Woodworking trip through the UK

[oipej]

Welcome everybody.
I've just posted this message on the www.couchsurfing.org forum:

"I am a woodworker who is going to travel through UK this July (probably from about 10 to the end of the month). I started working about two years ago with my friend. We have never had any master and that probably made our skills a bit disordered. I know that UK is a place where woodworking culture is far more advanced than in Poland so I would like to meet a person who does those things in western conditions. Maybe help in his projects.

I am going to travell with my girlfriend (polish literature master, very nice). We would be interested to visit, help and benefit from everybody from "DIY enthusiasts" to professional woodworkers. Is there anybody willing to host us? We have not decided yet which part of the Islands we are going to visit, so everybody is welcome to answer!
See two tables that me and my partner recently made: www.lumberjocks.com/oipej ."

... and I'd like to put it here as well. As the nature of this site is somewhat different than CS I'd add some more info. First of all I know that this is not a CS-style site and please don't consider my request rude. We started doing woodworking by chance but soon realised that it would be a good path for us. Our philosophy is careful making unique pieces in close contact with the customer at every stage of the process. We invest more that we earn in development and this far we have decent set of hand tools and 18" bandsaw. We know some other woodworkers in Poland, but we are certainly one of the few who modestly try to (let me say complicated things straight) have "the professional approach" as Alan Peters described in his book. And that is why I send this message here.

 

[joiner_sim]

Hello,
I cannot have visitors to the workshop I work in as its not my own.

Take a look at http://www.orcamesh.com/Orcamesh/Welcome.html there's a few names mentioned on that site that ou should try on google!

If you get the chance visit one of the Axminister stores http://www.axminster.co.uk/

This thread on our forum tells ou of the woodworkking events https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/woodworking-show-event-dates-2010-t38294.html

Trend's courses page http://www.trend-uk.com/en/UK/trend/content/content_handler.php?record_type=Courses

Ashley Iles run factory tours if you contact them http://www.ashleyiles.turningtools.co.uk/whoweare/whoweare.html

Hope that helps you.

 

[davin]

czesc,

Welcome to the forum.
I have been to Poland many times.I am always amazed at the quality of some of the work I see. Ok maybe hand made furniture is not that popular,
(apart from a style called Gdansk style, very heavy and dark, not quite my preference)
but crafts and design is of a very high standard eg glassware and ceramics.
Where do you source your timber?
So many forests, but not many timber suppliers.
Have a good trip to the UK.

davin

 

[jimi43]

Welcome to the forum my friend.

Did you make the cherry and maple table on the website?

Jim

 

[Digit]

I can't comment about woodworking in your country today, but if my experience is reliable it was excellent. I recently had a cabinet that i designed and built valued at 3000 pounds, the man who taught me cabinet making was Jan Bielecki, one of the Polish forces that the Brit government treated so shabbily after WW2!

Roy.

 

[oipej]

imi43: Yes both (cherry + maple and maple + walnut) tables were made by me and my friend.

Davin, Digit: There is also at least one interesting polish furniture tradition apart Gdansk style. In early 1900 there was a group of craftsmen and artists in Cracow where the leading person was Wyspianski (ask Wikipedia for him. You can also see Wajda's movie based on his play, apart from being a good movie it also depicts polish rural aestetics - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_%281972_film%29).
Wyspianski and friends were publishing a magazine called Polska Sztuka Stosowana (= polish applied arts) in the begining of the XXth century. You can find digital copies here: kpbc.umk.pl/dlibra/publication?id=26774&tab=3 (site may be a bit confusing; you have to install a program called DjVu to see this) . It was something that can be described as polish version of A&C movement - western influences mixed with polish rural style.
As you can imagine golden age of polish craft ended with the WW2. Cities were destroyed and what even worse for the furniture - Soviets came in.

 

[Digit]

As you can imagine golden age of polish craft ended with the WW2. Cities were destroyed and what even worse for the furniture - Soviets came in.

Yeah, I can imagine.

Roy.

 

[dickm]

the man who taught me cabinet making was Jan Bielecki, one of the Polish forces that the Brit government treated so shabbily after WW2!

The woodwork teacher at one of the big private schools in Bedford was a Mr Widlicki, who sounds like a similar character. I knew him through shared interest in old Volvos, but he had several articles published in Woodworker in the 1960s

 

[Digit]

For what ever reason **** many thousands of Poles settled in that area after WW2, which is my home stamping ground BTW. They were clearly recognisable to us kids as, apart from the language difference, the men always sported much more casual hair styles than the then common 'short back and sides' of us English.

Roy.

 

[big soft moose]

For what ever reason **** many thousands of Poles settled in that area after WW2,

Roy.

a lot of them may have been "free polish" airmen or soliders who took up with english girls as that area was hotching with both airbases and military depots during WW2

 

[Digit]

I suspect so Pete. Jan was a most interesting character.

Roy.