Wille Sundqvist’s tools

I spoke to Jogge Sundqvist last week about the outcome of the auction of his father’s tools. I had asked him if I could post something about it – and he told me “of course.” The short version is – Jogge was able to save/rescue/preserve a lot of his father’s things due to the generosity of the “slojd community” – all of the wonderful people who responded when we asked for help. Thanks everyone, well done.

some of Wille’s carvings & tools

When I asked if I could post something, Jogge told me that Kara Gebhart Uhl from Lost Art Press had interviewed him & was going to write about it. I knew I would rather read Kara’s reporting on it than mine, so I didn’t even bother. If you want the full story, here’s the link to Kara’s post – well worth the read. https://blog.lostartpress.com/2021/09/02/the-outcome-of-the-auction-to-preserve-wille-sundqvists-tools/

Wille Sundqvist’s tools

Wille Sundqvist

Help Jögge save his his father’s craft heritage

Since Wille Sundqvist passed away in 2018, I have from time to time talked with Jogge about his tools – what will happen to them, etc. It’s a long story but right now the pressing part is that there is an auction in a few days. Ty Thornock has set up a GoFundMe page with the idea that we’ll help Jogge get these tools so he can then do with them what he sees fit. Time is of the essence – if you can help Jogge preserve his father’s incredible legacy, follow the link below. thank you very much

https://gofund.me/28bec702

a few photos

thanks to Heather, I’ve got a new camera to work with these days. Here’s some photos, no particular theme or order. (if you want to see them bigger. click them. On a computer anyway. I don’t know how it works for you phone-heads.)

The shop from down by the river, just as the sun came over the trees. You can see Daniel’s wildlife camera, I’m trying to get a new blog post out of him.

From inside, later. Looking back toward the river. I’ll shoot this view again tomorrow, the sun is supposed to come out. Now all the cattails are golden brown. I like the way they look now better than this full-summer view.

 

These three baskets are full of split oak to be pins for securing mortise and tenon joints. I take short off-cuts from dead-straight stock and split them out & fill these baskets with them. I made the two on the left, the one on the right is a new/old one from Louise Langsner, came to me from the Jennie Alexander collection.

This basket is the one I keep down where I can get at it. The pins in it are dry/ready to use. When it gets low, I climb up and get the next batch. I made this basket in 1987. Ash with hickory rims & handle. Hickory bark lashing.

Here’s what that basket was out – I was pinning a joined stool today.

Oh, garish electric light. The cats in a white oak basket, at night in the house. Sophie, then Scout jumping out of it. These photos are a few weeks old, the cats are bigger. But still climb into stuff…

 

Last weekend, Daniel & I spent 9 hours in the car so we could spend 5 up in Maine w Jogge Sundqvist & Kenneth & Angela Kortemeier at the Maine Coast Craft School. http://www.mainecoastcraft.com/ 

Here’s Daniel getting a preview of the then-up-coming (now just-finished) class in making a book/box.

Later, out on the water we went.

Jogge & Kenneth lead the way…

I finished up the first three of these chairs.

Even got out to the beach here in Plymouth one day. Best place in town. Rose in the lead…

a semi-palmated plover. (Charadrius semipalmatus)

some Instagram links

It’s hard to keep up with all the action on the web these days. Used to be I read the blog aggregator https://unpluggedshop.com/ and that kept me up to date with many of my far-flung woodsy friends and colleagues.

Then came FB and Instagram. FB is a time-sucking hell-hole and I limit how much time I’m willing to give it. I mostly use it to keep in touch with friends I have who don’t read their email.

Instagram in particular really is active for the spoon-carving/green woodworking crowd. There’s a slew of people I follow there, and I can’t list them all here – but I’ll point out a few you might like, if you don’t already follow them. I just strolled through my list, knowing I’d be leaving a lot of great friends/carvers/woodworkers out – not a slight, don’t take it personally. I’ll do this again if people find it helpful…

But first, there’s one special non-woodsy one; Heather Neill.  

https://www.instagram.com/hnartisan/  This week she’s finished her paintings for her annual showing at the Granary Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. Showing them  on her blog one a day – started yesterday – http://heatherneill.com/studio-blog/2018/07/18/granary-gallery-2018/

Now for the woodsy stuff you already know about probably –

https://www.instagram.com/jayketnerwoodcraft/ a friend of ours from Maine, met him through workshops. A regular at Greenwood Fest. Been really taking off with his spoons.

https://www.instagram.com/gibbeted_hew/ This strangely-named feed is Dwight Beebe. A regular victim of mine for years, Dwight and Jay are in the same boat – really making great stuff these days.

