The Bush Crafts week is only ten days away. This is an incredible opportunity to learn several traditional crafts in a relatively short time. You’ll leave with a good haul of finished crafts AND the knowledge to make more. These are REAL life skills. All items made during this week are used regularly by myself, other instructors and previous customers. Hand made by you, customised and personalised. When they wear out or need updating, you just get on and do it. During the week you’ll learn... How to naturally tan hides to make buckskin, rawhide, hair on and bark tan leathers. You don’t need to be a re-enactor or living history enthusiast to appreciate and use home tanned hides. See the image below of an incredibly strong, durable (and attractive I’m sure you’ll agree) haversack I use all the time. You can make this from your finished buckskin or leather I’ll provide. How to make kit from leather. Haversacks, duffel bags, knife sheaths, axe masks, kit pouches – all useable kit items. You’ll learn how to come up with a design, make a pattern and stitch it all together, something you can do whenever you need something leathery. How to carve green wood. You’ll learn how to carve mallets, spatulas, spoons, cups, bowls from renewable timber harvested in the woods. We’ll use knife, saw, axe, gouge, crooked knife to shape the wood into something beautiful, full of character and useable that you’ll have forever. How to weave willow. We can make baskets, fish traps – woven willow has many applications, all incredibly useful and often much better than any modern alternative! Willow baskets hold all the cooking spoons and spatulas, brew kit, fruit and snacks in camp. We also use them for foraging wild foods – so much better than a carrier bag! How to make containers from bark. These containers are perfect for carrying little items in your outdoor kit – sugar, tea, coffee, sewing kit, matches, fishing kit. Well fitting tapered lids that come off with a satisfying ‘pop’ keep everything safely inside. You can also utilise larger, thicker bark to make foraging pouches, boxes, quivers for arrows...the list is extensive. So, all this AND you get to hang out in this beautiful, bluebell carpeted, ancient woodland for the whole week. You can camp over or just stay locally, turning up for ‘work’ each morning. The kettle will always be on, the wood fire chugging away all day – an incredible environment to work, learn and spend time in. DON’T MISS OUT ON THIS AMAZING OPPORTUNITY! There are just two places left and they need to be filled. Email me to book now. Dates: 9am Monday 29th April - 5pm Sunday 5th May Price: £675 per person If the week is too long for you and you'd prefer a shorter creative experience in our ancient Wiltshire woodland check out the Bark Boxes, Bags & Containers workshop coming up at the end of this month, April 27th - 28th. Hope to see you in the woods soon! Joe O'Leary Author of The Wilderness Survival Guide |