SABEL Saddlery runs workshops and demos at Spoonfest 2013 and 2014

                                            Spoonfest, the international celebration of the carved wooden spoon,

                                            had its second gathering. A group of 200 like-minded spoon carvers got

                                            together, coralled by Robin Wood and Barn the Spoon, in a glorious

                                            location in Edale, Hope Valley in the Peak District.

                                            Surrounded by rolling hills, the festival started on the Thursday evening
                                            with setting up camp and over the next three days, a huge variety of workshops and free demonstrations were held for axe carving, knife skills, decoration, spoon playing...

SABEL Saddlery was invited to run some workshops and free demos on

basic leather skills: hand-stitching and burnishing, and wet moulding.

In 2013 we also set up shop selling basic tools, threads and leather and
created a leather momento: “I (heart) spoons” leather keyring. Over 40
people attended the workshops and we happily fielded all their burning
leather questions. A leather spoon chest protector was a favourite discussion.

                                            The attendees on the stitching and burnishing workshop went away with

                                            a small leather sampler which showed their progression in saddler’s double

                                            hand-stitching, as well as practice in burnishing edges by hand. The wet

                                            moulding workshop participants were shown a variety of wet moulding

                                            techniques for tool sheaths, and went away with a small spoon knife
                                            sheath they had wet moulded themselves. in 2014 we added an improver’s
                                            course and the participants went away with a leather card-case.

                                            Sadly we didn’t get time to make a wooden spoon, but someone kindly

                                            traded one of their spoons, and we have ideas about making a leather

                                            spoon for another time!