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Top Details Dates Costs Tutor Stories Untitled Untitled The art of leather carving, tooling & swivel knife finesse See course details, dates, costs, tutors & stories from students below COURSE DETAILS BOOK NOW If you have ever looked at a cowboy's saddle, his saddle bags, or the band on his hat, you will have noticed the artwork and wondered how this intricate work is done. Over two days with Mike Reid from Handcrafted Leather , you will discover processes of carving and tooling designs onto everyday items, from purses to belts, coasters, notebook or diary covers, or even your own saddle bags. You will learn how to prepare you r leather, to design and layout your pattern, and to use and maintain your carving and stamping tools. You will carve a set range of samples from western floral inspired designs to geometric layouts, learning how to enhance and finish your design to make it last a lifetime. This course is for people with previous leatherwork experience as you will leave with tooled components which you will need to glue, stitch and finish at home . ​ Tools and materials will be supplied for the weekend, with option to purchase the tools at the end of the course for an extra cost. DATES BOOK NOW ​ ​ ​ ​ 2024 dates yet to be confirmed ​ ​ ​ To see tutor Mike Reid at work, watch our short film made by ITV Wales - Coast & Country here COSTS BOOK NOW £250 - Tuition fees plus approx £40 for materials (N.B. some previous leatherwork experience is necessary) Tea, coffee and simple lunch included in your course price We also offer accommodation & evening meals ​ Click here to see what we offer ​ This course is aimed at adults, aged 18yrs + and is suitable for beginners to those with experience YOUR TUTOR BOOK NOW Mike Reid owns and runs Handcrafted Leather , a small, award winning, professionally run leathercraft business with a worldwide customer base. Mike is largely self taught with a brief mentorship in Ruthin. He began his trade by buying old leather jackets & restitching them into new things, using simply a nail as an awl & a sharpened fork as a pricking iron to make even stitching holes. ​ Seven years into his journey now, bespoke artwork on leather is the mainstay of the business. From belts, wallets, hip flasks and luggage tags to custom motorcycle seats, plaques and murals, the enthusiasm for this craft grows with every new piece . ​ Working mostly to commission with customers from California to New Zealand & everywhere in between, Mike is looking forward to hosting classes with the hope of enthusing others to pick up the awl and thread, to create and to support British owned suppliers that help to keep this rewarding & fascinating craft alive. Stories from our students Thank you so much for this weekend I had a really lovely time and learned so much. - Sue ​ ..... ​ ..... ​ Details Dates Costs Tutor Stories Upcoming Dates No upcoming events at the moment Join the waiting list or express interest in future courses N.B. If you cannot see the Book Now section, scroll up to Upcoming Dates If a course is full, please join the waiting list as we will contact you in case of any cancellation ... it does happen! or If you would like to attend a course but can't make it on the available date, you can register interest in future dates. Join the waiting list Register interest in future dates

Top Details Dates Costs Tutors Stories Untitled Make a greenwood bed See course details, dates, costs, tutors & stories from students below COURSE DETAILS BOOK NOW Over four days, Rob Hill will help you make a greenwood bed that you will look forward to climbing into every night. ​ Provided with pre-halved greenwood ash, you will clamp it into a shave horse and remove the outer layers of bark with a draw knife or spoke shave to reveal beautiful pale wood which will run the length and breadth of your bed. You will then make the head and foot of your bed from smaller branches of your tree. Having made all your components, you will construct the frame using mortise and tenon joints, ready to finally peg together in your bedroom... essentially this bed is an elegant flat pack design that you can easily transport home. ​ According to Google, the average person spends 26 years in bed ...so why not make it a beautiful one... DATES BOOK NOW ​ 12-15 September 2024 ​ ​ ​ ​ COSTS BOOK NOW £675 - tuition fees plus £50-£150 for materials depending on the dimensions of the bed you make! ​ Tea, coffee and simple lunch inclu ded in your course price We also offer accommodation & evening meals Click here to see what we offer ​ This course is aimed at adults, aged 18yrs + and is suitable for beginners to those with experience YOUR TUTOR BOOK NOW Rob Hill is one of the founders of Wernog Wood and has single handedly built the workshops, the cosy Red Shed, the stunning ash bed within it and almost every other structure you will see when you get here. We highly recommend you book your course nights in the Red Shed to try out the comfy bed he made especially for this woodland cabin.. As a mechanic and builder, Rob is fascinated by how things work and how they are made. He loves the challenge of creating the unusual and Wernog Wood is the perfect opportunity to renovate old buildings and to build quirky new structures. Stories from our students Thank you so so much Rob. Never thought in a million years I'd be able to make something like this! All down to some excellent tuition and support. If anyone is thinking about having a go, I'd say go for it!! - Hannah ... ​ ​ ​ ​ ... ​ ​ ​ ​ Details Dates Costs Tutors Stories Upcoming Dates Thu, 12 Sept Greenwood bed making - September 2024 / Wernog Wood Book Now 12 Sept 2024, 09:00 – 15 Sept 2024, 17:00 Make a bed you will look forward to climbing into every night using greenwood ash Join the waiting list or express interest in future courses N.B. If you cannot see the Book Now section, scroll up to Upcoming Dates If a course is full, please join the waiting list as we will contact you in case of any cancellation ... it does happen! or If you would like to attend a course but can't make it on the available date, you can register interest in future dates. Join the waiting list Register interest in future dates