 

https://www.instagram.com/pathcarvers/ – This is one to watch! It’s JoJo Wood and her newly-wed husband Sean Vivide setting up workshops near Birmingham, England. Not just “let’s teach people to carve stuff” it’s aimed at helping people find some benefit/healing through craft work. Here’s a blurb from their website:

“Part of our project is to help introduce traditional crafts and creative arts to sections of the community that would not usually have the access or the opportunity to experience the beneficial effects that they can bring. We work alongside organisations such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health services, low income families, prisons, carers and people who would find the effects and skills gained from participating in developing a traditional craft based activity useful for their day to day living.”

http://www.pathcarvers.co.uk/path-carvers/about/

https://www.instagram.com/themagnificentleaven/ Paula Marcoux. If you’ve been through Plymouth CRAFT, and/or Greenwood Fest, then you know.

https://www.instagram.com/edwardmaday/ Met him only once. Nothing green-woodsy about this, but he’s unbelievable.

https://www.instagram.com/koreneva_beresta/ Her birch bark work is amazing.

https://www.instagram.com/danielle_rose_byrd/ Just saw Danielle last week at Lie-Nielsen. She’s great to have around.

https://www.instagram.com/medullary_rick/ Rick McKee – I’ll take his IG feed, while I reminisce about his old blogs that he used to write.

https://www.instagram.com/gerrishisland/ Another Maine friend, Peter Lamb. Knows everyone.

https://www.instagram.com/surolle/  Jögge Sundqvist. I’m not stupid, gotta see what surolle is doing.

https://www.instagram.com/fiddlehead.woodworking/ Amy Umbel. Always good to see what she’s up to. Inspired me to change my spoon decorations.

 

“Spoon-wood” for Jögge Sundqvist

I’ve often wondered when the hell someone would re-write the great Willie Dixon song “Spoonful” for all the spoon-carving crowd. Then I tried for years & couldn’t get it. Once I stopped trying, it came to me. So – sung to the tune of “Spoonful” here are the lyrics I came up with for Greenwood Fest 2018

 

It Could be a spoon made of cherry

It Could be a spoon made of bee-eeech

But one little spoon of Jögge’s precious birch

Is good enough for me-eeee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

 

It could be a spoon made with JoJo

It could be a spoon made with me-eeee

Or just a little spoon that Jane brought from home

a folding spoon from Britt-a-kneeeee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

 

It could be a spoon made from straight wood

Or a crook from your favorite tree-eeee

Barn just made a spoon with his twca cam

That’s good enough for mee-eee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

 

Paula did all of this planning

so we could carve spoons all week

Chris cut the wood from his bucket truck

they both get big thanks from me-eeee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

 

To decorate his spoons with a jackknife

Dave uses sorcery

There’s no way his is an Earthly skill

It’s Way Beyond the likes of me-eeeee

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

 

Curtis and Tim have a different way

They bend their Crooks with steam

What’d you expect from chair makers

It’s good enough for me-eeeee

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

 

Some learned spoons from the internet

Some learned spoons from Tee-Veeeee

If you use an axe and a couple of knives

You can trace it back to ol’ Vill-eeeee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just wild about that spoon wood

Just wild about that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

That spoon, that spoon, that spoon wood.

Wille Sundqvist

As we’re preparing to start setting up Greenwood Fest tomorrow, news came today that Wille Sundqvist passed away, aged 92 years old. We heard from Jögge earlier this week that the end was near, thus he stayed home in Sweden to be with his father.

We’ll all miss having Jögge with us at the Fest, and our thoughts are with him and his family. I’m so glad it worked out the way it did, he could have easily been on a plane headed our way when Wille’s time came.

There’s no exaggeration about Wille’s impact on so many of our woodworking trajectories…I’ve written and talked at length about what I often call “craft genealogy” and I trace mine back to a very simple event – Bill Coperthwaite bringing Wille Sundqvist down to meet Drew and Louise Langsner, c. 1976. That visit led to the creation of  Country Workshops, where I often traveled to learn from Drew, Louise, Jennie Alexander, Jögge, Curtis Buchanan and Wille Sundqvist – and on & on.

Plymouth CRAFT has dedicated this year’s Greenwood Fest to Wille Sundqvist and his life’s work.

Fare you well, Wille Sundqvist, rest in peace.

SONY DSC

thoughts by Jögge Sundqvist

I’m spoiled in many ways. A healthy, happy family. I spend my days overlooking the river, making things for my very patient clients; using sharp hand-tools and the best-quality oak you can find in this country. And over the years, I have met, worked with and became friends with some great craftspeople. I have been particularly spoiled by Jögge Sundqvist – his influence on me far exceeds the spoon and bowl carving I sometimes do.

It reaches inside, to how and why I make things; and how those things connect me to this place (New England) and the past. We’ve seen Jögge’s Rhythm and Slöjd presentation at Greenwood Fest; (I slept through parts of it in Swedish too!) and it’s easy for me to become complacent to the point where I fully expect productions like this short film he posted this morning. (It’s a booklet too, newly translated into English – I’ll post ordering information as soon as I have it…)

The book of thoughts Jögge Sundqvist as s u r o l l e from surolle on Vimeo.

