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chromatic pitch pipe
One of my most beloved possessions is a chromatic pitch pipe. It belonged to my Finnish grandfather, a luthier, a fine woodworker, and a beautiful singer. Its purpose is to set a pitch to tune an...
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colourwork
Colour is such a pleasure to work with in any material. I love mixing printing inks or chalk paint, plant-dyeing yarn, planning a garden, tying a bouquet, sewing cushions and clothes, glazing pots,...
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sun salutation
How extraordinary, to move through a sun salutation while facing the sun across the lake. This year, amongst many dreams that I’m turning into goals, I’d like to devote a few minutes each morning to...
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stoneware candlesticks
Learning to throw all kinds of things on the pottery wheel is a joyful thing! One of my greatest delights was to learn to make useful, beautiful, ornate candlesticks. These form the first part of my...
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coop design
Knowing our hatching eggs would arrive at the end of April, hatching out in May, and ready for their coop end of June, in the winter I began searching for plans for a chicken coop. Searching and...
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the coop platform
With the platform sited in a protected corner of the garden, I set about getting it level and standing up on legs. I designed the coop on four legs to provide an undercover area for chickens to hang...
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jigsawing doors & windows
Once the long walls of the coop were complete, they needed to be sheathed with 3/8″ plywood that I hand-sawed down to size, which was surprisingly quick and accurate. Then I clamped, predrilled and...
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raising the coop walls
As in all barn-raisings, we went with the tradition of inviting neighbours round to help. Many hands made very light work of standing each wall, And bracing it in place once it was plumb. Just a...
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potager design
Each year I sketch the kitchen garden to picture what will live in the protected, somewhat rabbit-free potager and what can thrive outside it, integrated into the beautiful perennial garden along the...
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coop rafters
Let me show you how I got the rafters framed up on the coop. This bit of the design required plenty of telephone conversations, wrestling with hypotenuse and getting my head around the concept of the...
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laundry basket
In my short life, I have watched the demise of a series of unfortunate plastic laundry baskets. Handles, then sides, would crack, rendering them unstable, collapsing in your hands and scratching you...
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rotary whisk
Recently I’ve grown very fond of small, effective kitchen tools that require no electricity, are not inclined to break, and are a pleasure to use. Like the moulin, my rotary whisk (when I speak...
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handcrank sewing machine
The culture that produced our extraordinarily strong, elegant, exquisitely engineered handcrank sewing machine must have envisioned a very different future than one of planned obsolescence. All its...
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