Ever wished you were niftier with your hands? Iva Pocock learns some potentially useful traditional skills.
If you go down to the woods in Bealkelly, on the western shore of Lough Derg, you may be in for a big surprise. On the right weekend, in the midst of more than 80 acres of bluebell-carpeted Co Clare oak and birch wood, you'll find a hive of creativity. Beneath makeshift timber structures, hundreds of people are engrossed in a plethora of practical tasks. No keyboards or fax machines here. This is about hammering, cleaving, carving, whittling, gouging, laying, weaving and mixing: in short, learning how to use your hands the old-fashioned way. It's Weekend in the Woods, a two-day collection of workshops in 17 traditional skills, from chairmaking to blacksmithing.
First envisaged as a one-off event by the Centre for Environmental Living and Training (Celt) in 2001, it has gone from strength to strength, attracting people from all walks of life and all over Ireland. "When it started I thought, it's a just a bunch of hippies, and it'll fade into the woodwork. But it hasn't," says Graham Strouts, who teaches participants how to make yurts, traditional Mongolian tents. "It's an established event, which is remarkable."
Sitting beside one of the many campfires that spring up in clearings over the weekend, Del Harding, who owns the woodland (and grew up in London a "very, very long time ago"), says he's delighted with the event, even though it takes a lot of organisation, much of it through voluntary labour. "People come to be creative and for the natural environment. You could run the same thing inside, in the RDS, but it wouldn't be the same. If they want a break here they can go for a wander in the wood or by the lake."
The venue isn't just an enchanting location for the workshops; it also provides many of the raw materials - silver birch, ash, stone and clay - for the handicrafts being taught. "Nearly all the materials come from the wood. It's all very sustainable," says Harding.
As Celt organises the event in association with Muintir na Coille, the woodland coppicing and trade organisation, the wider ecological effect of promoting traditional skills is a key motivation. Producing small-dimension timber from semi-woodlands enhances biodiversity, so encouraging crafts that use the timber is ecologically important, says Joe Gowran of Muintir na Coille.
The environmental theme continues into the Saturday evening with a showing of The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the End of the American Dream in a makeshift cinema. It's a film about the catastrophic effect the imminent end of cheap oil will have on the suburban way of life, leaving many viewers convinced of the usefulness of their new skills. "The future is more uncertain now than ever before, what with the oil crisis and climate change," says Harding. "It might not be so long before we need all these skills to survive."Whether or not survival motivates most of the participants, it's obvious that they delight in the event. John Bohannon, a truck driver from Longford, says he thoroughly enjoyed making a longbow, which he'll use at a traditional-archery club back home. "It's shooting good enough to bring home the dinner!"
The skill: Whittling.
What it's about: Carving wood with a penknife.
What it involves: Learning how to use a penknife without cutting yourself and, in the words of tutor Mark Wilson, "how to bring wood to its true form".
What you get out of it: A wooden spoon and at least one other item.
Practical usefulness: From now on you'll have something to show for the hours you whittle away.
Added attraction: More productive than watching television.
The skill: Coppersmithing.
What it's about: Creating copper items with simple tools.
What it involves: Basic skills such as learning to join two sheets of copper together to make a simple cylinder, making a handle and using rivets.
What you get out of it: A beautiful copper jug and sore fingers.
Practical usefulness: Never again will a leaking water tank end up in a skip.
Added attraction: Shiny copper makes a nice change from dull wood.
The skill: Dry-stone walling.
What it's about: Building stone walls without using mortar.
What it involves: Learning how to lay a wall foundation and how to lay stone in the strongest and most aesthetically pleasing way.
What you get out of it: A strong wall that looks good and blends into the landscape (but you can't take it home).
Practical usefulness: Save money by building your own garden sheds.
Added attraction: The joy of solving a big 3-D jigsaw.
The skill: Yurt making.
What it's about: Creating a round, timber-framed tent, like those lived in by nomadic Mongolians.
What it involves: Learning basic greenwood work skills, such as how to cleave with a froe - a traditional tool used for safely splitting wood into smaller pieces - and wedges, shave with a drawknife and hew with a side axe. Also how to steam-bend a piece of wood.
What you get out of it: A yurt skeleton made of ash and hazel, but not one you can take home.
Practical usefulness: The wherewithal to build an extra room for the kids.
Added attraction: Playing Genghis Khan has never been more authentic.
The skill: Bow making.
What it's about: Crafting your very own medieval weapon.
What it involves: Drawing a centre line on a stave of wood and working it down so the bow is evenly tapered from the handle to the tips, ensuring it makes an arc when you put on a string.
What you get out of it: A longbow made of ash (yew is the traditional timber, but it's harder to work and difficult to find).
Practical usefulness: You won't get mugged carrying one of these around.
Added attraction: Playing Cupid has never been more authentic.
The skill: Earth-oven making.
What it's about: Creating a unique pizza-and-bread oven.
What it involves: Mixing cob - sand, clay, straw and water - in different proportions to create a fireproof layer, an insulating layer and a structural layer, which together make a highly insulated oven.
What you get out of it: Very muddy hands and wellies, as well as the basic skills needed to build something bigger, such as a cob house.
Practical usefulness: Earth-oven-baked bread and pizza are tastier than their electric- or gas-baked equivalents.
Added attraction: A chance to get stuck in the mud.