”

The IOV World Youth Congress is an international gathering of young people, which takes place every two years. Folk art and culture, intangible heritage, tradition and their applications in the 21st Century are the subjects that inspire discussions, workshops and lectures during the week-long meeting. IOV Youth are professionals seeking new ideas and fresh approaches to their work as teachers, arts administrators, handicraft counselors and artists. They are also amateur hobbyists and students, whose interests include storytelling, singing, weaving and dancing. IOV Youth are brought together by a shared interest in folk art. Friendships are built and networks established that will last a lifetime; and when the IOV Youth Congress concludes, IOV Youth will have a better appreciation of folk art as a tool to build bridges to cultures and people.

The 2012 Congress will focus on the issues and relationships of a living heritage:

Passion and Engagement – From personal life to professional career

Think local, act global

Where is folk art today, and where will it be tomorrow

IOV is a worldwide organization of individuals and institutions working to document, preserve, and promote all forms of folk art, both tangible and intangible.

IOV sponsors national and international folk art festivals, as well as cultural exchanges of performing artists and visual art. Through scientific and pedagogical symposia and workshops, IOV supports scholarly research, documentation, and publication on a board range of topics relating to folk art and folk culture.

The UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, with its emphasis on research and documentation, and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, provide the foundation for IOV programs and projects.

OFFICIAL INVITATION TO THE THIRD IOV WORLD YOUTH CONGRESS,
The International Organization of Folk Art/IOV, in operational relations with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization/UNESCO is pleased to extend this Official Invitation to you to participate in The Third IOV World Youth Congress 2012 on Youth Empowerment in the Intangible Cultural Heritage, June 25-29, 2012.

The congress is being organized by the National Association of Handicraft Societies, Västarvet/Handicraft in West and the IOV Youth Commission, with support from the IOV Secretariat.

Congress theme
Youth Empowerment in the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Participation
The congress is open to IOV Youth members between ages 18 – 35. Applicants should be passionate about folk art and desire to take part in establishing the international network - IOV Youth.

Applicants may be students, researchers, and activists, as well as young professionals and others interested in folk art and folk culture, folk art history, civil society administration and related fields. Because space is limited, conference participation will be granted to no more than one hundred youth participants. There will be an initial limit of 5 participants from each country. We will also strive for equality in gender and diversity of cultural expression.

If you are not a member of IOV, we invite you to join us at: www.iov-world.com.

Congress overview
• June 24 – Arrival at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, Sweden

• June 25 – The participants visit a national Folk art exhibition in central Stockholm, celebrating 100 years of organized handicraft. In the afternoon, we travel by bus to Billströmska folk high school at the island Tjörn in the southwestern part of Sweden, where the conference will be held

• June 26 – “Show Me” – A creative workshop model for teaching intangible culture

• June 27 – Lectures and theme workshops.

• June 28 – Conclusions and aims for the future

• June 29 – Folk Art Festivities. We celebrate 5 years of IOV Youth

• June 30 – Departure from Arlanda airport

Costs
There is no registration fee to participate. The Swedish organizers and sponsors will cover the costs of your participation in the congress program, including local transportation, accommodations, meals and airport transfer from Arlanda on June 24th and back on June 30th. The participants will cover the cost of their international travel, visas and medical insurance.

Congress language
The congress language is English. Translation services are not provided.

apply here

quality goes a long way

2011-11-28T23:17:00.001Z

I have no doubt dear blog readers that you have a good appreciation of quality, probably far more so that the average person in the street for whom quantity seems more important. Does quality have to cost though? Are we just the fortunate few to enjoy quality? A few weeks ago I had to say goodbye to this pair of shoes.

They were made for me about ten years ago by Jeremy Atkinson and as you can see they have had a hard life but served me well. Normally bespoke footwear is very expensive. Even a pair of off the shelf Church's cost £300-£400. A pair of proper bespoke shoes by John Lobb will set you back £3000. If you can find a good shoemaker with low overheads and buy direct however you can get quality bespoke shoes that cost less per year than cheap Chinese shoes. When I helped judge the Balvenie masters of craft awards last year Ruth Emily Davy a young shoemaker in Wales was one of our winners, her shoes are around £300, now if you get 10 years out of them that is better than £30 a year on cheap shoes going into landfill.

