07-05-2020: the very first Kingston University Virtual Woodland Workshop!

Sitting down for our first virtual woodland workshop

We didn’t really know if it would work, but when lock down happened, we figured that it would be worth trying to see if we could run the workshop virtually, and see if it could even work.

The first challenge was trying to come up with a task which people might have had a chance to do with tools that they already had at home.

We were going to try to make miniature chairs anyway, as this task worked on improving/gaining whittling skills.

The main items needed for this would be:

1. a small knife, 

2. a drill (a manual hand drill would also work)

3. secateurs when sourcing the wood, 

4. and (ideally) fairly straight green wood (sticks, around 1.5-3cm wide)

We though that these might be relatively easy to find, either by gardening, or asking friends and family who had gardens/access to gardens, if people could source some wood while socially distancing. And there was always the possibility of finding scrap bits of wood, as one of the volunteers found some old pallet wood to use.

Mark Lloyd our usual fearless leader in all things bushcraft - first produced a film of the whole process with the help of his family. This was sent to the volunteers in advance so that they could start to collect the material needed. With the intention to either make as much as possible or prepare everything to make during a live zoom event. This would allow Mark to go over any points which were being problematic for people in more detail.

Using what was to hand to create the seat

For the live event, we had a smaller turnout as some volunteers were not able to find the material needed/ couldn’t get the technology to work well enough to join us for the whole live session. But some persevered and popped in for a little bit to ask questions.

A few volunteers were at different points in the build, but the live process still worked with the staggers stages as it allowed for specific questions and also knowledge sharing, where some volunteers had solved a specific issue that another one was having. 

Participants continued to make our sections while asking questions and clarifying points with Mark as he went through the whole process from the start.

Feedback from those who could make it, and those who had the video and intended to make it, was really positive.

While not the same as being in the woods with everyone, it was really great to be able to delivery this one during lock down, really fun and social 😊

Mark recommended the book that had inspired this project as being really good to show people different processes involved in furniture making with other projects that people could try.  

Its called  “Simple Rustic Furniture : A Weekend Workshop With Dan Mack” (ISBN 10: 1579900860; ISBN 13: 9781579900861.

I stayed up a little longer to try to finish the weaving of the seat for mine, and noticed the moon looking amazing - tonight its the last super moon of 2020 - aptly called a  Flower Moon  so for those of you who like looking up - check out the night sky tonight, and see if you can spot the large moths flying around if its warm enough. 

Hopefully we’ll be back in the Woodland in Autumn to run our next woodland workshop.

Til then - take care