Get started with green woodworking and discover the art and science of shrink pot carving.

Spend a day in a beautiful setting learning how to carve a wooden shrink pot from start to finish. This course is a great way to get started with woodworking, covering choosing materials, using tools safely, carving techniques, and drying and finishing. You’ll leave with the skills and knowledge needed to start carving, and with your own hand made shrink pot or two!

Key information

• Duration: one day
• Upcoming dates: Friday 25th August 2023
• Start and finish times: starts at 10am and ends at 4.30pm
• Fees: £85
• Includes: tuition, all tools and materials, buffet lunch
• What to bring: as this is a highly practical course, safety boots are required and waterproof clothing is recommended
• Terms and Conditions:
  • you must be 18 years or over to attend our courses.
  • For full list of terms and conditions click here

What you will learn

This course covers everything you need to know and do to create a stylish wooden shrink pot to take away with you. We’ll follow the process from start to finish: choosing a green wood log, hollowing out the centre and fitting a dry wooden base then sitting back and letting the pot dry and shrink around the base to create a sealed and strong container – just like the Vikings did on their long boats!

Ideal for complete beginners or budding green wood workers, the course will give you the skills and confidence to start carving at home.

As well as being a great way to unwind and create your own unique, low impact gifts, ornaments and functional items, the course is also a chance to reconnect with the outdoors and switch off from all of life’s little stresses.

Topics covered include:

• Wood sources, types and forms for shrink pot carving
• Tools, their care and use
• Safe axe use and safe knife cutting techniques
• Shrink pot principles and design
• Sawing and shaping the pot outsides
• Using an auger and gouge to hollow the pot
• Cutting a groove and fitting a pot base
• Shape a lid and finial
• Discussions about drying and finishes

This practical workshop is based outside but undercover. All tools and materials are provided, along with a delicious vegetarian lunch from our on-site café.

Meet your tutors

Your tutor for the day is Neil Hopkins of Forge Ways.

Neil moved to the Dyfi Valley in 2007 to work as a Renewable Engineering Project Manager and to live a more sustainable way of life on a smallholding in the foothills of the Cambrian Mountains.

With a passion for traditional skills and low impact ways of living, Neil has a wealth of experience instructing in the outdoors and has qualifications and experience in arboriculture, green wood working and bushcraft.