My shoes from Jeremy were less than half that price yet the quality is superb. The leather is thick and supple like the best saddle leather, it comes from Clayton's tannery at Chesterfield. They fit, like a glove? er well like a shoe? or well like a shoe should do if it's been made exactly to fit your foot. There is no doubt over the ten years my previous pair lasted, and I am very very hard on my footwear, that these were far better value than buying a new pair of cheap shoes each year.

These two pairs are the only shoes just like this Jeremy has ever made, they are basically a clog upper on a shoe sole. I love my welsh slipper clogs and particularly this clever little clasp which allows you to slip the shoes on and walk away or clip them up tight with a flick of the finger. He does more normal shoes with lace ups as well and wonderful clogsl Now just before you click off to check his website be warned it can take a while to buy from him, you need to be persistent.

Now I have been blogging for a couple of years and really value the support and feedback I get in comments posted, people mentioning they read when we meet and nice emails. If you were here I would offer you a drink. To continue the theme of quality going a long way it would probably be a drop of Balvenie. I won this bottle of Balvenie 30 year old 2 years ago when I was Balvenie's "Artisan of the Year". It's not quite finished yet, I have made it last. It only comes out on special occasions and generally as part of a Balvenie tasting where we start with the £25 12yr old doublewood then have my favourite the 15yr old £40 single barrel and only then a little taste of the £300 30yr old. It may be extravagant but with whisky like this you only need a small amount to enjoy the flavours so there are maybe 70 good tasters in a bottle. Compared to a bottle of wine from which you get 4 glasses my £300 bottle equates to £4 a taste or a £16 bottle of wine which probably is no where near as special. Now what you are asking is that strange small sample beside the 30yr old?

let me pop the lid and let you sniff....pretty special yes? Careful don't spill it...

Well this one is pure indulgence of the John Lobb level, no way I can even try to justify this as being quality but really better value than cheap wine or shoes. No this is extravagant. Two weeks ago I had an invite to the launch of the Balvenie 40yr old at the V&A. It fell in the middle of a bowl carving course and I couldn't let my students down so I was gutted to have to decline. Thankfully those lovely folk at the Balvenie sent me this 10ml taster in the post. How special? Well there are only 150 bottles available worldwide with only 18 allocated to the UK 2 of which they drank at that launch at the V&A. At £2500 a bottle my tiny 10ml bottle works out about £35. I'm saving this one and just sniffing it occasionally at the moment. I'll probably share a tiny taste with my dad over Christmas.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 5

2011-11-16T11:08:00.001Z

This post will mostly be pictures, some of the replica, some of the original Oseberg ship. The last post left a board steamed, bent fitted and riveted or klinked on to the hull. As the hull takes shape each point is measured and set to ±5mm. It can be adjusted slightly by pressing up from underneath with props or by adding heavy rocks inside. These rocks look randomly scattered but they are very precisely placed to get exactly the right shape into the hull. Once it is dried and the ribs fitted the shape will be set.

And what a shape it is too, such sweet lines.

One of the iconic features fo the Oseberg ship are the carvings. These are some close ups of the original taken in the Viking ship museum in Oslo in 2004.

and some images showing the replica

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 4

2011-11-16T09:30:00.001Z

Ships built with overlapping planks like Viking ships are called "lapstrake" in the USA, in the UK we call them "clinker built". I had never known why until I hammered home one of the rivets that is the key to this construction and asked what it's name was in Norwegian, it's called a klink and the verb klinking fits perfectly as you'll see from the video at the end of this post.

These are the tools for the job, a fairly small cross pein hammer, a copy of a 9th century one of course, a rose head boat nail and a rove, that's the square washer which fits tightly over the nail head and when driven down on to it grips hard.

So now the finished dressed board is clamped in place for the final time and holes drilled through the 1" overlap with the board below. The nail is driven up through the hole and the rove driven down on top using the hammer with the hole in it to push the rove down tight. It's a noisy job if you are doing it all day so here Jan is wearing a mix of Viking clothing and ear defenders. You can also see in this picture the scarf joint where two planks join end to end. This is a simple chamfer, the joint is sealed with woolen cloth and pine tar and two klinks will go through the scarf to hold it tight.

