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Where?
Courses and volunteer days are held at Bore Place, near Sevenoaks, Kent (www.commonwork.org) - an environmental and educational charity on a 500 acre organic dairy farm, set in beautiful low weald countryside. Converted farm buildings and a Jacobean Manor House offer accommodation if required, with walks and local pubs to enjoy when you’re not wooding!
What to bring?
Bring a packed lunch. Hot drinks are available. On cold days, dress in warm, comfortable clothes. At all times wear sturdy shoes or boots. Tools and materials will be provided. Please bring along any interesting tools!
Booking Form
Click here for the booking form (this will open Microsoft Word). If you have any problems with the booking form, please contact me, and I will send you a printed version.
What is Green Wood?
Green Wood is freshly felled, still sappy wood. To work it requires a set of simple techniques based on an understanding of how wood reacts - both to the tools, and to the dry and shrinking process. Because it is green, the wood is soft and easy to work with hand tools, and because of this, green woodwork creates little waste, and can utilise small trees and logs. It is therefore green in all senses of the word - especially as at Bore Place the trees are felled as part of ongoing woodland restoration and sustainable management. Our courses and volunteer days are about learning woodcraft and helping with the conservation of Bore Place.
Courses by Arrangement
All the courses below are also available to groups and can be structured to your needs on dates to suit you. Please contact me to discuss your requirements.
The Green Wood Courses
►4 Day Green Wood Workshop: 27-30 June 08; 19-22 June 09 £160 per person
(some materials cost extra)
with John Waller
A flexible 4 days in which you could build a pole lathe and/or shaving horse; have a go at garden seats; use the pole lathe to turn a four-legged stool with woven willow or sea-grass seat; or produce a range of smaller items. Sussex gate hurdles, rakes and besoms, carved spoons and bowls are all possibilities. picture 2008 course is now full.
(*there is an extra charge of £60 for pole lathe materials)
►Charcoal Making: 20 Sep 2008 £40 per person
with John Shepherd
Use small, round wood that is only good for burning to make your own high quality charcoal. Small-scale production in oil drums teaches the theory for larger scale production. A walk in the woods completes the day before taking away your bag of charcoal!
►Rustic Chairs 4-8 Oct 2008 £180pp (some materials cost extra)
with John Waller
Use naturally curved wood “in the round” to make a unique “stick” chair. Use hazel, sweet chestnut, ash & oak for durability and elegant design. Seats can be designed to your requirements.
►Chair Making 4-11 Oct 2008 £320pp (some materials cost extra)
with John Waller
The chair-from-a-log course! The ultimate green wood course. Make a splendid solid seat or woven seat chair. Use the axe, shaving horse and pole lathe to turn components for a frame or Windsor chair of your own design. Steam bending, jointing, seat hollowing are all covered. Indulge yourself! picture
►Tools: 25 October 2008 £40 per person
with John Waller
Get to grips with sharpening!! The day will be spent restoring old and damaged tools (feel free to bring one or two of your own!), especially “edge” tools. We’ll also cover re-handling and handle making.
►Hedge Laying: 15-16 November 2008 £110 per person
with John Waller
The traditional craft of hedge laying was the best method to stock-proof a field before wire came along! Its continued use to manage field boundaries is testament to its advantages over a simple fence, and to its wildlife and landscape value. Compare laying to other hedge management techniques and spend the weekend pleaching, staking and binding to help restore a hedge.
►Willow Christmas Decorations: 14 Dec 2008 10am - 2pm adults £20, children £10
with John Waller
Make your own decorations, including reindeers and stars for the tree and willow wreaths. Hot soup lunch included. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
►Baskets and Willow Husbandry:
31 Jan - 1 Feb 2009 £95 per person; 30 Jan pm £25 per person; 26-27 Sep 2009 £95 per person
with John Waller
Baskets have been around for millennia, but making a functional and beautiful vessel from a heap of damp sticks and some basic tools remains as rewarding as ever. This course provides a chance to learn basketry using tried and tested techniques and five or size English willow basketry weaves. Book onto the afternoon course in January and find out how to grow willow, harvest it, sort and dry it….picture
►Living Willow Seats: 21 Feb 2009 £60 per person
with John Waller
Create a living willow seat for your garden, to your own design. Weave a hood, arms and back support, and have a living herb seat, or oak slab seat. Be sure to have somewhere to plant it though! Finished seats are approx 6’ high x 20” diameter, and you’ll need to be able to get them home! picture
►Living Willow Structures: 22 Feb 2009 £55 per person
with John Waller
Creating a large living willow structure uses a range of techniques to encourage rods to grow well; to graft together and maintain the shape of the structure. We’ll cover techniques for living fences, arches, domes and tunnels, and discuss more themed designs.... picture
►Hurdles and Gates: 7-8 Mar 2009 £120 per person
with John Waller
Choose to make woven wattle hurdles or Sussex gate hurdles....or one of each! The wattles use split hazel and willow rods woven around zales (uprights) to form a fence panel. The gate hurdles are ash or sweet chestnut poles, which are split, shaved, morticed, then braced & nailed to form the finished gate. picture
►Stock Fencing and How to Erect It: 14 March 2009 £45 per person
with John Shepherd
A practical course covering the construction of traditional post and wire stock fencing. Find out what wood to use for posts, considerations when choosing stock netting, how to dig-in strainers and corner posts, how to handle, join, run-out and tension wire.
►Coppice Products Workshop: 28-29 March 2009 £85 per person
with John Shepherd and Peter Jameson
Make use of small coppice poles and rods; make charcoal, rakes and besom brooms after coppicing some hazel and looking at coppice woodland management.
►Woven Willow Garden Structures: 4 April 2009 £60 per person
with John Waller
A day to make functional, beautiful garden structures. Obelisks, sweet pea frames, mini-hurdles, ‘sunflower’ plant supports... learn some strong, reliable weaves to shape your structures. picture
►Introduction to Keeping Chickens and Bees: 18 April 2009 £40 per person
with John Shepherd
Use a little time and space to reap the tasty rewards!
►Green Woodwork Day: 09 May 2009 £40 per person
with John Waller
A great introduction to Green Woodwork. Have a go on a pole-lathe and shaving horse, make a mallet in the woods. Find out about work with, not against, the wood.
►Introduction to Keeping Pigs and Cows: 16 May 2009 £40 per person
with John Shepherd
Keeping cottage pigs and a house cow – how to become a smallholder!
►Trug Making: 6-7 June 2009 £95 per person
with Alan Sage
A durable, lightweight, strong garden carrier. The design of the trug has been around for many years and now you can make your own. Cleave and shave chestnut handles and rims and willow slats. Steam bend them to shape and nail them home.
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