I have just been reflecting on this Spring's Bowl Carving Weekend at the Wild Circle in Cornwall. It was a wonderful weekend, a truly immersive experience which provided the opportunity to spend time in Yurts on the Cornish moors, learning the craft of bowl carving, and creating some lovely wooden bowls. We were truly blessed with what felt like the first weekend of spring sunshine.
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P.1: Alex splitting a round of Beech into a bowl blank
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The heart of the weekend was centred around the learning the craft of bowl carving underpinned by the philosophy of the Wild Circle. The ethos of the Wild Circle is all about restoring human kind's relationship to the natural world and finding our path back into harmony with the circle of life. The Wild Circle offers a range of retreat weekends from coracle building to foraging and forest bathing workshops which offer paths to fostering right relationship and interconnectedness with nature which many of us are yearning for.
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P.2: Stephen using the stock knife on his Beech Bowl
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Our Bowl Carving weekend began on the Friday evening with a journey to the woods, where Tim Hutton the steward and landowner told the story of his 25 year journey managing and planting the trees which grew there, the multi layered story of the historic land use, the felling of ancient woodland for agricultural purposes and the woodland trust's approach in the 1990s which was the suggestion to fell all 'non native' species (even the mature Beech) and start again, and Tim's choices and learning since then which supported a diverse and now thriving woodland
P.3 Woodland bowl carving in full swing
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We visited the site where the Beech tree grew (grateful it hadn't been felled 20 years prior!) that we were to carve, it had been strung up in the woods and taken down in the late winter, and there a few metres from where it grew, we hoisted lengths onto a saw horse and sawed up some bowl length rounds of fresh beech
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P.4 Sawing up the Beech tree with cross cut saw
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Our participants journey thus began at the very start of the end of the trees life and began its transformative journey into a bowl. Throughout the weekend, participants were introduced to a variety of traditional hand tools, gouges, mallets, adzes and hook knifes and spent the next 2 days carving a bowl design of their own
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P.5 Finishing cuts with a Mora Knife
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The Wild Circle Bowl Carving Weekend was not just about learning the craft; it was also a celebration of individuality and artistic expression. Participants were encouraged to infuse their creations with their unique style, shaping bowls that reflected their personal vision and purpose. Whether it was a functional fruit bowl, a rustic dough bowl, or an exquisite table-piece, each creation told a story of the participant's journey and their connection to the natural world.
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P.6 Guy with his finished piece
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Beyond the carving sessions, the Wild Circle Bowl Carving Weekend created a sense of community: a little village sprung up with deliciously wholesome shared meals, conversations by the fire, and we even fired up the new and beautiful woodland Sauna.
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P.7 Wild Circle bowl carvers
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Checkout thewildcircle.co.uk and alexfinberg.co.uk for future workshops
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Checkout yurtworks.co.uk for Cornish Yurt Holidays and stay on this beautiful land!