Now the end of the klink needs to be cut off this is a 2 person job with sharp cold chisels.

and finally we get to the klinking first a photo, this is where the end of the klink is hammered in such a way as to spread it out into a sort of dome that holds the rove very tightly in place. First you tap with the cross pein to spread the klink and then flip the hammer over and go round and round the outside to dome it nicely.

When it's done it looks like this. This is one of mine and goes through a scarf joint.

That's my klink, it really is a great feeling to be a small part of this project and to know there is some of my work in the final ship. As the timber in the ship dries it will shrink slightly and all these klinks will need hammering again to tighten them up, I don't know just how many there are but it must run into several thousand and no one is looking forward to that job.

and now a little video clip of klinking

In the UK with our often acidic soil conditions when we do find old clinker built ships the klinks are often the only thing to survive when all the wood has been dissolved away. That was the case at our most famous ship burial Sutton Hoo this image shows the klinks or rivets in place and the outline of the boat in the sand but all the wood was gone.

The same is true for the ship found recently in Scotland, the only Viking age ship burial so far found on the UK mainland. It will be interesting to learn more of that find as it is excavated.

Just a couple more posts to come now showing all the replica Viking tools, and some more shots of the boat and it's fantastic carvings.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 3

2011-11-16T08:38:00.001Z

So in our next installment in Viking boatbuilding we take the planks that were previously cleft, rough hewn and planed and trial fit them to the boat. Each and every board is different and is an exact replica of a particular board on the original ship. This is the office with the masterplan and to the left you can see scaled versions of each plank.

These are then turned into full scale plans which are taken out to the rough planks, drawn around and the profile cut out. This is Jan finishing a plank before trial fitting for the first time. Most planks have raised sections which will be used later for lashing the ribs to.

Next we take these simple but very effective clamps

and trial fit the board in place.

Working along the plank I bend it to shape whilst Jan applies the powerful clamps, once the base of the board is clamped tightly we can twist the outside edge to check it will take the correct shape. It is not so much a bend as a twist in each board that gives the boat it's shape. You can see here the clamp with the rope is pulling the bow end inwards and the stern end is pulled outwards and downwards giving about 15 degrees of twist on this board, it will get a little more later.

We have two datum lines to check the shape against, a row of pins set into the keel and a taught wire stretched above the ship. Using these two as measuring points it is possible to triangulate out to set each board in precisely the right place, we worked to a tolerance of ±5mm. Once each board was in it's final place the props underneath were fixed holding it's position.

Once we were happy with the trial fitting and had done any final rough shaping the board went into the steamer for 1 hour 20 minutes. When it comes out you have about a minute during which it moves very easily and then a couple of minutes for fine adjustment so everything has to be planned and to hand and everything happens quickly.

By the time the plank Jan and I had been working on was ready in the steamer it was already dark, it starts going dark at 3.30pm we did have big floodlights to work under sorry about dodgy pic quality.

Here the plank is in place and Jan is just tweaking the final line, you can clearly see the twist with the two ends of the plank being maybe 20 degrees out of line. We took the top and bottom corners 10mm further than they will end up expecting them to relax slightly when the pressure is taken off.

Now the board stays in place overnight after which time it's shape is set, it can be removed and very precise fitting work done, planing the joint to that it fits without the slightest gap. Once that is done it's time to rivet it in place, and that riveting, the whole essence of clinker boat building, is the next post.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 2

2011-11-15T10:23:00.001Z

In part 1 we covered a little of the history of the Oseberg ship and the project to make a reconstruction and then cleft a large oak into 16 thin pie shaped wedges to make boards. The next stage is to hew these boards down from the pie shape into an even 1" thickness. There are various ways of holding the board whilst you do this, I like to have the surface I am working sloping away from me at an angle of around 30 degrees. I cut notches with the axe down to the marked line then hew off the chunks between. This particular replica Viking axe was my favourite and was a dream to use. It was remarkably similar in use to Japanese carpenters axes.

This axe was forged by a Danish smith, I think it is a thing of great beauty but not only that it's balance and edge holding were perfect too, it just worked like a dream.

and these are the axes I used in Japan last year, equally good and remarkably similar considering they are separated by 1200 years and half a world.

