What is it between men and bulls?

The horned creatures, the men with black hats. Here in the far past people have hunted these great beasts and later farmed them.

Men and bulls dance the dance of death.

Men fighting their shadows, dancing with their shadows.

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What is it with men and guitars?

Exploring the relations of shape, feminine/masculine. The sound hole, the neck, the body, the heel, the curves. the strings. Mastering it. tapping it. stroking it. vibrating it. or the spanish ‘toca’ - touching it.

The signature of the maker in the rosette and the label: ” I made this”.
Yes and that rosette. What is this decoration around the sound hole.

I find it all very fascinating. So rude and crude. It is almost as sexist as motorbikes and babes, also almost as profound.

The relationship between men. What are we men? What is a man? what makes one?

A series of sketches from Andalucia. The home of the Spanish guitar:

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In my adventures in crafts, some might say my amateur adventures in craft, I am always attracted to the making of tools and jigs ( in which I am admittedly wearing the title of an absolute amateur). Any craft requires tools, and there is always one item that you can never have enough of. usually those for gripping, holding, clamping: the blacksmiths tongs and the woodworkers clamps.

I made 10 of these light cam clamps, or guitar clamps. The next batch might qualify me to the intermediate league…

A quantity is an opportunity for a group photo, or in this case more of an architectural sketch:

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My friend James, whose a second generation ( or more ) forester and wood cutter in Sussex supplied me with the rails and posts of chestnut and oak for a fence as well as a round ash for a gate. I am still trying to figure my relationship with cleft wood and with knives and axes. I am very interested in the environmental impact of these materials that are so quick to renew and therefor allow the landscape to change periodically.

So far I am investigating the traditional application ( i.e. fencing, gates, garden structures, stools..)

My minimal artistic twist on the tradition in the shape of reversed rails was criticized heavily by James; he keeps wanting to take them out and twist them around.

I am not easy in accepting the common sense in the design of the English countryside…

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Just finished a new hive.

At first I wasn’t too happy to install windows in the hive.

I thought that what the bees want to keep for themselves they are entitled to.

One bitter winter made me change my mind.

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I woke up this morning thinking about the fractions of Iron Pyrites that are found on the coast. I remember the story I once was told about Iron - falling down from heaven, meteor showers they are called. The Iron then flows in the water system just the same way it does in our blood, until it comes to a rest in a lake or a shore.

The Iron ore I have found was beached together with flint nodules and salted by the sea. Once upon a time people used to strike the two minerals together to produce a spark for their fire. So many journeys are met thus. Such a junction of stories is the sea.

Less ambitious than the felt and skin piece that I was planning to make last summer.

A piece of Jacob sheep wool. whole fleece. cleaned, carded, seperated the colours and felted.

An experiment in biblical concepts:

The Trickery of Laban and Jacob
25	¶ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
26	Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.
27	And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
28	And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.
29	And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.
30	For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee since my coming: and now, when shall I provide for mine own house also?
31	And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.
32	I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.
33	So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.
34	And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
35	And he removed that day the he goats that were ring-streaked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
36	And he set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37	¶ And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
38	And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.
39	And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted.
40	And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring-streaked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban’s cattle.
41	And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.
42	But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43	And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses

I have started my affair with willows in 2004. So captivated I was that we decided to call our son, born in November that year - Willow. There is much to be said about willow, it’s relation to the Sun and Moon, it’s vigorous growth. Willow was used for basketry which was a huge industry ( before the birth of modern industry ). The landscape in Britain today is still to a large extent influenced by the pursuits of our predecessors on this island; the plants that they grew for their rural industries, the overgrown coppices, the un-pollard trees and hedges.

Economically, for centuries basketry was invaluable; baskets world wide were the indispensable means of carriage of goods. That is before the plastic bag came up. What a loss.

I have started a small willow bed three years ago.

These photos are of the third winter after they have been cut down.

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What is land?

1. A part of the surface of the earth that has a known proportion, boundaries. - a portion.

2. A utilitarian division that stresses purpose, function, or destiny.

3. It’s all down to human control.

Can you own a mountain?

Can you own an island?

A forest?

Land grab, theft, land ownership, occupied, annexed. methods of occupation, from agricultural to military.

What of a land is physical?

What is it that people physically occupy?

What is wilderness then?

When does wilderness occur?