Marcus Sly - Furniture Making and Design

Robin Wood is the only turner in England specialising in making wooden bowls and plates on a traditional foot-powered lathe. In addition to this he is the author of “The Wooden Bowl”, and makes countryside furniture and sculpture.  You can visit his website at www.robin-wood.co.uk.

Q) Robin, in rediscovering the traditional way of hand turning plates and bowls, you taught yourself blacksmithing in order to make the specialised tools which are required, and which are no longer available. From the effort you went to it seems you very inspired to learn this technique. What was it about turning and bowl making in this way that grabbed your imagination so much?

I started out turning as a hobby whilst working as a forester and I had very little money for hobbies. I made my first tools simply because I could not afford to buy tools. I had seen a very inspiring demonstration of simple blacksmithing using a home made forge and recycled spring steel to make tools. I have always liked the ideals of self sufficiency and so it appealed to make my own lathe and tools too.

Q) What sources of information did you use in reviving this craft, and how did you go about the process of mastering a technique which was no longer practiced?

The primary source was an old lathe and tools at the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading University. The lathe was used by the last pole lathe bowlturner George Lailey up until he died aged 89 in 1958. When I first saw the lathe I thought it should be easy to make a copy and lean to work it. Over the years I have come to understand more clearly how much tacit knowledge is hidden in these old crafts, how much must have been handed down through many generations, and how much knowledge we loose when the last practitioner of a craft dies.

Q) Wood is a special material which you clearly have a great affinity for. How might a person benefit from buying and using your wooden bowls as opposed to china?

Some people nowadays have an irrational prejudice against wood, others an equally irrational affinity for it. I never try to convince anyone to change but for the many folk that enjoy using a wooden chopping board, spoon or salad bowl I would highly recommend trying a wooden plate or breakfast bowl. They keep your food warm, make pleasant sounds when you set the table and no scritchy-scratchy sounds like metal on porcelain. They can be washed in hot water like a wooden spoon and don’t break if you drop them so last for years. In fact wood is one of those pleasant natural materials that gets nicer and nicer with age.

Q) The techniques you use leave the marks of the tool clearly visible, on the finished article. This sort of finish can be very beautiful, but may also initially be a bit surprising to a modern eye which is used to seeing machined, smooth surfaces. You quote John Ruskin as saying “never believe there is any reason to proud of anything which can be achieved with patience and sandpaper”, which tickles my fancy very much. Your country furniture and garden sculpture shows a similar, hand finished appearance. With modern power tools it is possible to get a shiny finish with relatively little work. What are your reasons for avoiding this approach, and what does doing so add to the finished article?

A sanded finish is fine for indoor furniture but for items like bowls intended for heavy use that get wet then dry a sanded surface tends become woolly and is never as nice as it was when new. A clean cut surface from a sharp tool whilst perhaps appearing rough at first just gets nicer and nicer with use. I think that finish is a little like hand thrown pottery or blown glass, there is interest in the texture, it takes a while to know objects made like this intimately. I once met a wooden boat builder who was very condescending about what he called “60 grit boatbuilders” since he sanded all his boats to 240 grit. I like Ruskin really couldn’t see what was to be proud about the difference particularly since today it probably meant some poor unskilled lad running a power sander over thing for hours.

Q) You have done a lot of research into the history of wooden bowls and plates. Producing these traditional wares in the twenty-first century, how do you see the anonymous craftsmen of old, and how do you regard yourself in relationship to them?

What is important here is status. Morris raised the status of hand craft and highlighted the importance of the maker having freedom to innovate in a time when much production involved drudgery and precise repetition. When I compare the Victorian pews in our village church to the medieval ones at Haddon Hall I understand exactly what he meant. The Victorial workmanship is highly skilled and precise but somehow dead, Medieval workmanship had a freedom and vitality which Morris admired. This style of workmanship perhaps lived on longest in wooden boatbuilding and wagon building. When I look at old wooden wagons and boats I am full of admiration for the folk that made them and it makes me feel very humble.

There are times when I am envious of the higher status today of folk working at the innovative contemporary end of the craft spectrum and frustrated at the lack of government support or promotion of traditional and skill based craft but then I am very happy with my work and proud of the fact that I can survive economically without subsidy.

This is such a difficult question but important. I think in pre-industrial society smooth surfaces and highly polished objects were rare and treasured. Today we live in a world where all our surfaces are smooth and polished, in some ways this is boring as there is nothing to discover. I think craftwork can add interest to an otherwise mundane environment. Craftwork that is designed for use can add a lot to life, I start my day making coffee in a Jug made by Svend Bayer drinking from one of his gorgeous rough mugs sitting in a chair made by a friend at a table made by another friend from a tree I felled myself. I like to think my bowls give similar pleasure to others.

I also feel that simply by living “The good life” I act as inspiration to a lot of people some of whom may make choices to live more simply themselves. I particularly enjoy teaching and sharing simple craft skills like carving with a knife. This is very empowering unlike most commercialised craft hobbies. All this gives life some meaning but it is not going to save the world, I fear that anyone living in a 21^st century consumer economy and owning a car is part of the problem rather than the solution myself included. I suspect generations to come will marvel at the way my generation wasted the earths limited resources and polluted our life support system.

Visit Robin's website at www.robin-wood.co.uk

All pictures in this article are Copright Robin Wood.