Next step is to turn your plank over mark 1" thickness for the smaller boards 1 1/4 for the largest boards and hew away the excess. This is Gregorius at work with the ship in the background. The four legged things for resting boards on which we would call horses in Norway are known as pigs or swine, I thought it suited them well.

This rough hewing laves a coarse surface and now we raise the board up vertical so the axe can be used downwards across the face of the board and at a slight angle to get a slicing cut. This is Ola at work he was really very good at this.

Taking a wide clean cut like this and leaving a near finished surface is not easy but it is clearly shown in many old illustrations like this from the 15th C. I should say Ola's stance is far safer, hewing accidents are not common but when they occur it is nearly always due to working in the position illustrated below, if the axe catches a glancing blow off the wood it can bounce out into the right shin. I have seen it and it is very nasty.

This is my small board after hewing both sides, this is where you are expected to get to with just the axe. You work right up to but leave the pencil marks showing. Then you can move on to planing.

They had on the worksite the largest collection of Viking replica tools in the world, I'll do another post showing lots of them but they included various replica planes. This was my favourite. You plane first across the grain or at a slight angle then down the grain.

Here's a close up of this lovely plane with it's simple but beautiful horse head decoration.

The final finishing was done with a scraping tool, the original boards showed the medulary rays standing proud and this is what happens when you use this tool again a replica of a 9th century find.

So that gives us a prepared board. Compared to sawing you get less than half the planks from a tree though they are very strong and flexible since you know the fibres run down the length of the plank. Today we would consider it wasteful but in the 9th century large timber trees were plentiful and all heating and cooking in the homes in the area was done on wood so in some ways you could say we were making lots of kindling and firewood and the ship was a by product. More posts to come on steaming and bending and fitting the boards to the ship as well as lots of gorgeous tools.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 1

2011-11-14T18:58:00.001Z

HCA's chair Robin Wood visits Norway...

In 1903 a Norwegian farmer dug into a mound in one of his fields and made a discovery which archaeologists rate as comparable in importance to the grave of Tutankhamun. The Oseberg farm is 60 miles south of Oslo outside the town of Tonsberg and for years Oscar Rom had wondered what lay under the mound in his field, people said it was haunted and that it contained graves from the black death. Soon after he started digging he came across some highly carved wood and contacted archaeologists. The whole mound was excavated in 1905/5 revealing the earliest, the most complete and most beautiful Viking ship to survive. The burial mound contained many high status grave goods and the bodies of two women all of which shed much light on Viking life but for now I want to concentrate on the ship itself.

The ship was preserved and is displayed in the wonderful Viking Ship Museum at Oslo.

On June17th 2010 a new era in the exciting history of this ship began with a project to build an exact replica using the same tools and techniques as were used to build the original. As soon as I heard about the project I knew I had to visit and hopefully work on the ship. An internet friend Tim Allen had been volunteering on the worksite and put me in contact with the New Oseberg Ship Foundation arrangements were made and last week I spent 4 days working on this most remarkable of building sites. My camera cards are bursting with pictures so I'll do a few posts starting with the raw material.

The ship is built entirely of cleft and hewn oak, no saws were used. The trees by modern standards were impressive fat tall and straight grained, a foresters or saw-millers dream. Here are a couple of typical trees for the project with the part built ship in the background. Trees of this quality have proved impossible to source in Norway so most of the planking trees have come from Denmark. The oak for the keel, the backbone of the ship was however felled locally.

This is Thomas Finderup who built the 4 large replica viking ships at the famous Roskilde viking ship museum in Denmark. Nobody alive knows more about Viking shipbuilding or tools.

The trees are split with hammers and wedges, first in half then quarters, eighths and finally sixteenths, the last is the hardest split to get to run true. Whenever you split wood if you get exactly even amounts of wood either side of your slit it is more likely to run true and straight, get it wrong and the split will "run out" leaving you with one heavy thick chunk and one too thin to use. The important thing is to get as wide a plank as possible by avoiding the split running out as it heads toward the thin centre. To do this the shipwrights start by cleaning a 2" wide flat at the centre of the tree scoring a centre line down this with a chisel and then inserting small wooden wedges. Only then do they start opening up the split with metal wedges knocked in from the end, this is Gregorius.

