As promised, I am writing about the Northern Bowl meet that I attended two weeks ago. It’s an annual three-day weekend event close to Durham city, held on a smallholding co-operative called Abundant Earth. You can buy day tickets or one for the whole weekend and there is space available for tents and small campers. Various courses are run by individuals which you pay extra for. The theme is green wood bowl making and skills associated with it. Some of the courses were bowl turning on a pole lathe; bowl carving with axe and gouge; blacksmithing to make tools for turning and knives; spoon carving; chip carving and more. I arrived the afternoon before the event and set up my micro camper. A beautiful warm sunny day that wouldn’t last long. I was one of the first campers but that would change the next day and the site was crammed.
It was my first long camping trip in the van and it was all off grid. A chance to test my resources and get to know the van better. It was a clear cold night and I felt it. Note to self – buy a better sleeping bag. I woke early and as usual needed the loo. There were two long-drop compost toilets (the little sheds behind the van). The first one looked the poshest – uh uh. There was a hole in the floor over a pit which you were meant to squat over. Not possible with my achy old bones, I was praying the other one had a seat and fortunately it did. Phew, panic over.
I’d booked a half day course with a lovely young lady called Nadine. We were shown how to make a wooden case sheath to hold the blade of special knives. Mine was to be a challenge as she had not made this type before, it was a spoon shaped carving gouge. The box is made up of a base with a shape carved out for the blade and a lid which pivots to close it and then locked in place with a pin. I then had the option to carve a relief design on the lid. We ran out of time to totally finish it so I did some work back home to include painting the leaf carving.
If you had booked a course you were entitled to a lovely home cooked meal in the evening. I was aware that everyone was carrying hand made bowls for their food and that my plastic white and pink flowery one in the camper just wouldn’t look the part. There was a small shop where demonstrators could display their products for sale so I invested in a lovely one made by a guy from Israel made from loquat wood. It’s a tree originating in the far east with fruit similar to a medlar.
These were some of the products for sale. The bottom right one is the one I bought.
There was a communal fire under a huge tarp where folks could sit, drink and at times make music. An opportunity to chat and make a few new friends.
Saturday morning arrived after a rainy night which continued wet on and off through the day. I had a full day booked with Nadine again to hand carve a bowl. It was a long and exhausting day on my arthritic bones. The bowl didn’t quite get finished again, it’s a big challenge to complete one in the time given. I have done more work on it since but I am now waiting for it to dry to finish it off. It has to be done slowly or it might split. This is it roughly finished at the end of the day but it will look tons better in a few weeks. The wood is cherry. Nadine was a great tutor and a lovely person too.
Sunday and the weather was good again. I had a short course booked in the morning – chip carving. It’s a method of taking small (usually triangular) pieces of wood out with a small sharp knife to create decorative patterns. We were given a sample piece of lime wood with various patterns drawn on to practice. At first looked impossibly difficult to do neatly but by the end I felt reasonably competent. A new skill and an enjoyable one.
It was a great weekend and I’ll leave you with a few random images.
