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

As regular readers will know, this newsletter is the place where we release new dates, new courses and special offers. Subscribing means you will always be the first to know. This month there are two new courses - one for children and one for adults - and some new dates for existing courses too. In between newsletters, don't forget that you can also keep up to date with what we're up to via Facebook, Twitter and our blog.

Little Blog

Talking of blogs, we're very pleased to be getting a lot of good feedback about our blog - thank you. We've now been entered into the Dorset Cereals 'Little Blog Awards', so if you have a moment do please vote for us and tell all your friends to vote too! You can do so here.

It's not all about us though - voters are in with a chance to win a case of lovely Dorset cereals!

New Dates

The bookings are still coming in thick and fast, with quite a few courses now full. As a result we have released some new dates throughout the year. Rather than repeat them all here, the Dates, Prices And Buying page lists them all.

Inevitably, the courses that were featured on Mastercrafts have had more interest than the ones that were not - so don't forget to look at our full range if you're not already familiar with them - there's something for almost everybody!

New Courses

And amongst the 'everybody' we try to provide a course for, I'm delighted to say we can now include spoon carvers and fairies. (Yes, you did read that correctly.)

Ben Orford is coming to teach a two-day spoon carving course here in the Woodland Workshop, June 14-15th. Ben is a very well respected and experienced teacher and green woodworker who also makes beautiful hand-made tools. We are often asked about spoon carving and I am very pleased that such a well respected spoon carver has agreed to come and share his knowledge and skills - it should be a fun and informative couple of days.

The other new course is being led by my friend Mo Hammick (a.k.a. 'Fairy Mo') who'll be running a new children's day called 'Away With The Fairies'.

As it sounds, this is all about imagination and play in the woods. It may not have a lot to do with traditional crafts but from the trials we have been running it is simply great to see the joy on the children's faces as they build fairy and elf houses from found woodland materials. I must stress that this is not just for girls! My boys - or elves as they were then - have all enjoyed making imaginary houses in our garden for years and I am sure this is going to be a very popular day. We are starting with two dates: Saturday 19th June and Saturday 18th September. It's for children aged 5+ and an accompanying adult of any age.

Sorry to disappoint, but I can assure everyone that I'll not be dressing up for this course despite the apparent enthusiasm for the idea in some quarters!

The Last In The Series

The 19th March saw the last programme in the Mastercrafts series, which featured stone masonry. I find it particularly interesting to explore the common ground between stone carving and working in wood, as we've had - and will have - several stone carvers coming on our bowl and totem pole carving courses.

There is a lot of talk about a DVD of the series and we'll let you know as soon as we're clear about what is happening on this front.

On Show

Mastercrafts winner Tom Vaughan came back to the Woodland Workshop on the 26th February to deliver his fantastic and now fully finished rocking chair to Forde Abbey. What a triumph! It looks really stunning.

Tom, of course, is showing the signs of a true craftsman and immediately pointed out a few minor imperfections that irritate him still - a great sign that he really has bought into the idea of it having to be perfect. Frankly, with the relatively little training he and the others received, and the huge time pressure of the final task during the show, it's a miracle that it was finished at all. Working with no sleep and a camera over your shoulder is not all that conducive to the level of focus and perfection that I know Tom is easily capable of either.

It already seems like a long time ago that Mike Abbott awarded Tom the accolade of winner of 'our' episode of Mastercrafts and it was with great pride that we were shown into the Great Hall of Forde Abbey where Tom's chair will be placed on a pedestal for all to see. I would like to thank Alice and Julian Kennard of Forde Abbey for offering to display Tom's chair for this coming season, for their 50,000+visitors to admire. I strongly recommend a visit too!

Tom has provided more information about the project which you can read here.

In The Press

I'm very grateful for all the recent press mentions we've been favoured with, including Craft and Design, the Bridport News and Great Days Out.

The relatively new magazine Living Woods also provided extensive coverage and it was good to see Mastercrafts competitor Sarah on the cover. The 'Mastercrafts' issue contains lots of the photos that Sarah's fellow competitor Charlie Hooper took, and we've been using them on our website and in our literature too. We're very grateful to Charlie for his time and effort, and his generosity in allowing us to use them.

By the way, Living Woods is available on subscription only and - in my view - well worth the price! There's more information here, and there are excerpts from all these publications on our In The News page.

On Show (Two)

Away from Mastercrafts, I'll be showing my Wishbone Stool at the Millinery works exhibition '21st Century Furniture, the Arts and Crafts Legacy', 30th March-25th April. There will be several other contemporary furniture designers there, including John Makepeace, Martin Grierson and the Barnsley Workshop. Well worth a visit if you are interested in contemporary craftsmanship.

http://www.millineryworks.co.uk

Hot And Cold Running

Meanwhile, down in the woods, the new camping pitches in the woodland workshop are all level and seeded and once everything has grown back will be ready to go.