Top Details Dates Costs Tutor Stories Untitled Dyeing wool with plants See course details, dates, costs, tutors & stories from students below COURSE DETAILS BOOK NOW On this single day course with Liz Benson, you will learn to dye wool using flowers, roots and tree bark, each of which can release a range of beautiful soft colours . ​ You will learn how to develop different plant colourings, discover the magic of mordants and alter colours by modifying the pH of water. You will also experiment with over-dyeing, which is the process of infusing one colour on top of another. You will go home with about 240g of wool in 20g skeins with colours that compliment each other, perfect for a Fairisle or stripy knitting project. ​ Wernog Wood has an abundance of wildflowers, plants and trees from which you you can forage, or welcome to plants from your own garden. DATES BOOK NOW ​ ​ ​ 5 October 2024 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ COSTS BOOK NOW £120 - Tuition fees (plus £25 wool and mordants) Tea, coffee and simple lunch included in your course price We also offer accommodation & evening meals ​ Click here to see what we offer ​ This course is aimed at adults, aged 18yrs + and is suitable for beginners to those with experience YOUR TUTOR BOOK NOW Liz Benson began working with textiles at a very young age when she became a junior member of the Clwyd Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. She is also knitter and tends to have a pair of socks on the go at all times. ​ Liz is passionate about using British wool, preferably from small scale regenerative farms. Some of her yarn is handspun, others she buys undyed from local suppliers. She then dyes the wool using a range of plants that are either grown in her garden or foraged from the surrounding village. ​ She loves the fact that you can take something that would normally be destined for the compost heap, like onion skins, and instead use it to create colour . Details Costs Dates Tutor Stories from our students Stories We ran this course in 2023 but didn't manage to extort any student reviews... but students went home with a wide variety of stunning coloured wool .... ​ ​ ...... ​ ​ Upcoming Dates Sat, 05 Oct Natural wool dyeing - October 2024 / Wernog Wood Book Now 05 Oct 2024, 09:00 – 17:00 Dyeing wool with plants Join the waiting list or express interest in future courses N.B. If you cannot see the Book Now section, scroll up to Upcoming Dates If a course is full, please join the waiting list as we will contact you in case of any cancellation ... it does happen! or If you would like to attend a course but can't make it on the available date, you can register interest in future dates. Join the waiting list Register interest in future dates

Speaking to Ben recently he tells us that alongside his regular commitments teaching chairmaking and other green woodworking skills, he has been working on some fun commissions in recent weeks. His highlights include a pair of bar stools out of some fabulous black ash he helped harvest a few years back; black ash is a species usually found in North America, but somehow a specimen had found its way to a back garden in West London, and Ben was fortunate to be able to get his hands on some in payment for helping mill it up after it succumbed to disease. It's spectacular stuff and the pieces he's been working on recently are no exception! You can see his beautiful work on @benwilliswoodcraft Ben feels honoured to have been invited to work with the design firm Martin Hulbert Design to produce two pieces for the 'Wow House 2023' exhibition due to be held in Chelsea Harbour in June. This high-profile design expo features a purpose-built showhouse containing 17 full-size rooms, each created by a leading design practice. He'll be contributing two of his Welsh stick chairs for the room created by MHD, who he has been working with over the past couple of years. Ben is looking forward to coming back up to Wernog Wood for his annual summer visit, especially to seeing the results of the new additional course he will be teaching here this year. The first course Ben will teach is offers a choice of making live-edge benches or stools… and the second of his popular greenwood chairmaking week that we have been running since the early days of Wernog Wood. If you would like to venture into the completely additive world of greenwood working, check out https://www.wernogwood.co.uk/wood His live edge table, bench and stool making course is on 14-16th July and is perfect for complete beginners. His greenwood chair making course starts just a day later on 17th July and runs to 21st or 22nd July depending on whether you would like to make a side chair (with no arms) or an arm chair. You will need some previous experience to make an armchair but if you fancy full immersion, why not come and make a stool first!

