Tree House Build Day 1

The day after the workshop: I got back from an unexpected few days away, to find 8 carpentry ‘stools’ stacked in the back garden. The workshop had taken place the day before and this had been the scene in my studio:

It had become a carpentry workshop: for the first time in 30 years or more, since the days when woodworkers Roger Frood, Jon Swayne and David Beech inhabited it one after the other. This time it was Jim Blackburn, long time associate and one time resident of the Dove, with the first of his inspirational workshops, and 8 keen participants ranging in age from 12 – ??. After the introduction to woodwork in the studio the class moved into the garden, measuring, cutting, fixing….

Joe demonstrates a new way of steadying the wood

Bethan and Rosa

Marcel

Jim and Clare

Jya and Zan

Rosa

Lunch – thanks, Ali!

Clare and Ange marking up

Brilliantly, the first person to twig that the pile of ‘practice’ pieces mounting up beside him was going to become a trestle, or stool, was the youngest: Zan!

And so the trestles took shape at the end of an exhausting but demonstrably inspirational day, awaiting their usefulness for the rest of the project. Thank you Jim, so much.

 

• Carpentry workshops
• Dove Tree House
• Jim Blackburn