The Wildwood is still giving up its secrets, albeit slowly. Exploration started rather late due to a wet spring but continued well into the autumn with each carefully dug and recorded trench revealing a little more of life from prehistory to the medieval period.
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Mystery of the Moor—4000 years of woodturning
A Bronze Age burial chamber was discovered on Dartmoor, with the remains of a woman, and four lathe-turned ear studs. So began an archaeological experiment.
Mary Rose — making a sailor’s boxwood hair comb
I recently visited the new Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth. What a fantastic job they have done. I was so taken by the sailor’s boxwood hair combs that it was straight to the workshop to make a couple of examples.
Wildwood flowers
May, The long awaited spring warmth has been very slow to materialise but the Wildwood is now populated with a variety of specialist Chiltern woodland plants and flowers, some areas are completely transformed.
Stuart King on Time Team, Alan Titchmarsh Show, and Great Railway Journeys
Is TV showing more interest in traditional crafts?, Stuart King appeared on Time Team, the Alan Titchmarsh Show, and Great Railway Journeys.
Drover’s Road
In my village of Holmer Green we have a number of old track ways that through history, from time to time would have been used for droving animals, particularly sheep.
Stuart wins Strictly Woodturning
Attended by 170 guests, delegates and turners, Axminster Tool Centre hosted the Strictly Woodturning event. Similar to the BBC’s popular Strictly Come Dancing, this was a competition in which the 12 turners competed against each other at the lathe and were tasked with producing items such as a vase, goblet and lidded box in an incredibly short eight minutes.
History of Marquetry (with Glossary)
The history of marquetry, from Homer in 700 BC to marquetry in England and France in the 18th Century. Plus a handy glossary.
History of the Lathe: part one – reciprocal motion
All lathes by their very nature rely on a revolving work piece. To capture and impart this motion, to devise and create the required force has challenged mans ingenuity back into pre-history. Man has been using the momentum provided by a spinning weight for tens of thousands of years in the form of drop spindles […]