One of my most popular Youtube videos is one in which I explain how to play rolls on the fiddle. Rolls are a form of ornamentation on the Irish fiddle. This video, currently has about 6000 views, which isn’t masses for a Youtube video. But it is quite a lot for a 20 minute tutorial …
I’m staying in Norway with my folks-in-law. I’ve finished all the leather pieces that I brought with me, and so I’m carving some spoons from a birch log. I haven’t brought any carving tools, but my partner’s father, Alf, used to make knives when he was younger, and many of his knives are still around …
It seems cruel now that I come to write it down. I mean, I rely on Jules most of the time; I have done for a long time; and I know that I can take him for granted. We all do. I guess when he’s around he’s pretty welcome, and he sure knows how to …
A while ago I was kindly given some planks from a Cedar of Lebanon tree in Kent. This very old tree had come down many years ago in a storm, and had been milled and the seasoned planks had been gathering dust. They were thick enough and long enough for canoe paddles, so I decided …
Here is an incomplete, but hopefully useful, photo walkthrough of a simple round basket. Creating the slath with 8 sticks. In the close up you can see the first thin ends inserted to start pairing around the slath. This is after a few rounds of pairing. You can certainly get a tighter base than …
My favourite recent spoon, a small round bowled spoon in cherry. The shape wasn’t planned until I split the small piece (only just large enough for this spoon) and saw the slight wave in the grain towards one end. The handle follows and slightly exaggerates the curve. I still have the other half, so it …
I’ve been carving some more spoons recently, mostly from some small pieces of wild cherry too small to do anything with but burn, given to me by a farmer. This first picture shows the blank after roughing out with the axe and knife. Then shaping the profile and the bowl with sloyd …
It’s useful practice to try and copy other spoons directly. This first one is copied from a Norwegian sugar spoon, probably in birch. My roughed out blank, also birch, is at the back. And this is the final version. Then I tried to copy a coffee scoop given to me as a present. I’ve …
I’ve been leading on one strand of the Stories of Change project under the title – finally settled upon – of Energy Generation. The idea behind this work was to gather interviews with experts in the energy sector, but to avoid traditional academic interviews. Instead, we teamed up with the a team of young people …
Bradon Smith is a Research Associate at The Open University and the University of Bath, with interests in the representation of climate change in contemporary literature. His doctoral research looked at contemporary popular science writing and representations of science in contemporary British fiction and drama. From 2007-2010 he co-convened the Cultures of Climate Change research …