World of Bushcraft Seasonal Wreath Workshop

And so the sixth trip out of six to the World of Bushcraft Centre in Bedford had arrived and constituted my last organised outing of both 2016 and indeed my sabbatical (which is taking a bit of getting my head around). As  I arrived and saw evidence of pre workshop activity.

There was a hive of behind the scenes activity with a meeting of several instructors happening, Christmas orders being sorted and then I turned up to pin Joseph down for two hours. We had a quick chat and  this included a lot  of Scout talk as we are both leaders, then he ran through knife safety; he felt a bit silly doing so as I am competant with one but credit to him for sticking to his guns and covering that base anyway. I did say that an individual could give the impression of competancy on social media and be a total liabilty in the flesh so had no problem listening.

We then looked at the previously steam bent Hazel lengths that I saw on the way in, discussed the bending technique and how one should look, and indeed could look with the risk of elbows (angles) forming.

And then over to the homemade steamer to retrieve another Hazel length

Annnd a quick dash to the stump to start working it. I expected wood that had been subjected to steam to be hot but it actually surprised me just how hot the wood was. It certainly made it very biddable though.

We then trimmed and tied off the Hazel to form the frame's shape after tapering both ends to fit snugly together.

And then it was onto systematically loading the foliage onto the frame. In a way it was similar to the  Coil basketry workshop in that once the initial prep was done it was doing the same stuff repeatedly, starting with the base foliage which in this case was Leylandii. It's not really a fault but I think that sometimes I'm a bit  too precise and  methodical with some projects   (the Willow basketry workshop springs to mind too) and I spent too long laying down the base foliage. 

I decided to spend the remaining time that I had placing the fancier greenery roughly in place and then finishing it off at home, especially as we were losing the light. I'm pleased to say that Joe did make a decent amount of tea for us (for a change!) and we scoffed some Diam bars that I'd brought with me. 

 

As I got ready to depart I briefly saw Jason Ingamells to say 'Hello' to as he moved between meetings and Joe presented me with a gift voucher to book another weekday workshop in recognition of my regular visits during 2016, a nice touch indeed.

After a bit of shaping trimming tying and the addition of some Mistletoe I purchased from Waitrose I now have a fulsome and colourful seasonal wreath loaded with Pagan symbolism!

Suggested further reading:-

Kuksa Workshop

Map reading workshop

Coil Basketry Workshop

Willow Basketry Workshop

Net Making Workshop

Bushcraft and Scouting

World Of Bushcraft Map & Compass

Reading maps has always been something that I thought I was OK at, a base skill set with no frills. I decided to the best way to double check this was to enrol on a World of Bushcraft map and compass workshop. 

It was primarily led by chief instructor Adam with Joe being mentored/ chipping in. So fellow attendee Derek and I started off with some map and then compass basics and we went on to several other areas and I managed to get a magnetic variation question answered that has bugged me for years. Now I mounted my camera on a tripod and used the time lapse mode to capture a few images but it is quite a static thing to take images of, y'know four individuals talking about cartographic documents and kit: Chaps with maps if you will but they give  a flavour.

We went through theory for around three quarters of the session which was handy because whilst I knew some stuff there was a lot of handy information that came my way to fill some gaps too. Here we had done a quick exercise orientating the map and finding a certain point (I don't want to say what it is in a spoiler alert type of way). Straight after this we did some bearing work too which was useful because I don't ever do this during walks etc so it was useful to get a little hands on practice.

We worked out our paces over a given distance for using pacemaker beads (which again I'd never done before). Just before we did it Adam said to try and just do normal steps because, quite rightly, if an individual did unnatural goosesteps or little steps in high heels it wouldn't calibrate them properly for actually using them for real. We tried out a paced walk of several hundred metres and I was pleased to get it spot on although it could have been beginners luck.

And once we'd reached our end point Adam worked out the bearing as a cross reference to show how to double check that we had reached our intended goal.

 

We retired back to the centre for another brew (the reason why Joe is missing from one of the shots) and a little more map talk before calling it a day. Arguably map reading is like, say, first aid in that it's perhaps not as sexy as something like fire by friction or shelter building but despite the fact that I don't really do map reading that often I'm really glad that I went to polish up on the old skills.

;lgun

The World of Bushcraft

I got badly lost the last time I left the Woodland Ways' World of Bushcraft centre in Bedford. If you want the A1(M) you need to initially follow the M1 road sign to ultimately get to the A603 to Sandy and therefore the A1(M). The road off the roundabout on the A603 (which leads to the Barkers Lane turning) is marked as the A5140 on internet maps, but look for the (A428) to Cambridge sign.

Once you are near you'll see signs for the Premier Inn, turn into the car park and park up. You'll see a wall with another parking area accessed through a small opening, it's in here that you'll find the World of Bushcraft.



Anyway, I recently visited the centre again to see Jason Ingamells for a 1-2-1 bushcraft session and whilst there I asked Kevan Palmer if it was OK to take some pictures for my blog. I thought rather than add it to the 1-2-1 blog entry I'd do it as a largely pic heavy extra.

It has moved around since I was last there in that the display/ demo area is now in the far corner and separate from the impressive library/ study area. The thing that I like about the layout is that whilst it is kit heavy, it's well laid out and doesn't look rammed or cluttered like other establishments I could mention.

As well as seeing Jason there for the tuition, Kevan Palmer was also there, along with Jo as it was stocktake time and it was good to have a chat with all of them..as well as multiple petting sessions with the boss Quercus of course!

Towards the library/ study area and Maasai display/ The Maasai display..

Towards the book section/ A view from within the clothing section of the display/ area..

A shot looking at part of the clothing section and sleeping/ tarp stuff/ Water leading onto their new range of Dutch ovens (I was taken by the Dutchies, the new ones look like a solid piece of kit with the lids having little 'legs' to make it perform well as a skillet). 

Flasks, leading onto the shiny sharps bit.

The pictures I've taken are by no means exhaustive when it comes to  the full range and I would encourage a visit, or failing that a look at the website. Don't forget that the centre also does a large (and indeed recently expanded) list of tutoring sessions on a Wednesday afternoon. If you wanted to make more of a day of it, you are right next to the Priory lake too.