Steve Tomlin Crafts

I have been invited teach a spoon carving course in Dalbeattie on 25 & 26 May 2013. With my recent trip to Sweden I’m full of ideas and inspiration on spoon carving and really enjoying my own carving as well as the recent teaching I’ve been doing. Whatever level you’re at, I can offer exercises and advice to stretch you and progress your carving. Hope to see you there.

The two-day workshop is offered at the special price of £100.
Only  6 places - call Gavin on 01556 611380 or gavin.phillips@virgin.net

To read about previous courses visit stevetomlincrafts.wordpress.com/courses

Spend the weekend with professional spooncarver Steve Tomlin and learn the techniques of carving with axe and knives on this fun and inspiring workshop.

All tools & materials supplied

You will learn

·         How to select wood for carving spoons

·         Splitting blanks from branches and larger timber

·         Using an axe for fast, efficient carving

·         the 5 most important knife carving techniques

·         Hollowing the bowl with a hooked knife

·         Safe methods of working

The focus on this course is building skills so that you take home much more than just your completed spoon. You will learn a set of skills which are the foundation of any greenwood working and will enable you to go on carving on your own.

Steve Tomlin has been a professional greenwood worker for 10 years and is an internationally respected carver. In 2013 he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship in recognition of his skills and spent 4 weeks working one-to-one with master spoon carver Fritiof Runhall in Sweden. As well as selling and demonstrating his craft at shows around the country, Steve has taught dozens of people how to carve on his lively and engaging courses.

Spoon carving is an engaging pastime which is accessible to all, requiring only a small toolkit and easily-found materials. It makes an ideal introduction to woodworking for beginners while the design elements and particular skills will engage more experienced woodworkers.

The two-day workshop is offered at the special price of £100.
Only  6 places - call Gavin on 01556 611380 or gavin.phillips@virgin.net

I arrived back from Sweden last thursday and was straight off to the Woodland Skills Centre in North Wales to teach a spoon carving course for the weekend.

They were a lovely bunch of folk and it’s always a pleasure to teach a group who are so keen to learn. As always we focused on developing and practising the different carving techniques using the axe and knives and made small projects along the way to the spoon carving on sunday.  My skills with my left hand have been improving over the last year which came in useful for demonstrating as both Justin and Simon were working left-handed. It’s much easier for beginners to see and understand how the grips are used when it’s presented in the same orientation that they’re using.

Sunday afternoon is my favourite part when the group teaching ends and everyone has time to work on their own spoons. The silence was deafening as they all concentrated on the work and I kept an eye on things, offering advice or reminding them of a technique as required. We also looked at various sharpening equipment and methods specific to spoon carving tools.

Everyone did a great job and went home very proud of their new spoon.