Search Results

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

For those of you that we have never met, we are Rob & Claire, the partnership behind Wernog Wood. Throughout May we will tell you more about our tutors and what they get up to when they are not teaching. We have just one course this month on 18th May, landscape photography taught by David White from @thewhittlings, as @claireacworthjewellery is away doing jewellery shows and Rob is making the most of a quieter time with building projects… and most excitingly the foundations of our long anticipated home. To tell you a little more, Wernog Wood is a culmination of our combined skills and all the things we like doing. As a brief snapshot, we both grew up on small family farms and, although neither of us became farmers, we love life in the countryside. 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. This year Rob will be teaching a greenwood bed making course, and we are also planning an introduction to welding course in which you will make a fire pit. Having studied furniture and product design, Claire spent 25 years working in orthopaedics and supporting the wider needs of disabled people in both UK and Africa. Feeling the pull back towards a more creative life, she followed her dream of becoming a jeweller and now works with customers to design one-off pieces, often incorporating elements from a customer’s old jewellery. Jewellery making is just one of many courses we offer in Wernog Wood. Although we have both dabbled in making all kinds of other things, we are no experts! Instead we will find tutors who are masters of their craft, who are willing to share their skills with you, giving you the satisfaction of making something you will be immensely proud of. The types of courses we offer depend on your interests, so just let us know. We hope that you will benefit from the things we enjoy... beautiful countryside, a quirky adventure and the satisfaction of making things by hand.

Over the past week @claireacworthjewellery has spent three really enjoyable days of teaching. This peridot spinning ring was made by one of her students who would like to develop her stone setting skills. https://www.wernogwood.co.uk/jewellery-making

Lovely feedback from our recent “Water & Woodlands photography course with David White. “It was paced just right for me and I re-learnt a lot about camera settings. Also the tuition on Adobe light room really opened my eyes to what can be achieved with some good editing. David White is an excellent tutor. It has inspired me to to get out there and take more pictures, which I will make time to do.” - Chris. If you would like to join the next course in October, click here

Introducing you today to another tutor and an entirely new craft in Wernog Wood. Sami Blackford is the founder of award-winning botanical skincare company, Freyaluna. An alchemist, apothecary, writer, and mentor, Sami created Freyaluna in 2013 and handcrafts her pioneering range of natural skincare from a studio nestled in the North Wales countryside. After battling with acne for many years and unsuccessfully trying every product on the market, Sami made the decision to start researching skincare in her mid 20s. Immersing herself in the world of natural and holistic skincare and wellness, she used her knowledge to begin creating skincare products that would actually care for her skin. Freyaluna skincare products aren't grown in a lab, they're grown in the meadows, hedgerows, and woodlands of rural North Wales. Growing up in this landscape taught Sami the value and magic properties of plants, nature, and living a gentle life in tune with the seasons of the year and the seasons of life. Sami will be teaching two courses here this year, ‘Beauty of botanicals’ on 2-3 July during which you will formulate and distill your own natural skincare products and ‘Traditional soap making’ on 23 October during which you will use natural ingredients & cold-process methods. To find out more, check out https://www.wernogwood.co.uk/beauty-of-botanics

We would like to welcome Jack Ritson to our team of tutors this year. Jack will be teaching two four-day cleft oak gate making courses in Wernog Wood this year. Jack began his woodland management and greenwood journey as an apprentice in Devon, and now runs @rivenoakdesign from Westonbirt Arboretum where he is part of a long term coppice restoration project. He specialises is cleft oak products such as swing seats, garden furniture and benches, hurdles, fences and of course, gates! Managing our own woodland here in Wernog Wood is also important. In the war effort much of the woodland here was felled and consequently replanted with oak which is now overdue for thinning. It is very gratifying to be able to transform this timber into durable and beautiful gates, enabling you to learn the traditions of the craft. If you would like to make a gate to be proud of, Jack will be here on 17-20 June or 6-9 August to share his knowledge about gate making. You will be making something more like the top photo than the bottom… no more than 4ft wide!! #axe #drawknife #heritagecraft #learningsomethingnew #course #woodlandmanagement #craftsmanship #cleftoak #cleftoakgate #gardengate #fromthewoodsbythehands #greenwoodworking #handmade #handmadeinwales #inthewoods #northwales #objectsofuse #ruthin #woodengate #woodlandcraft #woodworking #oak #workshop #handmadegate #woodengate #greenwood #greenwoodworking #traditionalcraft

Four sculptures emerged from limestone blocks this weekend, carved by our hardworking students as they removed stone with scutches and bouchards, chisels, rifflers and rasps. This first sculpture was based on a first century Celtic double faced head, the second a shapely pear, the third a textured abstract and the fourth inspired by linocut printed by the student herself. We would like to say a huge thank you to @andrewworthingtonart for a fabulous weekend of tuition… it was so good that we have just added dates for another weekend of stone carving on 1-2 October 2022.

Designs are emerging from these Maltese limestone blocks as our students are chipping away in the sunshine with @andrewworthingtonart #wernogwood #heritage #heritage #heritagecrafts #stonecarving #carving #handcrafted #handmade #madeinwales #creative #handmadewithlove #malteselimestone #crafting #craftingcommunity #sculpture #sculptor #sculpting #reliefcarving #stonemasonry #craftcourses #craftweekend #craft #visitwales #trysomethingnew #art #scutch #bouchard #chisel #rasp #riffler#mallet

Our students learned Scandinavian inspired spoon carving skills. Thanks David White from @thewhittlings for a very enjoyable couple of days. . Watch this space for new dates later in the year.

Our spoon carving students are enjoying the arrival of spring in Wernog Wood. Today is the first of two relaxing days of whittling with with their tutor David White from @thewhittlings Working in birch, they got to grips with the grain of their wood by making a spatula… they have now started on their first spoon.