And once they are happy they let visitors who's skill level they are not yet sure about have a go :0)

This split started to run off on the underside so we started again from the far end, this time it ran true. It was worth taking the time as the original tree was nearly £1000 and would yield just 16 of the widest planks.

once the split is going well you can use a bit more force, Tim with the big mell.

The thick wedge this produces is then hewn down to a single plank with a axe, planed, steamed, fitted and finally riveted into place with iron boat nails. More on that in the following posts. I'll also post about the organisation and running of the project and the gorgeous replica axes and other tools. Cleaving timber for ships like this died out, Thomas told me, in the 1200s, we can clearly see that the timbers of earlier ships were cleft and later they were sawn but the art of cleaving wide long boards for shipbuilding was completely lost for 800 years. Thomas and the team from Roskilde developed their way of working but no-one really knows exactly how the Vikings did it.

more old woodworking films

2011-11-14T11:37:00.001Z

first a nice new one about rakemakers the Rudd family in Cumbria.

16 TEETH - Cumbria's last traditional rakemakers from Rii Schroer on Vimeo.

and some old ones about sussex trug making, first in colour from 1963

TRUGS

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and then back to 1929

BASKET MEN OF SUSSEX

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and finally Irish coracle making, nice shots at the end of using them for fishing.

A BYGONE CRAFT

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major crafts research goes ahead

2011-11-03T19:01:00.001Z

A major new research project promisses to shed light on the UK traditional craft sector for the first time.

When we started the Heritage Crafts Association 2 1/2 years ago one of our first objectives was to properly map the sector, to find out which crafts were endangered, which were doing well and which offered potential for growth. In fact it was the first objective in my wish list back in Jan 2009. We were told that to do this job properly would cost between £50,000 and £100,000 not the sort of money we had handy as a new charity.

After 2 years of gentle advocacy we were delighted when Skills Minister John Hayes announced that he would find funds for just the research we had been asking for. HCA were part of the interview panel and we are delighted that Trends Business Research Ltd have now been appointed to undertake this major project. The final report is due to be completed by next March and a whole lot of work has to be completed by then, creating a database of as many practicing craftspeople as possible will be key and we hope HCA friends and followers will be able to help us spread t=he word when the time comes.

What good will it do?

Well we have lots of anecdotal evidence that there are certain issues within our sector. eg elderly skilled craftspeople not able to pass on their skills to a following generation, lack of entry routes for young people to start in a career etc.

The stories we have collected have been enough to convince many people there is a real problem but in order to access funding to address the issues we need more proof of the size and nature of the situation, genuine research will also help us see clearly where the most pressing issues are and prioritise action. It will also be great to help publicise the fantastic work that does go on within the traditional craft sector which has often played second fiddle to the better funded innovative contemporary crafts.

new TV "Ade in Britain"

2011-10-24T15:44:00.003+01:00

Following the BBCs "made in Britain" we can now look forward to TV funnyman Ade Edmonson traveling the country discovering regional traditions, crafts and cooking in "Ade in Britain"

"Ade Edmonson takes a culinary road trip around Britain revealing the eccentricities and character of each region through their most celebrated dishes. Indulging in his love for both cookery and British culture, Ade takes to his iconic Land Rover to meet the producers and farmers behind many famous local delicacies. He also takes part in regional traditions and customs from Morris dancing to cheese rolling along the way. Each of Ade’s funny and insightful journeys culminates in a scrumptious feast whipped up on his trusty mobile kitchen to celebrate each area’s unique food heritage. "

Press pack is embargoed until 1st Nov but if you google there is plenty of info out there already.

Ade seems to be going for something of a culinary Fred Dibnah look, he was in Bakewell to check out Bakewell puddings.

And Just down the road from me at Eyam school to see well dressing.

The main focus of the show looks to be food traditions, from Melton Mobray pies to Yorkshire puds but we also know he tried his hand at thatching and clogmaking and eel catching .
Cool mini and foodie trailer

Watch the trailer here

It was nice to see the cockle pickers using Hill and Sons riddles although I also saw a craft I have a real problem with Welsh love spoons (lots of tacky trash sold on the back of made up Victorian tradition whilst the wonderful tradition of cawl spoons is overlooked)

Great to see more British traditions on the TV though for me Ade will always be Vivyan.

