David, who attended our 5 day bushcraft experience in March 2013, sent these photos of his craftwork through to me. They were started on the course and finished at home. Below are a few tips David sent with the photos:
“The bark swelled up and stained brown after soaking for 24 hours (i.e. probably too long). This meant that the weave shrunk on drying so the wood rattled around, not helped by both warp & weft being woven up & down instead of one kept flat and the other woven around it like Alix did. I ended up gluing the coasters up completely on one side, hence the gloss finish (dilute PVA with a drop of washing up liquid to reduce surface tension.) Some ends I pinched together with clothes pegs: plastic ones worked better than wooden ones for obvious reasons! Overall it was more work than I expected but I managed to make 3 coasters not 2 and they are sorta reversible.
The spoon came out nicely. Alix got a crook and carving knife. These together with sandpaper knocked it off. I was a bit worried as I left it somewhere cool before carving, only for it to get black mould spots but these seem to have come out. I’ve finished it off with olive oil and a bit of turmeric for colour. I was hoping for something browner but soaking a teabag in olive oil just resulted in a fat teabag and nothing to stain with.”
Great work David, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.