Winter Newsletter: February 2010

Monty Don’s Mastercrafts on "green wood crafts" was shown on 12th February and was apparently watched by about 2.7 million viewers. For the BBC to devote an hour of prime-time TV to green wood crafts was quite astonishing. Most of the other crafts covered by the series; thatching, blacksmithing, and so on, are relatively well known but, for the last hundred years, we have all been led to believe that wood has to be seasoned before it can be used. Now the secret is out - wood can be worked straight from the tree.
 
You may be among the many who watched the programme and have tracked down this website. Some of you may even have booked one or more places on our courses - just about enough, in fact, to fill most of our courses for the whole of 2010. Abbott’s Living Wood Ltd is a tiny operation consisting of Mike (very kindly described as "the country’s leading green wood expert"), Tamsin (a talented artist, who also runs her own flourishing stained glass business www.tamsinsglass.co.uk) and a loose collection of friends and assistants, who offer their skills as and when needed.
 
We have never before received such an influx of bookings in one go. As a result, we have decided to stop taking any more course bookings for a few weeks until the dust has settled and we know exactly where we are. Some people have purchased vouchers for courses, which still have to be redeemed, so we have to keep some places for them. We will undoubtedly receive a few cancellations, freeing up some places on courses that currently look full.
 
If you are still keen to come on a green wood course with us, please send us an e-mail saying whether you would like a 3, 6 or 9 day course (the main difference between "Chairmaking" or "Green Woodwork and Chairs" is that the latter covers a wider range of options as well as making chairs. Most people manage to make a good chair within 6-days on our courses). In mid-March, we will reply to you to inform you if we have any suitable course places available. In the meantime we suggest that you look up www.bodgers.org.uk (yes, it’s not a joke) and quickly try to find other members who run a course that might suit your desires.
 
We also suggest you buy a copy of our book Living Wood - from buying a Woodland to making a Chair, written by Mike and illustrated by Tamsin. This is the book used by Guy Mallinson on Mastercrafts in teaching his students the fine arts of making green wood chairs. It normally costs £16.95 but signed copies are currently available from us for £15 including free p&p. You also might try Alison Ospina’s recent book entitled Green Wood Chairs, also £16.95, which we hope to stock ourselves soon. You might also like to subscribe to Living Woods Magazine which will have a 10 page feature on Mastercrafts in the Mar/Apr issue and a follow up in the May/Jun issue (special offer of 3 issues for £5 instead of £3.75 for one, tel 01285 850481 or 01778 392493). There are also some very useful videos if you search around on You Tube starting with "green wood work".
 
We are working frantically to complete our new book, which will update you on some of the exciting developments that have taken place over the last decade in the world of green wood. The title is still not finalised but we hope to launch it at the 5th World Pole-lathe Championships to be held at the biennial Forest Machinery Exhibition, (also known as the APF Show) to be held at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire from 23rd to 25th September. Put those dates in your diary now. If you are interested in wood, from large-scale forestry to whittling a spoon, then do come along.
 
Back to replying to course bookings and finishing off the new book.
 
Best wishes for the rest of the year,
 
Mike