The (luxury!) loos have been in action for some time now, which just leaves the shower to finish off before guests start camping this year.

The sculptural willow walls that we made for our old woodland workshop at Mangerton House attracted many positive comments, and it was with this in mind that I decided to make a woven willow shower here at Higher Holditch Farm. We started by heading off to Malcolm Seal's to harvest some of his pollarded willow and enjoyed a beautiful spring day cutting the pollards and some poles for the structure.

We have now finished the main structure (although we do need to address quite how see through it still is) and the next stage is to fit the shower itself and some reclaimed flagstone floor, as well as an oak floor in the undercover section. I can't wait to have my first hot shower in the woods, looking up at the trees and hopefully in the rain!

In time the poles should take root (like the main workshop poles) and create a lovely leafy open shower for all our staying guests to enjoy. There's ample room for two in there but I probably shouldn't encourage that!

Book To Eat

In amongst everything else, we've also being doing a fair bit on the website - updating the Mastercrafts page and revising and refreshing our links pages, which now include a new section on local restaurants that need to be booked-up!

What I have in mind is someone coming down for a course, having a great few days with us and looking to top the holiday/mini-break with a meal to remember one evening as well. We are very lucky to have a number of exceptional places to eat in the area, including the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster, the Mark Hix Oyster and Fish House in Lyme and the Wild Garlic restaurant in Beaminster which is run by Mat Follas - the winner of Masterchef. I'm keen on them all (!), but they are as popular as you might imagine, and so do need to be booked first. Details are on the links page.

In The Studio

Past guests have often enjoyed seeing my wife Boo's paintings and studio when down here on courses. We have recently finished building Boo's new studio at home and hope that future guests will enjoy seeing her work in a more professional environment.

For anyone planning to visit Bath, Boo has a new show running at Bath Fine Art from the 27th March to the 11th April. Links and some more details can be found on her website here, along with a gallery of paintings.

Tool Of The Month

I'm often asked why I like the tools I use and sell, so I thought I'd try a new 'Tool Of The Month' feature!

First up is the Silky Pocket Knife. I've chosen this for this month because it really is very handy - the razor sharp taper ground blade is excellent for small jobs in and around the woods and workshop, and there always seems to be a lot to do at this time of year particularly. I also find it has an especially comfortable handle.

As always, you can buy tools - including the Silky Pocket knife - from our online shop.

*****

That's it for this month. As always, thanks for reading. I'll try not to have so much to say next time!

Guy and the team

Tree of the Month: Ash

(Carolyn has been away this month and so I thought I'd repeat an older entry for Tree of the Month, from three years ago.)

In March we see the full flowering of spring. Animals - and humans - rouse themselves after the long, dark winter, spring flowers are everywhere, and evenings are becoming noticeably lighter. March 21st is the Spring Equinox, where day and night are of equal length. In the rush of spring is the promise of summer, as clocks spring forward into British Summertime on the 25th.

The Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, is the tree of the Spring Equinox, perhaps because in many ancient traditions it is a tree associated with enlightenment and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. In Scandinavian mythology, Odin hung himself upside down from an ash tree in order to gain enlightenment. This was Yggdrasil, the World Tree, which linked the gods, the earth and the underworld.

At a time when we are poised at the point of balance between the dark and inward-looking months of winter and the light and growth of a new spring, Ash represents a balance between our rational and intuitive selves. In Celtic mythology, Ash was known as the tree of enchantment, a powerful tool linking the three circles of existence that are past, present and future to the Celtic understanding of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

In the woodland Ash is a pioneer tree, seeding so thickly from its many seeds or keys that it is sometimes viewed as a weed, but in fact it is a useful, fast-growing hardwood tree that can make up to six feet of growth in a season; furthermore, faster grown Ash makes stronger timber. The wood is tough, flexible and springy, properties utilised for many applications including tool handles and hockey sticks, cricket stumps and oars, the rims of cartwheels, and the chassis of Morgan motor cars. Ash cleaves well and can be steam-bent when green or seasoned, making it invaluable for all manner of green woodworking, (Mace makes chairs of green Ash), furniture making and turnery.

As firewood, Ash is prized, for reasons that this traditional rhyme on the qualities of burning wood explains:

... But ash logs, all smooth and grey,
Burn them green or old;
Buy up all that come your way;
They're worth their weight in gold.

Carolyn Brightwater