Traditionally, bowls have been turned as nests - starting with one large piece of wood, and using the centre of that as the next, smaller bowl as each one is turned. It means less waste wood for the turner, and also is quicker than turning all the wood out of the centre of the larger bowl. The size of the beech I'm currently turning means that I can typically get two bowls from each initial bowl blank - like this -

I'm fortunate to have my workshop in once of the old barns at the Quarries farm. Originally a slate mine, abandoned over 150 years ago when the slate mine flooded, some of the buildings date back to the time of the mine, and others are more recent additions. The farm has largely escaped modernisation, which can be seen in its hand made iron field gates, all cold riveted together, and generally too narrow for late 20th century machinery. The farm buildings are home to some excellent Edwardian kit - butter churns, a horse drawn hay turner, a huge belt driven grain crusher, and all manner of tools which having gathered dust for the last 50 years are now being coaxed back into life. I'm lucky in the current weather that this corner of the farmyard is fairly sheltered.

There can be few examples where a product is made, and yet all the by-products of its production are reused or recycled within a few yards of the 'factory floor'. Here on the farm, everything gets used up. All the little bits of wood left over from cutting blanks are used as kindling on the fire; the very fine sawdust from cutting the bowl blanks is saved up and used in the treebog to aid composting, and the larger shavings from bowl turning become packing for bowls that are sent in the post.

The only things not to have been reused yet are the cores left over when the bowls are turned - they are building up in a heap in the workshop, and will eventually become firewood.

Just back from day two of the Green Living Fair at Castle Espie - it was great to meet so many interested folk, get the opportunity to chat to other craftspeople, and generally soak up the atmosphere. Special thanks to all those who purchased bowls (and dibbers), and who have signed up to receive information about forthcoming courses.

Certainly interest in green woodworking, and pole lathe turning seemed strong, and I'll look forward to meeting you all soon. I was fortunate enough to be sharing space with Growing Connections, in the Sustainable Garden area of the centre, and we're agreed that it was a great event, and can't wait to return next year.

Today saw the first of my 'introduction to green woodworking' courses, held at the Quarries Farm, outside Bangor. As we were working in the new outdoor space, it was limited to just the 3 participants, who all successfully made a garden dibber each, and managed to cleave and then axe their wood, shape it on the shave horse and then turn it down to shape on the pole lathe. Another day will be run on the 22nd August, and a spoon carving session is coming soon, date to be confirmed.