|
I was deeply honoured to be asked if I would go to America to teach green woodworking skills and furniture making, to Native Americans called the Hupa Indians. I had spent three years at Clissett wood, in Herefordshire doing a special Phillip Clissett memorial apprenticeship, learning traditional furniture making and greenwood crafts from some of the countries leading experts, Mike Abbott and Gudrun Leitz. Steve Betts taught me all the woodland crafts and management skills. This was combined with a college course learning cabinet making and design, so Chloe Darling, who asked me to go to Hoopa, obviously thought that I would have enough skills to pass on to the Indians. Woodland Heritage were a great help in raising funds, it was even nicer that Woodland Heritage could support me because they had been a great help in my apprenticeship. The other great support was from The Association of Pole Lathe Turners of which I am a member. Their committee said they were willing to support me. The really touching part was when the actual members themselves started sending me donations, some I had never actually met, but they had heard of me and they wanted to help. My biggest worry was the fact I would be carrying lots of tools to donate to the tribe. To airport security they must look like a small arsenal of weaponry, but the airline assured me that as long as they were not power tools it would be no problem ! So as my summer shows came to an end I packed up my tools, shut up my workshop and set off for Hoopa. |  Adam (Wise Owl) splitting a maple log for his stool. |
 Thomas Blake turning maple legs for his stool. | The flight was great, looking out of the window I saw the whole length of Britain, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the Rocky Mountains and the top of the United States - breath taking. I had to change at San Francisco and get on a tiny little plane that took me 400 miles north to Eureka where I was met by Bella Peralta, George Blake and Nick, a fellow Englishman. They made me feel really at home straight away. George was the local Indian artist who I was going to be living and working with and who had organised the workshop from the American end. George is half Hupa and half Yurok Indian. He is a fine artist in many materials - wood, ceramics, leather, stone, antler - and makes the most fantastic silver jewellery that he has sold to many celebrities. George’s home and studio was about an hours drive from Eureka through very dramatic country but when we got to the Hoopa valley it was dark. I woke to a beautiful sunny day and went down to the Trinity River that flowed through the Hoopa valley. It was a fantastic spot for a workshop - about 50 feet below George’s studio in a grove of maples and oaks overlooking the river. There were already some lathes and shave horses there, made by Richard Perry, a green woodwork teacher from Ruskin Mill in Gloucestershire. He had gone out there a year before for 12 days and had started the tribe’s interest in pole lathe and chair making techniques. Richard had made a great start and what he had achieved in that short time was brilliant. George and myself went on the search for timber of which there was plenty. The reservation that we were on was about 20 square miles with many different softwoods and lots of Oaks and Maples to choose from, so we soon had a truck full for the workshop. Bella and George had spread the word about the Englishman coming to teach woodwork so he had a "select few" for the course. He wanted keen, more mature people learning some serious skills and they in turn would be able to help the youths. |
I was met by our team of recruits: A retired forester called Butch, who had been felling timber all his life but had never actually used the material. Thomas, a 38 year old lad who had a lot of hardship in his life, but had became very strong and enthusiastic about craft. Adam was the youngest at only 18, but once motivated was keen enough. Fealine was also doing woodwork with us, although she could only come round in the evenings and at weekends. Blakey and Michael made smaller items on the pole lathe when they came home from school.
I started by showing them the basics in working with green wood and got them making small stools so they could get some idea of having to make all the components and then having to let them dry before assembly. It also gave me an opportunity to see their skill level. Although they were learning the traditional techniques they were keen on using their power tools, so we combined the modern with the old, as they kept saying, "We are 21st century Indians". As the weeks went on they had made lots of components for their project and we had a fantastic pile of parts all around the wood burner, drying out.
It was in the last week that we really concentrated on the assembly. Thomas had made two large dining tables with fantastic free-form legs of oak, one with a big sugar pine top and one using a cedar plank his grandfather had got from the sawmill he used to work at. He had made enough legs and components for three more tables and enough stool legs to seat the whole of Hoopa ! Butch had made a nice little table/stool and a large coffee table and then in the last week, had decided he wanted to make his granddaughter a little chair for her Christmas present. Fealine had concentrated on making a rocking chair. George had managed to make lots of stools and a low table and one nice chunky armchair from sugar pine, which he wanted to promote the use of. (All this was made in-between him making his jewellery and jobs in the tribe itself.)
I myself had almost completed two chairs to leave as ideas and inspiration. With the skills they had learned and with a bit of hard work there was furniture in the trees all around for them in the future. We had also managed to get two more lathes built, plus a steamer, another horse and some box bellows for tool making. We were even working up until I left for the airport! It looked great when we got all the produce together for the group photo.
It was amazing how quick the time went, and how welcome they made me feel. It was a very emotional trip and leaving was really sad. It is difficult for me to put into words what a fantastic experience it was, and the things we did together. I think I made a good start in passing on the techniques, but it would be great to go out there next year to follow on the training. Butch, Thomas and the others said they wanted me to come back. |
I would just like to thank all the people at this end who made my trip possible - especially Woodland Heritage and everyone in the Hoopa reservation who could not have made my trip anymore enjoyable if they had tried.
Ben Orford
Left to right: Ben, Fealine, Butch, Thomas and George Blake, the local artist.
Editor: The future of British forestry lies in the hands of Ben and his generation of enthusiastic and knowledgeable woodworker/foresters.