Wordsworth’s cedar

This new project is quite exciting, so expect to see plenty more updates over the coming months!

During storm Arwen, a large cedar blew down at Rydal Mount, the home of William Wordsworth - in fact, it is the only tree he is known to have planted. I called by after Christmas to look at the tree and had a lovely chat with their curator, Leo. The plan is for me to make a range of gift items, with some completely new ideas in the pipeline…

Here’s the cedar lying down the bank, with some chunks I’ve already salvaged. I took away a load in my van, but the largest part of the trunk remains in situ…

My local furniture makers planked a few sections into 3” boards, which will eventually be turned into platters. Some of the boards have now been machined into squares, ideal for smaller designs, such as tea light holders…

Now you can see how my natural edge designs are prepared - the chalk lines seen in the images below indicate the base of a bowl, with the bark creating the wavy outer shape…

These blanks have been cut on the bandsaw and will soon be rough turned on the lathe…

An assortment of rough turned blanks. The colours are certainly vibrant and look almost like yew! The last image shows the largest two taken from the tree…

I will also be making some very special pens from this wood, so keep an eye out for updates!