Each year, the Coppice Association North West runs a weekend of traditional craft workshops aimed at both beginners and improvers. Workshops are led by experienced, professional tutors and run from 10am ‘til 4pm each day. Some workshops carry a small, additional charge for materials, payable to the tutors at the start of the course.
*Please help us to promote this event with your family, friends and colleagues to make WITW a continued, annual successful event – down load promotional flyers HERE
Slab seated Stick Chairs with Jo Clayton
Make your own unique traditional stick chair using Hazel or Birch wood.
Jo will take you through the process and stages of stick chair making. How to select suitable materials, considerations when designing your chair, the making of mortice and tenon joints, selection and safe use of tools.
Material charge of £10—£15
Kuksas and carved bowls with Tim Davis
Tim will guide you through all the stages needed to create your very own drinking or eating vessel from sustainably sourced greenwood.
Using traditional hand tools; Axe, Adze, gouges, knives and good old fashioned ingenuity Tim will endeavour to show you how a traditional approach to woodworking can exceed your expectations. Be at one with the wood in the woods.
Materials cost £10.
Forging a Viking Knife with matty Whittaker
On this two day course you will be taken through the entire process of making a full tang knife.
On the first day, using a charcoal powered hearth and reclaimed metal, in the form of old files, you will forge the rough shape of the knife. Grinding and filing with foot powered grinders and files will be followed by the hardening and tempering of the blade.
Day two will continue with getting an edge on the knife and then a handle will be made, shaped and fitted.
At least one knife will be fully finished and if time allows more blades can be forged to take away and finish.
Matt has been blacksmithing and teaching for twenty years and loves making his tools from recycled metals including old files and carsprings. All tools, materials and safety gear will be provided.
Carved Signs and Lettering with Geoff Whitely
Spend time with carver Geoff Whitely to learn to carve exquisite lettering and signage. Geoff will guide you to create a beautiful sign for your house or anything you have in mind. Rest assured you will have a piece you will be proud of to take home at the end of the weekend.
Materials charge: approx £10 – £15
Willow Sculptures with Helen Elvin
Come and make an animal sculpture out of willow. It can be any 4 legged animal and Helen will demonstrate a deer, but if you have a picture in your mind (or bring a picture with you) then it can be adapted to suit. There are a number of basic skills to learn, then its down to your own creativity. All willow will be provided but there is an additional cost for the willow max £10 per person.
You will be working at ground level so you might want to bring something to kneel on. If you have your own secateurs great, but some will be provided if needed.
Oak Bench with Jack Holden.
Make a live-edge bench to last a lifetime.
First Select and hand tool a beautiful local hardwood benchtop of your choice, learning how to work with the grain and make features of character in the wood. Next cleave and handshape legs with axes and drawknives before fitting to complete your own unique bench for the garden or home.
Materials cost £40
Rush weaving with Bill Oakes & Jen Molyneux
Saturday will start with making a small item and learning the weaves that you will use to make a hat or bag starting in the afternoon and finishing it on Sunday. Some of the weaves are similar to those used in willow basket making, although the rush is a very different material to use. Unless you are making something flat, rush needs to be used around a former or mould because it will not support itself initially. The bag will be made around a block of polystyrene and the hat on a mannikin head altered to be the same size as your head. You will each be given a small bundle of rush which is yours to use and look after over the weekend.
Material charge £10
‘Boxes with Bling ‘ with Adrian Lloyd
Over the course of the weekend we’ll take a journey through a massive range of traditional carved and applied decorative techniques whilst working on a number of guided but largely self-directed small projects.
Adrian will steer you towards some rather funky, traditionally Scandinavian inspired tool boxes, cases and covers for some of your own carving tools. He’ll also make sure he’s got some brand-new Mora blades with me (that he will have already put a hollow grind on) as some of you may choose to carve personalised handles – and then you’ll burn the blade in and make a sheath for it. The blades won’t be free mind you! Adrian may look at business card boxes, decorated coat hooks and all sorts of other fancy stuff – including hand carved wooden locking mechanisms, wooden hinges and hinge pins and maybe even sliding dovetails. And there will be painting too…
There will be a small materials charge to cover the cost of wood and consumables – plus extra for those wanting to do knives.
*Please help us to promote this event with your family, friends and colleagues to make WITW a continued, annual successful event – down load promotional flyers HERE