Brush Making

Description

Spend a day making your very own objects of use and create a hand brush and pastry/foraging brush to take away and treasure. This course is a great way to get a taste of crafting with natural materials and keeping an endangered craft alive. The workshop will cover handle and bristle choices, saw and knife skills, drilling techniques and the hand drawing method of wiring in the brush bristles. This course covers everything you need to know and do to create a stylish and functional pair of brushes to take away with you. It will give you the skills and confidence to start creating at home – a great way to unwind and to create your own unique, low impact brushes. This course is for anyone who would like to be able to begin brush making and is ideal for complete beginners. The course is more than learning to make a brush or two, it’s a chance to reconnect with the outdoors and switch off from all of life’s little stresses. What you will learn: • Brush making principles and design. • Natural handle/bristle types and selection. • Safe saw use and safe knife cutting techniques. • Drilling. • Wiring in the bristles. • Brush finishes and road testing! • Discussion about design variations. What to bring: Closed toe footwear, practical and warm clothes, humour and enthusiasm. Please bring a packed lunch too. All tools and materials will be provided. Tutor: Neil Hopkins of Forge Ways is the tutor for your brush making course. Neil moved to the Dyfi Valley in 2007 near Machynlleth to work as a Renewable Engineering Project Manager and to live a more sustainable way of life on a smallholding, nestled in the foothills of the Cambrian Mountains. He has a passion for traditional skills and low impact ways of living, combined with a wealth of experience instructing in the outdoors. Neil has diverse qualifications and experience of arboriculture and green woodworking. He can often be found amongst the mountains as a member of his local mountain rescue team. He has developed his skills using traditional methods and hand tools such as shave horse, pole lathe, froe, axe, crook knife and creates both beautiful and practical items from wood gathered locally. Neil delivers courses with a calm competency, enabling students to learn skills in a relaxed learning environment that is both mindful and along permaculture principles.

What's included in the price?

Tea, coffee and biscuits. Materials provided for £5 per person.

Cancellation policy

Medium - Cancellation and a full refund can be obtained up to 4 weeks before the course starts

Maker

Denmark Farm Conservation Centre

with Craft Courses since 2013

Message the tutor

Denmark Farm Conservation Centre is a 40 acre nature reserve managed by the charity The Shared Earth Trust. We host a range of craft, sustainable living, conservation and ecology courses with all profits ploughed back into caring for the nature and wildlife on site.