But I am always in awe of the depth of his work. In 2016 he took a few of us on a tour through some museum collections in Sweden where we learned a lot about the sources behind his work. He also touches on these themes in his Lie-Nielsen video released last year. If you haven’t got it yet, here’s the link:

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/nodes/4265/home-education-videos

The rest of the Greenwood Fest lineup for 2018

I’m back from New York and off to Williamsburg. I’ll be at their Woodworking conference through Sunday, then back home here Monday or Tuesday. Then Pret & Paula get back from their jaunt just in time for tickets to Greenwood Fest to go on sale February 2nd, 10 AM eastern time.  https://www.greenwoodfest.org/

You can read what we have so far on that site. Earlier I mentioned we’re having 2 new instructors this time – Curtis Buchanan https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2017/12/27/greenwood-fest-instructor-curtis-buchanan/ and Robin Wood https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/greenwood-fest-2018-instructor-robin-wood/ The rest of the lineup are regulars, or now-regulars for Greenwood Fest.

The Spoon Carving Triumvirate.

JoJo Wood – I’d hate to think of this program without JoJo. https://www.instagram.com/jojowoodcraft/

 

Barn the Spoon – a great addition last year and we’re thrilled to have him back again. https://www.instagram.com/barnthespoon/

And last but not least – Jane Mickelborough. https://www.instagram.com/janespoons/ Her folding spoons (and fan birds) were a huge hit. She’ll be doing some of both this time.

Then, Dave Fisher. There is no link to Dave Fisher. I’m not saying anything else.

Dave Fisher on a bowl horse

Darrick Sanderson is a huge hit. https://www.instagram.com/dcsandersoninc/ Hewn or turned bowls, spoons like crazy, non-stop carving/cutting/slicing.

 

The whirwind-around-the-world slöjd man Jögge Sundqvist.  https://www.instagram.com/surolle/ Where is he? Japan, Australia, Sweden, Minnesota – well, in June he’ll be in Pinewoods with us. Here he is doing his Jimi Hendrix thing. 

 

Not only do we have the now-old man of Windsor chairs, Curtis, but once again we have Pete Galbert coming back this year. Great chairs, great book, great teacher. https://www.instagram.com/petergalbert/

We just spent a weekend with Tim Manney making all edges sharp. Chair making, tool making, sharpening – Tim covers a lot of ground. https://www.instagram.com/tim.manney/

I’ll do a separate post about Pen Austin next week – she does amazing work with finishes, surfaces, etc. Often working with lime plaster, at the Fest she’s going to show us about using milk paint like you’ve never seen before. Even this crowd that is milk-paint savvy. Pen was there the day we launched Plymouth CRAFT but it’s taken until now for us to get her into our orbit – she’s very much in demand for restoration work. Here is a photo of some of her faux painting on columns for a Shakespeare Company’s stage.

 

I’ll probably do an oak carving session during the Fest, and hopefully Paula will do another cooking w/fire class…we’ll figure those details out during February.

The Slöjd Tradition with Jögge Sundqvist

Well, this has nothing to do with me, other than I was there to watch it happen. Now I get to see it again, from the comfort of my own home.

Here’s the blurb:

The Slöjd Tradition

with Jögge Sundqvist 

Learn some of the methods and techniques behind Slöjd, the self sufficient tradition from Sweden that emphasizes hand work and handicraft. Jögge Sundqvist walks you through the process of making a spatula and a cheese board from green wood. He also demonstrates different types of letter carving and decorative carving.

Jögge Sundqvist is a Swedish woodworker and carver who started learning knife and axe work at the age of four, at the side of his father, Wille Sundqvist. Jögge works in the Slöjd fine craft tradition making stools, chairs, knives, spoons, and sculptures painted with artists’ oil color. Jögge is also a teacher, writer, and gives lectures about Slöjd tradition and techniques.

And the preview:

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/whats-new/slojd-tradition-streaming?node=4128

 

Greenwood Fest June 5-10, 2018

photo Marie Pelletier

People’s lives get busier every year. Ours too. Good thing we have all these time-saving devices…

today’s post is just a “save the date” sort of thing. Plymouth CRAFT’s Greenwood Fest will be early June again, same venue = Pinewoods Dance Camp, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA.

Festival June 8-10; pre-Fest courses June 5-7. TICKETS GO ON SALE FEBRUARY 2, 2018. We will let you know details as we get it together – this is just so you can get the time off of work, quit your job, cancel graduation/wedding, etc and tell your family you’ll be in the woods.

2017 group photo, Marie Pelletier

Here’s the beginnings of the website. https://www.greenwoodfest.org/

Dave Fisher, photo Marie Pelletier

See you there, OK?