Joseph Bloor in Time Out magazine

London's 'Time Out' magazine of October 7th features unusual crafts in London and includes Joseph Bloor (Buerton school/ Brine Leas/ Malbank) and his Green wood working group based at Abney Park Cemetery.

Joseph Bloor, London Green Wood, is pictured in the photo by Rob Craig. Joseph says in the article: "I grew up in the countryside, so have always been experimenting with a penknife and whittling, but I carved my first spoon in 2006.

"Green wood is freshly felled timber and used while it's still wet. It's soft enough to be shaped with traditional tools, which gives a very different finish to dry carving.

"Patience is really important; people expect to learn things quickly, but they say it takes 10,000 hours to become a competent craftsman, no matter what the craft.

"We've never had any injuries needing more than a plaster, really – a big part of our introductory course is learning the safe way to work with our tools. Teaching adults isn't too bad because they listen to warnings, but if you tell a child that an axe is really sharp it just doesn't seem to sink in in quite the same way.

"Our wood usually comes from tree surgeons, and is mainly from native species such as Ash, Sycamore, Cherry, Hazel and Willow. Our manual tools don't create as much dust as power tools, but we do get a lot of woodchip. It fuels our brazier in winter, it bulks out compost and some of it even gets used for cheese smoking."

London Green Wood

This community-run woodwork centre offers the facilities to work on personal green wood projects as well as offering workshops in the craft. Affordable workshops are run regularly but should be booked in advance.

Those who have attended an introductory course are welcome to drop into free open workshops on Thursdays and selected Saturdays. Abney Park Cemetery, London N16 0LH

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