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 Coil Basketry Workshop

The World of Bushcraft (the WOB) is just under an hour away for me and is ideal for me to bet to and do their Wednesday workshops, the biggest problem has been that I've booked as much stuff as I could on my sabbatical that I often found myself unable to attend them as I had something else on. So credit to the WOB as I asked if they were doing coil, willow basketry and net making before Christmas and they laid them on on Wednesdays I could make.

I was to do the session with Joe who is doing a lot of the workshops these days and he said that the coil basketry one is a small amount of instruction and a lot of practice, and it turned out to be the case.

First off, a talk about different styles, uses, materials and stitching patterns.

The demonstration piece is some natural fibre rope and paracord, an Early Learning Centre starter as I called it as it's clear and easy for the beginners to see.

 

So from the stitching at the very start to a stitched and recognisible coil.

A few laughs along the way...

 

And then it was onto starting my natural fibre coil. Joe had harvested some Sedge and Cat Tail and I chose the former with Raffia as the cordage. And once I was up and running the rest of the session really was just working away at the basket and chatting, oh and getting a cut off the Sedge!

It is rather therapeutic making a coil basket and this close up shows that it is rather time consuming which as it's a simple basket design I'd have expected it to be a bit quicker. You live and learn.

As you can see I've made inroads and tilted the work to show the sides slowly forming, but I have a little more work left to finish it off. I've come home with some extra Sedge and made sure that I know how to finish it off which in keeping with the simplistic design is easy. Ding ding round two at the WOB centre next week for a bit more basketry, but with Willow.

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.