“Outdoor Learning” is the “in” thing in schools apparently, and story-telling areas seem to be gaining in popularity. I was asked to carve a story-telling chair for Woodmansey Primary School, near Beverley, East Yorkshire, and so again had to call in help from chainsaw-master Pete Bowser of Pete Bowser Tree Services. Pete is a perfectionist and extremely accurate with his saw, and I’d be stuck without him ~ my chainsaw is virtually an ornament (although it was useful in demolishing a massive pampas grass until it got clogged up and started smoking), and it scares me to death.
Pete had what looked like a perfect log lying around, and one morning shaped it perfectly for a throne ~ unfortunately cutting into it unearthed some serious rot in the seat area. Not the end of the world, we thought, as we could fashion another slice of timber into a cover which could’ve been fixed into place.
All well and good, or so we thought. A few days later I went to begin the carving to find a big crack had developed right in the centre of the back rest, from the top to about two-thirds down.
Well, you can call them “character cracks” sometimes, but this was pushing it a bit; I spoke to the school and they said they’d rather wait for a better piece, which luckily arrived soon after (Pete to the rescue again!).
Although a little smaller than the original, this sycamore throne was perfectly formed and had lovely colouring.
Pete always begs me to put pictures like this on my website!
Then it was onto the arbortech work to get rid of the bits that are unreachable for the chainsaw, just in the lower-back region, and then shaping and sanding the arms and back-rest. A very messy job all round.
With a nice flat surface to work on I though a scroll would work well, along with an open book and a bird to balance out the design on the right.
Once finished, Pete and his trusty forklift delivered the throne to Woodmansey.
