WOODCRAFT

Furniture making is our first love, but we like to use wood in many ways.

COPPICE WOOD

We coppice hazel, willow and ash. Our hazel stools are huge and ancient, providing useful wood for structures in the vegetable garden such as raised pumpkin beds and compost containers. In time, the timber is recycled through the wood burner. 

The willow is used in much the same way. We have some very old “standard” pollards and a range of decorative willow varieties planted for basketwork.

Ash grows prodigiously in our part of Gloucestershire and there are many old stools dotted around the farm. Our ash coppice makes excellent tool handles, either turned on the lathe or fashioned with spokeshaves. 

SCULPTURE

Sometimes we make sculpture, whose sole purpose is to give pleasure because it is beautiful. Unlike furniture, which must almost always serve some practical purpose, sculpture can simply be itself. 

Whether this is art or craft is a not a consideration. The workshop does not change into a studio because sculpture and not furniture is being made that day. However, the intention behind the work is different.

TURNERY

Using our trusty Arundel and Startrite lathes, we turn out useful goods, such as tool handles, lamp stands and candlesticks. Some we sell; others are given as gifts.The materials we use come almost exclusively from our home-grown timbers: ash, oak, elm, holly and maple. It is a wonderful thing to put our own converted stock and skills to practical purpose with such simple machines.