Interview with Alan Ritchie, Founder of Hewnwood, traditional timber framers.
I wanted to feature our good friend and traditional timber frame craftsman Alan Ritchie, founder of the timber framing company Hewnwood, as I have been lucky enough to have had first-hand experience of…
An Interview with Edward Barder from The Edward Barder Rod Company.
If you walk into any angling shop, the world over, there will be a sea of mass-produced carbon-fibre fishing rods, racks and racks of them, light-weight, space-age, efficient, and yet, inevitably, soulless. However,…
Interview with Alison Benjamin, writer and co-founder of Urban Bees.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the gentle honey bee, rather than their angry Apocrita cousin the wasp, and encouraged their visits by planting wild flowers with vivid colours around the garden. …
Interview with Pete Coates, Journeyman Cooper & Founder of Oak Barrel Creations.
How many people with ‘Cooper’ as a surname do you know? I surmise that most of us will know, or have known, of someone, near or far, literal or lateral, civilian or celebrity,…
An interview with England's last full-time pole lathe wood turner, Robin Wood.
We have long-admired Robin Wood’s work from afar, a talented, award-winning bowl maker from the Peak District who still makes wooden cups, bowls and plates in the same way as they were made…
An insight into the history, craft and splendour of dry stone walling.
My earliest memory of dry stone walls comes from when I was about 8 years old, when on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales; I found a baby shrew sat on a stone protruding…
Interview with Andrew Grundon, Founder of Signature Signs.
Of course, signs have been hand-painted by professionals for centuries, long before digital printers, with their wacky graphics, flying banners and hundreds of different fonts, were at the touch of everyone’s buttons. There…
Interview with Paul Cook of 'WoodArtWords'; Wood-Carver, Poet and Artist.
Working with wood to create objects of use, from pre-historic fire starters and spears, to rudimentary wheels and timber-framed structures, is age-old. Humankind has demarcated itself as unique within the animal kingdom, by…
How lookouts and design promote and enhance our view of nature.
Lookouts and observation decks have been used throughout the centuries for varying purposes. Examples include: as fire lookouts operated by forestry services; watchtowers, especially availed of for military motives; and viewing lookouts, used…
Where good architecture works in harmony with nature.
With today’s architectural bias towards urban-centric conurbations and mass construction projects, it is not uncommon to feel a sense of weariness, discontent and frustration about architecture’s preoccupation with city-scale grandiose design statements. Architectural…
