Weekend Away

the entrance gate with our tent

approx 5 bell tents and 4 tipis .....

We've had a marvellous weekend away at Spoonfest. Utterly brilliant time had by all. I hoped to watch and listen and enjoy the atmosphere (which I did) but I even got to carve most of a spoon.

Arare sighting of me not holding Little Man, getting to carve instead!

Little Man showing off his T-shirt

The girls made new friends and loved that the village playground was within the Spoonfest site, happily finding us when hungry- occasionally!

DH was able to watch and listen, but didn't manage to get into a queue in time to sign up for a workshop when he tried.

Sunday's workshop sign up queue

engraving workshop- I daren't try that with my track record for injuries!



 Wonderful free demonstrations and talks were fascinating for us grown ups, and of course tons of lovely wood, lots of space to work and chat and share ideas with others. So many circles of carving, chatting people all over was wonderful to watch and occasionally be part of.

Mr 'Flying Shavings' Richard Law working away

It was really great to chat with other greenwood people we've met over the years, and meet new people- all happy to talk 'wood' for more than 5 minutes. Coming back to 'real life' its so sad how folk tend to glaze over, and on a practical level seeing kids hanging around on the streets- I've been itching to spend 10 minutes getting them doing something more productive with a knife and peice of wood.

someone to talk spoons and home ed with- it doesn't get much better than this!

I didn't get to partake much as Little Man was happy in the sling on my front, or feeding all weekend :) Of couse I could have put him on my back out of the way, but the small amount of sleep I get didn't have me feeling terribly safe with sharp tools- so I didn't want to risk an injury and spoil things.
We managed our evening meal on Saturday at the 'bring and burn' communal bbq- with the girls staying up terribly late but we got to enjoy ourselves. Have I worn out the word fabulous yet?

There were plenty of people doing workshops (only £10 for 1.5 hrs with an expert in a small group) and free demonstrations. I missed the Friday evening talk by Jogge Sundqvist, but DH recorded the audio for me (he had slides so it doesn't quite make up for it!). I did get to see most of his Sat am demo,

 Mike Abbott's lumberhorse demo, half of Sean Hellman's sharpening demo, and part of Martin Hazel's talk Sunday morning about the possible patron saint of spoon carvers. Little Man was rather loud when he had needs to be met, so I couldn't just stay and feed him- I had to scoot off so everyone else could still hear. Jared Stonedahl had come from the US and was doing workshops and a demonstration on making knife sheaths with bark and roots- fabulous! We were even able to buy one of his spoons :)

 An osteopath Terence McSweeney did an abreviated demo on ergonomic work (he had a workshop going I wish I could have attended) which was amazing. I hope he'll repeat it next year!

Terence McSweeney's demo

 In my work we're warned about working 'safely' but noone has explained to me which fingers provided  the 'power' for a grip, I just knew we use 'fine motor' muscles to provide too much pressure. Anyway, his brief explanation on how to use an axe not only will help me axe without hurting my muscles, but hopefully help me scan without damaging myself much more also. I want to know more about osteopaths now! DH noticed how many of the professional woodworkers managed to be around for his free demo and were listening very carefully.

pre-spoonfest- Fritiof's course did the first pass-along spoon carving- 10 individual spoon made by teamwork

The gallery of work was far too intimidating for us to add to- the idea was everyone is included but the contributions I saw were all of a very high standard. I am inspired to improve my spoons!
There was also an exhibition of an extensive spoon collection- utterly amazing. I suppose the only enhancement I wish for is just a little more information about the spoon collection/various spoons on display- some had numbers on which intrigued me, but I didn't find out what they meant.

Spoon Club

The weekend finished up with Spoon Club- everyone working in teams to make spoons- 5 minutes each then passing it on to the left... we weren't able to stay to the end but it looked something amazing to be part of.

It was a wonderful experience just getting to Spoonfest with Little Man being so new. I'm amazed at how much we were able to get out from it- and really enjoyed meeting new people and chatting 'spoons'. Hmmm, though this means next year will probably be even harder with a 13 month old...

someone found a good place for a hammock overnight! not so great when the kids start playing early, I imagine....