Grayson Perry Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman

2011-10-16T00:31:00.001+01:00

As the only person working in a craft medium to be taken seriously by the art world and having won the Turner Prize Grayson Perry is often outspoken, entertaining and thought provoking. He famously said the Art world found it easier to accept the fact that he was a transvestite than that he made pots. He wrote a well argued piece in 2005 describing the contemporary craft scene as "a refuge for artists who play it safe"
He does have a lot of respect though for well made traditional craftwork and so I was quite excited when I heard that he would be having a show at the British Museum titled "the tomb of the unknown craftsman" This surely I thought references Soetsu Yanagi's great book "The unknown Craftsman" and given that the British Museum itself is a temple to the best unknown craftsmen of ages past from around the world I was expecting an homage to those craftspeople, perhaps something that brought the objects to life again.
On my way into the museum I paused in room 24 which is themed "living and dying" it's a room I have spent time in before and has magnificent artifacts varying from Inuit hunting implements and clothing to one of the wonderful Easter Island sculptures. Here are just a few of the wonderful items on display. A Maori food bowl, the carving on the underside particularly special.

An axe from the Solomon Islands early 20th C. Clearly an English Kent pattern head I have re-handled many of these but always in rather more utilitarian fashion.

Solomon islands food bowl.

Haida carving.

and moving into the great court a magnificent Haida house frontal pole

the Haida people and all North West Coast carvers are truly one of the great woodworking cultures of the world, the design and craftsmanship are just wonderful, look at the toolmarks here, no sandpaper, a thousand precise cuts with sharp tools.

So back to Grayson at the entrance to the exhibition is his glorious AM1 motorcycle.

Inside we were not allowed to take photos. Did I find my unknown craftspeople brought to life? Well sadly no. I did find a good retrospective of Grayson's work and dotted alongside it were pieces of work from the museums collection which felt like they were there to give understanding, comparison and credibility to Grayson's pieces, I didn't really get any feeling that Grayson's works were in any way helping me to better understand the museum pieces. The museum pieces had very minimal interpretation, so for instance of my favourite pieces was labled

"Bonnet, Samoa, early 1800's Turtle shell and cotton"

I learned nothing of the context the object came from, the people who made it, when such an incredible thing was worn etc. maybe that is the job of a museum not an art exhibition. Amongst Grayson's work it was interesting to see a wide range of his big pots but I was most taken by his cast iron sculptures and two in particular from 2007 titled our father and our mother, strange pilgrim figures with their worldly goods on their backs. The tomb itself was also a large cast iron sculpture of a ship adorned with casts of objects from the BM collections, some how it didn't grab me, I went back out for another look at the Haida pole.

Maybe what I like best about Grayson is actually his writing, I enjoy the blog allegedly written by his teddy bear/god figure Alan Measles often ireverant and thought provoking. This is what he had to say at the end of the exhibition on Craftsmanship.

"Craftsmanship is often equated with precision but I think there is more to it. I feel it is more important to have a long and sympathetic hands-on relationship with materials. A relaxed, humble, ever-curious love of stuff is central to my idea of being an artist. An important quality of great art of the past was the pure skill in the artists use of materials. In celebrating craftsmanship I also salute artists, well most of them."

2011-10-13T12:18:00.001+01:00

Two Heritage Crafts Marsh Awards will be presented at the V&A next March. The first award recognises someone who has worked to pass craft skills on to the next generation. The second award is to recognise a volunteer who has done a lot to promote their craft through one of our many craft associations. Please apply or recommend someone here http://www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/marshawards.html
We initiated these awards to help raise the profile of the valuable work that many folk are already doing within the traditional crafts, we hope you will help us do that by letting us know about suitable worthy people. As well as the kudos of the award you get a cheque for £500.
Alex Langlands from BBCs Victorian Farm will be helping us pick the winners.
Only a couple of weeks left to get applications in.

UK Parliamentary Group recomend my work

2011-10-09T21:38:00.000+01:00

The all Part Parliamentary Manufacturing Group is an initiative of Vince Cable to highlight the great manufacturing that still goes on in the UK. Each MP is asked to recommend local manufacturers that we can be proud of.
I am delighted that my MP Andrew Bingham has recommended not only myself but fellow craft business Hill and Sons riddle and sieve-makers. Here we are on the official website

I get a picture of a bowl and spoon and bit of blurb
"Robin Wood turns wooden bowls on a foot powered lathe. The craft is 2000 years old and died out in 1958. Mr. Wood revived it and then taught the skill to people in the UK, USA, Sweden and Japan. He has supplied the Globe Theatre, Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London with his product. He also supplied props for the Ridley Scott film Robin Hood as well as exporting all over the world."

