Yesterday we went out to the woods in West Sussex for a day to learn how to carve a spoon. It was the best day! I had seen on Oh Someday... that she had been to a Miscellaneous Adventures workshop and we pretty much instantly booked our places on their first workshop of this year!
Miscellaneous Adventures is run by a truly inspiring couple Andrew (an illustrator) and Emma (an embroiderer) who live local to the woodlands they host the workshop in. We came away extremely jealous of their lifestyle!
The workshop started off with Andrew taking us around a small part of the forest to show how to identify a couple of trees. Also learning the health and safety of all the tools we will be using that day. There was even a herd of deer that flew past us!
We practiced using an axe to make the kindling for our fire to get us started, and then we moved on to carving our spoons. Andrew took us through step by step showing how to go from a piece of Silver Birch to a spoon ready for use!
Emma supplied us with endless amounts of coffee or tea, all with a slice of homemade cake! We definitely needed those boosts, I've never used an axe before so wasn't aware of how much energy we were going to be using. Sounds silly now!
My spoon! We finished the day with a cup of ale around the campfire and a chat about our day. It really was a great experience and we learnt so much. We came home all inspired from a day out in the country full of fresh air. We definitely recommend it!
Labels: craft, forest, handmade, wood
