Day 1 Woodcraft Weekend: Spoon Carving – 2 places left

This course is for anyone who wishes to be able to carve a wooden spoon from start to finish and is ideal for complete beginners and those who have recently started spoon carving but wish to improve technique.

This practical workshop will encompass everything in theory and practice that you need to create your spoon. The course is more than learning to carve a spoon, it’s a chance to reconnect with the outdoors and switch off from all of life’s little stresses.

A list of topics covered in the course includes:-

• Wood sources, types and forms for spoon carving.

• Tools, their care and use

• Cutting and splitting wood.

• Safe axe use and safe knife cutting techniques.

• Using a carving axe to reduce the wood into a spoon blank.

• Spoon design.

• Refining the spoon blank into something resembling a spoon.

• Shaping the bowl.

• Discussions about, drying and finishes.

• And, if time permits maybe start another spoon or even try a spatula.

All tools and materials will be provided.

Tutor: Neil Hopkins of Forge Ways is the tutor for your green woodworking courses.

Neil moved to the Dyfi Valley in 2007 near Machynlleth to work as a Renewable Engineering Project Manager and to live a more sustainable way of life on a smallholding, nestled in the foothills of the Cambrian Mountains. He has a passion for traditional skills and low impact ways of living, combined with a wealth of experience instructing in the outdoors. Neil has diverse qualifications and experience of arboriculture and green woodworking. He can often be found amongst the mountains as a member of his local mountain rescue team.

He has developed his skills using traditional methods and hand tools such as shave horse, pole lathe, froe, axe, crook knife and creates both beautiful and practical items from wood gathered locally.

Neil delivers courses with a calm competency, enabling students to learn skills in a relaxed learning environment that is both mindful and along permaculture principles.