It would be nice to say it's great to be recognised for the work I do but the truth is it is shameless self promotion. When I heard about the scheme we tried to encourage other craftspeople through the HCA to recommend their MP put forward traditional craft businesses. I visited my MP at one of his regular surgeries and suggested he put forward a local craft and gave him some names including myself and Hill and Sons, he put us both forward. Over half the MPs have not made a recomendation yet so there is still time to suggest to your MP that they could put forward a traditional craft business. Stick your postcode in here to see is your MP has done it yet and if s/he has not wizz them an email.

WorldSkills London 2011

2011-10-09T19:35:00.001+01:00

This year, for the first time, the Heritage Crafts Association was at WorldSkills. For those of you who (like me until a couple of weeks ago) have never heard of World Skills, here’s a quick introduction.

WorldSkills is a global skills competition for young people held every two years. This year, the 41^st WorldSkills, was hosted by the UK at the ExCel Centre in London. Young people, usually 22 or under, from across the globe who have proven their skills at local/regional level to be selected for their national team compete to become the best. This year there were over 1000 competitors from 55 countries/regions competing in 46 vocational skills. Categories include health, agriculture, engineering, manufacturing, construction, IT and communications, arts, publishing etc. (http://www.worldskillslondon2011.com). The event is aimed at young people, with careers advice and have-a-go activities to get secondary school students to consider skills-based careers.

The Heritage Lottery Fund had a big stand which they shared with like-minded organisations, including the Heritage Crafts Association. Our banners were up for the whole event but I was only there for a day. Alongside the HLF and the HCA there was the National Trust, the Heritage Skills Initiative and the National Heritage Training Group. There were also some great demonstrations and hands-on activities.

I was next to Matt Williams, the MasterThatcher from BBC’s MasterCrafts, who was thatching a roof and giving anyone who wanted a go the chance to bend some spars and fix the thatch in place. Unfortunately for the obvious health and safety reasons, nobody was allowed to have a go with the big billhook he was using! One of the amazing things was the number of people who asked what he was doing and didn’t know what thatch was – surprising if you’ve grown up in the countryside, but perhaps not so surprising if you’ve grown up in inner city London.

On my other side were some trainees from the National Trust’s Passport to your Future' Training Programme (http://yourfutureyourhands.org.uk) in conservation and collections. Their stand had lots of interesting information, but everyone went straight for the jars of bugs (towards the left of the photo) – examples of the pests that conservators are constantly battling against.

Another hands-on activity was the chance to help put up a timber-framed building – and then take it down again.

And further down the stand was a chance to have a go at pole-lathe turning. I was feeling pretty cold after a few hours at the stand, and was assured that a few minutes on the pole-lathe would have me warmed up so I had a go. It requires a lot of rhythm and control to pump the pedal and move the chisel evenly – I think it will take me quite a while to reach Robin’s standard! But I definitely felt a bit toastier afterwards.

We had a visit from John Hayes, the Skills Minister, and Jenny Abramsky from the Heritage Lottery Fund and even Tommy Walsh from Ground Force.

I’m not sure how many people I managed to convince to consider a career in heritage crafts, but hopefully the whole event got thousands of teenagers excited about skills and maybe, just maybe, they’ll become our future craft apprentices.

research company wanted for Heritage Craft Research

2011-10-02T09:21:00.001+01:00

We are delighted to announce that after several years advocacy work Government through the BIS office of John Hayes have agreed funding for a major piece of research into the state of heritage craft skills.

The tender document with all details of the proposed research "Mapping the occupations, skills and economic contribution of the heritage craft sector" is available for download as a PDF here or from the CCSkils website The timeframe is tight with deadline for tender applications just 3 weeks away 17th October.

This will be the first time serious research has been undertaken mapping the whole of the heritage craft sector and it should give us very good information on the current state, which crafts are healthy, which are endangered and which have potential for growth. Once we have that data then we can set about addressing the issues raised.