Mallinson Ltd - woodwork courses in Dorset. Perfect short breaks for everyone.

All year round, it's great to work in the woods, either under canvas or out in the open. For the last few weeks we've been particularly enjoying the wonderful summer weather - the shade of the trees has made for a pleasantly cool time and some glorious dappled light. To make the picture even more idyllic, as the last course was finishing one student managed to fish five trout out of the river that's running by there. (The rest of us were drinking wine at the time and comparing our finished bowls.) Come and join us!

August Events

What with summer holidays (for us and everyone else) and two demonstration events, we decided to not hold any courses in August. However, if you are around and about in Dorset towards the end of the month, do drop in and see us: -

On Thursday August 24th, I will be demonstrating bowl carving at the Melplash show in Bridport. For more details and to buy tickets online, the show web site is www.melplashshow.co.uk. (An adult ticket is just £10.00.)

On the following Saturday (26th) and Sunday (27th), we are opening as part of the Bridport Open Studios Weekend. This free event will include me (!) demonstrating bowl carving in the woods (the course location) here are Mangerton House and also my wife, Boo, who will be opening her studio at the house to the public for the first time and exhibiting her contemporary paintings, inspired by the Dorset landscape. As part of the same event there are numerous other local craftsmen and artists in the area opening their studios to the public over the three days of the Bank Holiday, so do come along and find out more about us all - we'll be delighted to meet you. There's a lot more information, along with full directions to all venues, available at the event web site:

www.bridportopenstudios.co.uk.

Discount Accommodation

As visitors to our web site will already know, our links page includes several local hotels and B&Bs, all suitable for anyone coming down for a course. Included there is the Bridge House Hotel and we're very pleased to be able to announce that they are now offering a 20% discount to anyone attending a Mallinson course. (Jo, the manager, recently came on a bowl carving course herself, having had a lifelong ambition to carve her own wooden bowl.) More details are on the main site.

Things For Cooks and Gardeners

If you fancy a couple of days making various small items for cooks and gardeners, learning about Pole Lathe Turning and using a Shaving Horse, relaxing and generally enjoying yourself in the woods in Dorset, come down for one of our new Pole Lathe Turning courses.

As well as preparing for the demonstration events, we're also busily building a set of pole lathes and shaving horses for the first of these, to be held on September 14th-15th and which I'm teaching with Mace Brightwater. There are still a couple of places available on this one but do book a place soon: as always, numbers are strictly limited, not least because I'm only making ten lathes!

And I think that's about it for this month. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll see you at a demonstration or on a course soon.

Guy and the team