Living Wood Press Release 04/09/07
On Tuesday 11th September, Herefordshire green woodworker Mike Abbott, will be featured at 7.30pm on ITV Central’s new series Country Lives. The programme will show one of Mike’s introductory green wood courses at Brookhouse Wood just south of Bromyard. On the weekends either side of this screening, there will also be an opportunity to see Mike in action at his workshop at home in Bishops Frome. As part of h.Art Week, Mike and his wife Tamsin will open their timber framed studios to the public with a special programme of demonstrations on Saturday 15th.
In 1985 Mike set up in business running workshops around the South West of England, pioneering the revival of traditional woodland craft skills. Ten years later he settled down in Herefordshire with his wife, Tamsin attracted by the sale of a woodland near Bosbury, abutting the former cottage of Victorian chairmaker, Philip Clissett. Mike and Tamsin together with two other woodland enthusiasts, Gudrun Leitz and Chris Armstrong formed a trust to purchase the woodland which they then renamed after their Victorian hero.
Clissett Wood provided not only a base for the workshop that Mike shared with Gudrun to run their respective courses but it also provided some of the raw materials which Mike used in the construction of a timber-framed workshop at home. In 2000 Tamsin decided to sell her share in the woodland with the aim of establishing a career as a stained glass artist once their children reached school age. She now has a studio next to Mike’s workshop built almost entirely from Clissett Wood oak. Then in 2005 Mike felt the need to move on once more to set up his seventh woodland workshop, this time at Brookhouse Wood, building upon his experience over the previous two decades.
Mike and Tamsin’s joint exhibition is based on the fruitfulness of Herefordshire in the widest sense. Visitors to their garden will reach the timber buildings by passing damson, plum and apple trees all of which have recently lost branches due to the burden of so much fruit. Mike will be transforming a broken damson branch into baby rattles; a symbol that new creativity can emerge from apparent destruction. Also on display will be a child’s cot and two high chairs as well as a range of chairs made by students on Mike’s courses.
Meanwhile in her studio, Tamsin will have free-hanging stained glass panels for sale. Tamsin’s work is influenced by the Herefordshire countryside: the orchards, the hills, the woods and all the plants, birds and animals that grow and live around their home. Amongst these themes, several pieces include the green man and the hare which embody the male and female energies of the countryside and are symbols of reproduction and fertility.
Prices range from £20 - £600.
As well as wood and glass, Mike and Tamsin will be selling copies of their book Living Wood; From buying a Woodland to making a chair. Written by Mike and illustrated by Tamsin they self-published the book in 2002, produced a second edition in 2004 and it is now approaching sales of 5000 copies. They will also stock Mike’s classic book, Green Woodwork; Working wood the natural Way, now back on the bookshelves in its tenth print run.
The workshop and studio will be open to the public on the 8th, 9th 14th, and 16th September, from 10.30am to 5.30pm, with special demonstrations of pole-lathe turning, basket-making and stained glass drawing on Saturday 15th.
ffi tel Mike or Tamsin Abbott 01531 640005 or 07870 293401, e-mail [email protected], [email protected]
or see www.living-wood.co.uk or www.tamsinsglass.co.uk
On Tuesday 11th September, Herefordshire green woodworker Mike Abbott, will be featured at 7.30pm on ITV Central’s new series Country Lives. The programme will show one of Mike’s introductory green wood courses at Brookhouse Wood just south of Bromyard. On the weekends either side of this screening, there will also be an opportunity to see Mike in action at his workshop at home in Bishops Frome. As part of h.Art Week, Mike and his wife Tamsin will open their timber framed studios to the public with a special programme of demonstrations on Saturday 15th.
In 1985 Mike set up in business running workshops around the South West of England, pioneering the revival of traditional woodland craft skills. Ten years later he settled down in Herefordshire with his wife, Tamsin attracted by the sale of a woodland near Bosbury, abutting the former cottage of Victorian chairmaker, Philip Clissett. Mike and Tamsin together with two other woodland enthusiasts, Gudrun Leitz and Chris Armstrong formed a trust to purchase the woodland which they then renamed after their Victorian hero.
Clissett Wood provided not only a base for the workshop that Mike shared with Gudrun to run their respective courses but it also provided some of the raw materials which Mike used in the construction of a timber-framed workshop at home. In 2000 Tamsin decided to sell her share in the woodland with the aim of establishing a career as a stained glass artist once their children reached school age. She now has a studio next to Mike’s workshop built almost entirely from Clissett Wood oak. Then in 2005 Mike felt the need to move on once more to set up his seventh woodland workshop, this time at Brookhouse Wood, building upon his experience over the previous two decades.
Mike and Tamsin’s joint exhibition is based on the fruitfulness of Herefordshire in the widest sense. Visitors to their garden will reach the timber buildings by passing damson, plum and apple trees all of which have recently lost branches due to the burden of so much fruit. Mike will be transforming a broken damson branch into baby rattles; a symbol that new creativity can emerge from apparent destruction. Also on display will be a child’s cot and two high chairs as well as a range of chairs made by students on Mike’s courses.
Meanwhile in her studio, Tamsin will have free-hanging stained glass panels for sale. Tamsin’s work is influenced by the Herefordshire countryside: the orchards, the hills, the woods and all the plants, birds and animals that grow and live around their home. Amongst these themes, several pieces include the green man and the hare which embody the male and female energies of the countryside and are symbols of reproduction and fertility.
Prices range from £20 - £600.
As well as wood and glass, Mike and Tamsin will be selling copies of their book Living Wood; From buying a Woodland to making a chair. Written by Mike and illustrated by Tamsin they self-published the book in 2002, produced a second edition in 2004 and it is now approaching sales of 5000 copies. They will also stock Mike’s classic book, Green Woodwork; Working wood the natural Way, now back on the bookshelves in its tenth print run.
The workshop and studio will be open to the public on the 8th, 9th 14th, and 16th September, from 10.30am to 5.30pm, with special demonstrations of pole-lathe turning, basket-making and stained glass drawing on Saturday 15th.
ffi tel Mike or Tamsin Abbott 01531 640005 or 07870 293401, e-mail [email protected], [email protected]
or see www.living-wood.co.uk or www.tamsinsglass.co.uk
