2011 Woodfestwales Post II

My creative workspace

 

In a field or a tent I sometimes shudder because rain, grass and people damage fine workmanship. Twenty stroking hands on a newly finished pintail duck can cause irreparable damage to weeks of hand work. Master decoy carver Gerry Sanger creates texture to his feathers in the paint surface and not the carved wood surface. It’s different and quite lovely I think.

 

 

It’s another sphere of creativity and at the Woodfest I see many such spheres in which friends work temporarily away from their workshops to share their skills and earn their income. You don’t see many people buying more than food. I think it a sad thing that we will spend £8 pounds on a takeaway curry and leave a £20 handwoven basket on the table thinking it too expensive.

How willing they all are to share their skill and working knowledge with those asking of them. See the woodcarver shows his gouge and knife to a stranger and his son. He’s sharing his skill, passing it on, planting seeds of hope for a future you see. He, like me and others who form this guild of mentoring craftsmen and women, doesn’t want his skill to remain with him alone you see.