Greenwood Fest 2017 promises to be even better than last year’s inaugural event.  Paula and Peter have things all set up on a snazzy new website, Peter has been highlighting the instructors on his blog, and truckloads of coffee are being steadily delivered to Pinewoods Camp.

As you can see on the Greenwood Fest website, there will be seven pre-fest courses going on simultaneously!  If I weren’t busy, the hardest decision would be which one to take.  Before enrollment opens on January 4, I thought I’d take a moment to elaborate a bit on my plans for the pre-fest course as well as the add-on three hour workshop.

The two-day courses are spread over three days, from lunchtime on the 6th to lunchtime on the 8th.  I decided that the time frame and situation would be a perfect opportunity to make bird bowls.  If birds aren’t your thing, no problem; I will have an example of a bowl based on the same design, but with handles not representing the front and back ends of a bird.  The important thing is that we will be taking the time to explore, with our minds and hands, the flexible concepts and skills involved in making beautiful bowls of of many sizes and forms.

Last year, we worked with bird bowls in the short add-on workshop, but it was just enough time to scratch the surface.  So I’m excited to have two full days to dive into design, layout, variations on forms, hollowing, hewing, paring, texture, decoration, and more.  The chips will fly, but at a pace that should be comfortable for all of us.  And these bowls won’t require workbenches and horses — which is good, because with seven classes going on, we might have to fight for them!  We’ll have chopping blocks ready, and you’ll just need a few sharp tools.  More details can be found at the Greenwood Fest website.

For the three-hour add-on workshop that will take place during the Festival weekend proper, I thought we’d explore knife lettering.  We’ll talk about lettering design and we’ll practice technique.  After we’re getting the hang of things, I’ll assist as you design and cut some words on a spoon, kuksa, shrink pot, or some other item you’ve brought — or we’ll have plenty of odd bits of wood to use.  I’ll be using my preferred pocket-knife pen blade, but any knife with a small blade will do, so bring whatever knife you’d like.

And then there will be other demonstration time, during which I’ll be swinging axe and adze at chunks of wood that may become bowls.  I’ll have time to figure out the details, but lots of techniques with various tools will be demonstrated and discussed.

Most of all, I look forward to being together with a wonderful group of people, enjoying time in the woods among the chips.  Hope to see you there.