David has managed to achieve that happy balance of bringing his previous experience and creative passions together into his daily work. He shares this through his stunning Instagram feed @thewhittlings During photography courses in Wernog Wood, we hear David encourage students to tell a story through a small selection of images - literally a well curated snapshot of their day. As we scroll through David’s Instagram photo grid, we see a year in nature described, season by season alongside the work that he is focusing on at that time. Last year David set himself the challenge of carving a unique spoon every week, often focusing on different purposes and cultures, each spoon broadening his skills as a whittler. He sets himself similar projects making platters and bowls. This year David is focusing on expanding his workshop into a bigger space, allowing growth into contemporary stool and bench design. Starting out his creative career in design and landscape photography, David’s work took him in the direction of culinary photography for high-end restaurants. As part of this role, he began making props from old wood sourced in Wales, which caught the eye of chefs, who then asked for more. David now makes his daily crust doing exactly that; making wooden platters, bowls and cutlery for some of the best restaurants around the country. Luckily for you, David is willing to share these skills in Wernog Wood, offering photography in nature as well as spoon carving courses. His next photography course is just a couple of weeks away on 18th May, focusing on water and woodlands followed by another on 13 October exploring the Clwydian hills with your camera. Click here for photography details Our first spoon carving course is a weekend of whittling a Welsh cawl spoon and a contemporary love spoon on 1-2 July, and the second is one day on 4th November. Click here for spoon carving details

This week we visited Tess in her Surrey based workshop, and found her part way through an enormous commission. This tropical table top is so big that she is making it in three parts to make it more manageable. Only when each panel is complete will she stitch the final glass pieces into the design to link each panel together. Tess is not only a mosaicist, but a jeweller and print maker, having begun her jewellery journey in Wernog Wood with @claireacworthjewellery. Building upon her previous printmaking experience, she also learnt a thing or two about lino relief printing with @bronteadamdesign, also in Wernog Wood. @tesswilliamsdesigns is busy preparing for a Surrey Open Studio event in June where she will be exhibiting her work. If you are in the area, we highly recommend that you go visit her see https://surreyopenstudios.org.uk/artist/tess-williams-designs/ … … and she does all of this in between her consultancy work in the humanitarian field, now mainly delivering personal safety and security training for those travelling to hostile environments. Tess recognises the very significant value of taking time out of a stressful work lifeto fully immerse herself into her craft… we fully agree and can’t think of a better way to reboot. Tess will be teaching mosaic here in Wernog Wood on 8-9 July, with a theme of house plaques similar to this one she made for Wernog Wood. The two day course is £240 inclusive of lunch and materials. See details here

Request a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to suit you. We will confirm whether this day suits your tutor Claire, and approve your booking. N.B. The check out process will ask you to 'PAY LATER'. You will be asked to pay once we have confirmed availability of your chosen date. Get in touch via the 'contact us' page if these days of the week do not suit you, or if you would like to do more than one consecutive day. Claire will get in touch to make a plan with you.

Request any Tuesday listed as available on the calendar. We will confirm whether this day suits your tutor Rob, and approve your booking. N.B. The check out process will ask you to 'PAY LATER'. You will be asked to pay once we have confirmed availability of your chosen date. If Tuesdays do not suit, get in touch via our 'contact us' page. Your tutor Rob will get in touch to make a plan with you.

These full day classes (9am-5pm) for people who have previously attended a full day 1:1 or group course with Claire Acworth in Wernog Wood. Would you like join a regular group of jewellers, with flexibility to come as and when you like, to work on your own project with tuition whenever you need it? You will pay for silver and stones as you use them. With a maximum of three other jewellers, welcome to join Claire on a Tuesday. Initially classes will be the first of the month with exception of May which will the second Tuesday, but may add more sessions depending on numbers of students who sign up. Unlike our 40 day cancellation policy for our other courses, you will be able to reschedule your chosen dates up to a week before your class. Please note that we will provide tea, coffee biscuits, but you will need to bring your own lunch. The following different payment packages are available: 4 sessions to be redeemed in 12 months - benefits include (£115 value): ~10% less than our formal course fee ~ free *bench space for one day (untutored use of the workshop) ~ free 'handmade by you in Wernog Wood' t-shirt 6 sessions to be redeemed in 12 months - benefits include (£185 value): ~ 10% less than our formal course fee ~ free *bench space for two days (untutored use of the workshop) ~ free 'handmade by you in Wernog Wood' - t-shirt or hoodie *N.B. Bench space is normally charged at £30 per day - welcome to request additional days These costs include VAT. Please contact us if you need a VAT receipt.