Emnet sideboard

Emnet sideboard, a photo by Paparwark on Flickr.

When I was in Norway I was really interested in how they would look for the correct shaped piece of timber to make a component from. When returning to Shetland I was keen to try out this approach. With the lack of timber I decided to tackle the issue the other way round. I asked the local forestry manager if he could find me two pieces of a certain shape. When it arrived I then let the wood do the talking. The piece ended up being inspired from both the Norwegian tradition that I had been learning about and the British tradition which I had been trained in. The uprights are made from local Shetland sycamore and were shaped using axes and a draw knife so you can still see the tool marks. The top and bottom pieces are African bubinga and have been highly polished to a very high standard in the manner I was trained in high Wycombe. So this piece is the combining of two traditions to make a beautiful sculptural sideboard

driftwood shetland chair

driftwood shetland chair, a photo by Paparwark on Flickr.

The tradition was to made the Shetland chairs from driftwood. We general make the chairs from quality hardwoods because driftwood is much harder to find. This chair was made for a good friend who had a stock of driftwood near his house! Unlike the traditional craftsmen we have tried to keep the interesting wormholes wherever possible to give it a real unique rustic charm For more info one the range of shetland chairs which we do check out or webpage at http://www.paparwark.co.uk/Shetlandchairs.html

Form follows function or function follow form

Timber stool, a photo by Paparwark on Flickr.

One of the big questions in design is which comes first, form or function. Sometimes we let the wood do most of the designing!

This stool is one ot the products which we are producing from the interesting timber which we sometimes have left over from larger projects. The stool really is a one off as it is made from the natural shape of the timber. The seat is carved for extra comfort and more fun for the craftsman producing it!

Furniture inspiring poetry

After being inspired by poetry to design furniture I didn't think I would be inspired the other way around. A few years back I designed this sculptural book stand and was asked to carve a phrase on the stem of the stand. The phrase I thought of was "The truth is found in seeing every angle" The other day I wrote a poem inspired from this.

Truth is found in seeing every angle

Truth is found in seeing every angle
But skill is needed to understand the tangle
Of view and ideas from entrenched position
Great wisdom is needed for such a mission

If we are to escape the slavery view
Discernment like Solomon we need too
looking past the veneer of common belief
Propaganda has deceived us like a common thief

To look behind the pillars of our fair land
We may find skeletons we didn't plan
To deal with the legacy of broken sale
That caused corporate hope to stumble and fail

What can be done to bring newness of life
To ride us of tyranny, poverty and strife
Great dreams of a utopia free of sin
All empires and war thrown in the bin

Can we truly respect each other
so we can embrace them as a brother
Even if we completely disagree
There's room enough so we can all live free.

Poetry inspiring furniture

A few years back I took part in a project where poets and crafts people teamed up to be inspired from each others work. I make the round table in sycamore which was inspired from a line in a poem about hollow boilersuits flaping on a clothes line. I developed a way to stop natural shaped logs from spliting by drilling through the centre of the log and therefore helping the wood to dry more evenly. It means that the smaller sections of timber found in Shetland could be used in furniture and not just for firewood.

New dreams for the new year

Well this could be an exciting year for Paparwark. We are starting to find our workshop is too small and really needs a new roof. So we're starting to dream and plan for a new workshop. After rearranging this one so many times to make it work better I am not looking forward to the same process when we get a new workshop!!! Hopefully we have alot of experience to get it right first time. I have just be listening to a guy talking about how if you can see your dream then you can get there and work towards it. He was talking about how Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard because he could see Microsoft and was concern that if he could see it, others could see it as well and then he would miss out. It turned out he was two years ahead of anybody else and the rest in history! So I guess there nothing to lose, We just have to push the door and see what happens!

Building a Norwegian weaving loom

As part of my professional development I decided to take part in a cultural exchange trip with Norway. I have been interested to learn more about the Norwegian craft skills since my apprentice took part in a log cabin building project which was built and situated in Papar Stour. Their tradition of building with and shaping wood with axes really interested me. Atle Ove Martinson who also organised to Stova project is now working with the Osterøy museum near Bergen. They are working to preserve traditional craft skills and are keeping these skills alive.

The Project was to run two courses. One on how to build a traditional weaving loom and the other was the teach people how to weaving traditional akle and valmal. I took part in the building project. It was everything that I hoped it would be. One week using only hand tools to shape and construct the weaving loom. The roughing out was done with axes and really took it toll on the skin on you hands. The axe was also used to finish the timber to quiet a high standard before finishing it with a plane.

Two of the things which impressed me the most was there use of what was called emnet. It is finding the correct shape of timber for the purpose. Having very few trees here in Shetland this way of thing was a bit of a revelation to me. Instead of have to create joints you just find the correct shape of timber and was used for both the støyrer (uprights) and the Kløyser (holders). They also have a very interesting way of using pins to hold the loom together which I hadn't seen before. Instead of drilling straight holes they used a tool called a navar which bores a conical hole. The pins are also conical and it creates and stronger join which is also much easier to take apart. Having in the past had problem with using straight holes and dowel I am keen to use this technique but I am having problems sourcing the tooling in the UK