Whittling at the Woodmill

Our 9th meeting took place at the Woodmill studios in connection with the Heat Haze outdoor sound seminars. We had the pleasure to whittle while listening to Mark Pilkington's talk on 'Western occult tradition, told through British popular music' & the evening ended with a screening of William Eggelston´s film ´Stranded in Canton´.

Note plaster

Little horse on pillow by Ksenia

Multi-tailed cat by Jana

soft object by some visitors

A young boy called Liam dropped by the Woodmill and did some whittling while on his way home. Staying out way longer than he really should, he figured he could appease his mothers rage by whittling her this heart.

Cat by Little Jack

Jack´s finished spoon.

Paper Birch

There is a street in north London lined with Paper birch trees. The thin bark is peeling of the trunks in crisp layers and if you get hold of a piece you can pull it right of in the size of a page. The bark can be separated into extremely thin, but still durable and flexible sheets, a quality that explains why it was frequently used as an early writing material. There has been hundreds of old Birch bark letters uncovered around the Novgorod area in Russia. Some of them date back as early as the 11th century. The famous mathematical Bakhshali manuscript was also written on birch bark and is believed to be from somewhere between 200 BC - 300 AD. It might be one of the earliest documents to use the concept of zero (0).

Soviet knives

These knives were made by my grandfather a long time ago in Ukraine during the scarce days of the USSR. It was very hard to get hold of a lot of things so my granddad made these in the factory where he worked from some scrap. Pretty nice job with proper rivets and so on.

Trent Park

A couple of us decided to take a trip out to a forest to try some green wood whittling. During the seasoning (drying) process (which may take some years for large logs), wood loses around 40% of its mass as water leaves the fibres, leaving the wood stable and unlikely to crack or warp too much when it is finally used. Before this has occurred, the wood is called green. Green wood is usually much softer and is frequently used for carving smaller or disposable objects where stability over time is not important.

We settled on Trent Park in North London and as we arrived and started to make our way through the oak-woods we decided to penetrate the forest beyond the designated paths. Our explorative spirit brought us to crawling through dense vegetation of fern and nettles for ten minutes before we gave up and made our way back to the trails.

Most of the fallen wood in the forest was in a semi-disintegrated state and so totally unsuitable for whittling but were on the other hand a perfect growing ground for mushrooms. We were instantly mesmerized by the fungi life-form and abandoned our search for wood in favor of the bizarre and diverse species of mushrooms.

We came across a great many different types. Slimy, dry, miniature and some that looked like an exploded alien. The most useful mushroom for a whittler is probably the birch bracket (also known as razor strop fungus) which - sliced and dried - can be used to get a really fine edge when honing of a knife.

Characteristic spongy cap of the bolete family of mushrooms

As we strolled out of the woodlands and onto the open fields, we came across a dislocated limb from an oak-tree that Jack cut up with the foldable saw. The wood was very damp and quite hard, but we still managed to carve some odd spoons.

On the way home, we drove past the 1930s Piccadilly Line extension's beautiful stations at Southgate, Oakwood, etc., built in a kind of English garden city-Bauhaus-Stijl, geometric fundaments and elegant window frames.

Wood frame

My sisters wooden frame glasses. Think they are made by some Japanese designer.

Some Show

This is some images from the first BTWC show a couple of months ago. More can be checked out on our flikr page shortly.

Bird by Alex

This fantastic wood-suit was made by Urara and the accompanying cat hat is made by Anna.

Different woods on display and Lyle´s head

Knives and an ulu in the center made by Mark from a cross-cut of a railway track, ebony, and copper pins.

Study for whittlings by Shelly

A close-up of whittling by Adam C

Beer-God by Brian

The BTWC zine, poster, and a copy of serpent-box used by religious snake handlers in USA. Serpents were made for the box as a part of our show program.

Jack held a talk on the mathematical basis of the patterns found in plywood.

Homer plaque by Jack

Freak in a cage by Jana

A small display about John Dillinger, the infamous criminal who managed to escape from prison using a secretly carved wooden gun.