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\u201cI\u2019m drawn to making stuff out of timber. When I worked in film and TV it was almost a bit of a break away to go into the shed and make something. It\u2019s always been a relaxing thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pete\u2019s work on set often entailed long days, when he would sometimes leave home at 6am and return at 8.30pm. With two young children, he now enjoys being ensconced in woodwork in his back shed.<\/p>\n
While he also makes cabinets, lamps and \u201cpretty much anything\u201d anyone requests in timber, spoons are his key focus.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nFrom coffee scoops, to teaspoons and large cooking implements, he makes spoons out of local timbers, usually blackwood and sycamore, using green new wood as it is easier to work with.<\/p>\n
When Pete started making spoons, he relied on machines, angle grinders and saws. Now, he uses three simple implements: an axe, a straight-blade sloyd knife and a hooked knife. Not a single piece of sandpaper is used in the process.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an age-old way, the original way, of making spoons and it turns out it\u2019s the simplest and quickest way too. For me, it\u2019s also the most enjoyable way, using hand tools to make a beautiful item.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing machines takes about two hours to make a spoon but with an axe and knives it\u2019s about an hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy using a knife to scoop out the wood, it makes a clean cut so it\u2019s not fluffy or furry with splinters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pete says the skill is so simple he teaches spoon making at day-classes at the Rundell and Rundell workshop off Piper St in Kyneton, teaching people how to read the timber and use the implements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how excited people are after the class when they realise they\u2019ve created something.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is this feeling, he says, that gets to the crux of the Lost Trades Fair and the new-found joy in making old crafts by hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure you can go to the supermarket to buy a wooden spoon for $2 but it has got absolutely no character and it\u2019s normally in terrible timber that doesn\u2019t last long,\u201d Pete says. \u201cAnd, because it\u2019s made by machine, it will break at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you put one of my spoons against a supermarket spoon, I know which one you\u2019d choose.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the people I teach, and for me as well, there\u2019s a real connection with these skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy great grandfather was a woodcarver and I still use his chisels.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany skills haven\u2019t been passed down from parents or grandparents and people really want to connect to that again, to do something practical with their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019m drawn to making stuff out of timber. When I worked in film and TV it was almost a bit of a break away to go into the shed and make something. It\u2019s always been a relaxing thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pete\u2019s work on set often entailed long days, when he would sometimes leave home at 6am and return at 8.30pm. With two young children, he now enjoys being ensconced in woodwork in his back shed.<\/p>\n
While he also makes cabinets, lamps and \u201cpretty much anything\u201d anyone requests in timber, spoons are his key focus.<\/p>\n
From coffee scoops, to teaspoons and large cooking implements, he makes spoons out of local timbers, usually blackwood and sycamore, using green new wood as it is easier to work with.<\/p>\n
When Pete started making spoons, he relied on machines, angle grinders and saws. Now, he uses three simple implements: an axe, a straight-blade sloyd knife and a hooked knife. Not a single piece of sandpaper is used in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an age-old way, the original way, of making spoons and it turns out it\u2019s the simplest and quickest way too. For me, it\u2019s also the most enjoyable way, using hand tools to make a beautiful item.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing machines takes about two hours to make a spoon but with an axe and knives it\u2019s about an hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy using a knife to scoop out the wood, it makes a clean cut so it\u2019s not fluffy or furry with splinters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pete says the skill is so simple he teaches spoon making at day-classes at the Rundell and Rundell workshop off Piper St in Kyneton, teaching people how to read the timber and use the implements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how excited people are after the class when they realise they\u2019ve created something.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is this feeling, he says, that gets to the crux of the Lost Trades Fair and the new-found joy in making old crafts by hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure you can go to the supermarket to buy a wooden spoon for $2 but it has got absolutely no character and it\u2019s normally in terrible timber that doesn\u2019t last long,\u201d Pete says. \u201cAnd, because it\u2019s made by machine, it will break at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you put one of my spoons against a supermarket spoon, I know which one you\u2019d choose.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the people I teach, and for me as well, there\u2019s a real connection with these skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy great grandfather was a woodcarver and I still use his chisels.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany skills haven\u2019t been passed down from parents or grandparents and people really want to connect to that again, to do something practical with their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n