Shrink pot and bowl azde day.

Having watched Jon Warwicker adzing bowls at events for a number of years we decided he finally pretty much got the hang of it, so we strong armed him into leading an adzing workshop.

Previous workshops had many of the team make leather sandbags, and even adzes (from old hammer heads), so we we itching to give it a try.

The workshop was held at in Johns garage, and as the forecast was for heavy freezing rain all day it was probably a wise choice.

 

We selected our blanks (half logs) and John explained how to start (making a round(ish) hole in the bark side, we then carefully expanded the hole to be more oval in shape, and a little deeper (but not THAT deep), this kept everyone quiet for a few hours chipping away, and testing different adzes.  The way the maker does the grind on these makes a huge difference!

Meanwhile the shrink pot team were busy hollowing out their selected logs, and Amy arrived and started making a hazel stool ready for next month's seat weaving.  In the warmth of Keith's van Carol and Lynn were busy crocheting and felting.  Burbage special veggie soup was served for lunch

 

Next we had to axe out the bottom/back of the bowl, so the base was marked out, and axing commenced.  This is good practice for Bowl turning, as it's a similar process.

Team shrink-pot were now cutting the grooves in their pot bottoms John Burbage finished off an order for a tall stool.

Out of nowhere cakes appeared, thank you Carol!

 

Now we had the basic shapes roughed out we got stuck into more detailed fine tuning, we had a range of designs, from very rustic, to the pretty impressive.

The Shrink pot team were now fitting bases, and in at least one case a nice lid.

Damian made a shrink bucket from a the trunk of an old cherry tree.

 

By the end of the day we had a fair collection of bowls created, all now slowly drying out.  I doubt John will have much competition in the bowl making/selling department, but I could be wrong