Wood Doodles

18/05/2026

Booking spaces on this year's dates at Park Farm Training Centre- home of Holmsdale Manor Forest School

There are some fun days coming up, and going to try and squeeze in a sharpening and tool maintenance day somewhere, as well as a hand felling small and medium trees once cutting season starts.

31st May and 7th June - Spoon carving for beginners and improvers.

9th August - Greenwood Camp Furniture

17th and 25th October - Coppicing Days

25th November - Christmas Crafts (but with fun tools and excellent skills)

As always, message Katie Ward for booking details!

Hope to see you at something under the trees!

06/05/2026

SPOON CARVING WORKSHOPS
31st May
7th June

Come along and learn to carve a wooden spoon with freshly felled timber. Spend the day sat under the trees playing around with sharp tools and sweary vocabulary, learning the process of turning a lump of tree into something useful. I'll let you play with my nice axes, provide plentiful tea and coffee and cook lunch on the fire. Owning a wooden spoon that you carved yourself makes you shoot up in the world of hipsters, bushcrafters, and the middle classes. Put yourself where you deserve to be.

Anyway...it's £90 for the day. 10 till 4. Ibstock, Leicestershire. Spaces limited to 6 so everyone keeps their fingers.
Book by emailing Katie Ward on [email protected]

Refusing to use AI for a poster so make do with that picture of me in the woods. You could be in a very similar picture soon, but you'll look cool because you'll have an axe.

17/02/2026

A couple of days working with this one in tow. Knocking out Larch and Oak ready for spring building. Apart from all of the aching back, knees and shoulder, it really is lovely work.

07/02/2026

Lovely day running the coppicing workshop for Holmsdale Manor Forest School and Outdoor Learning Training today. Went off on a load of tangents...whistles, dead hedges, deer fences, axe faffery, forest school stuff, sharpening...
I forgot to take many photos, so here is an entirely unremarkable collection of some coppice stools. Enjoy.

Another day is being plotted for late Feb/early March as well as spoon carving days, greenwood building and all that other jazz I'm good at.

07/12/2025

04/12/2025

Made a few (a lot) too many of these hazel candles so going to offer some out for sale. Little bunches of 3, £15 quid plus whatever the cheapest postage is. Or meet me somewhere shady like it's a drug deal, but it's just hand carved hipster candles. Anyway, they won't burn your house down, will last a lot longer than real candles and people will say: "Ooh, is that a hand carved wooden candle? Hand painted too?! How very creative of you. You're very talented!" And you can either give me credit, and people will learn that you have excellent taste/support poor makers of wooden stuff...or you could take the credit and lie. Say that you made them in between gong baths and buying organic tofu at a fair trade market full of avocados and dog wool jumpers. Nobody will know. Did I mention the 15 quid bit? Ho ho ho.

10/05/2025

Great day as always at the FEN skills day. Was running my brilliantly titled "Axe Faffery" so spent the day faffing around with axes. No blood. Had spud. Success. Dates for summer spoon days, greenwood skills days and whatever dangerous fun I can dream up will be out soon.

17/10/2024

Another stunning term with Clover Learning Community - teaching woodwork, carpentry, bodging, fettling, traditional skills, whittling and hopefully being sound to each other. Kids have worked amazingly. Considering that this is the first time most of them have played with sharp things, it's absolutely amazing what they've produced.

08/07/2024

Lovely day getting stabbed and chatting s**t with this legend. My Wren for my Wren. Such a lovely place to hang out, and Neil is the nicest dude. And weirdly gentle with the gun. Only one little wince from me! Cheers man! So much fun. Won't be so much fun trying to get comfy in bed...