Blackhorse Workshop

Following on from the success of last years Makers Playground, next week we’ll be hosting a series of talks and workshops for London Design Festival asking how wood can be pushed past tradition, past common knowledge and past standard use. How can it as a material be relevant to the moment and speak to the future?  We’ll have talks from TV author Rob Penn on his exploration of the ash tree, alternative joinery classes with Micaella Pedros, explorations of kerning (bending) wood from designer Lola Lely, wood dyeing with Hazel Stark, and discussion from ALP Technologies about the transformation of wood into an energy resource.

Check out our events page here to find out more and book your tickets.

As Walthamstow is legendary for its Neon thanks to the fabulous God’s Own Junkyard, we felt it was about time to learn the secrets. So this weekend we welcomed Neon Workshops down from Wakefield to show us how its done.

Much harder than it looks seems to be the general opinion!

Glowing all the way home. To find out more visit: www.neonworkshops.com

We’re delighted to say that this month building work will start on a brand new extension that will house a new cafe space, education space, new ground floor studios and outdoor working area for members with additional storage. This is all thanks to the Mayor of London’s High Street Fund together with match funding from London Borough of Waltham Forest. We’ll also be welcoming back Turner Prize winning architects and design team Assemble who are leading on the design and build of the new space. So bear with us during construction, and we’ll keep you posted as the space transforms…

Thanks to everyone who came down on Saturday for the Underline Family Activity Day with Art on the Underground.  Great bodging tools workshop, with new inventions such as a blackberry picker (shown above) for those out of reach berries!

Indigo dyeing experiments with artist Katharine May, toy boat building and more!

We’ll be hosting more family activity days soon, but watch out for our Wooden Matters series of events and workshops for London Design Festival. Check out our events page here to find out more.

Nice piece on the workshop by Hole & Corner Magazine for their feature on open access making spaces. Click here to read all about it! Photography by Johanna Ward .

It’s great to be located so close to the speedy Victoria line and we’re delighted to have been asked to be part of Underline – Art on the Underground’s public series of pop up events along its length from Brixton to Walthamstow. So on Saturday 3rd September, we’ll be hosting a special one of market (11-5pm) with kids activities and street food to welcome you back from your summer adventures.  Artist Jasleen Kaur will be running a family workshop called ‘Future Tools’ and the Blackhorse team will be hosting a special ornamental wooden boat making activity, (booking available shortly).  Head over to our events page to check out the full list of what’s happening.

We love this Ash coffee table made by new member Tim Aldridge, a chemistry teacher who knocked this up during his teacher’s summer holidays. Got some time off? Sign yourself up to the induction on the 21st or 27th August (Click here for the details) and get onto those projects before the holiday disappears!

Talking of playful installations, this one headed out of the workshop this week. Called ‘London Calling‘ and made by Mill and Jones for The Old Vic, it featured several phone booths which form part of an interactive experience relating to a new play ‘Rise‘. On answering the phone, you will discover a voicemail message left by a Londoner to someone in their life. The intriguing but anonymous voicemails include messages of unrequited love, gratitude, regret and confession.

The phone booths will be installed down at Waterloo Millennium Green from 9 – 21 August daily from 10 – 9pm. To find out more, visit: http://www.oldvictheatre.com/news/2016/08/london-calling/

Who said August was a holiday? Many of our members are hard at work making new designs for this year’s London Design Festival in September (17 – 25 September).  Above is a sneak preview of Group Design’s new furniture collection: the WSO (Wedged Stool in Oak).

The WSO Stool combines traditional joinery methods with a new take on the structure of the leg components to create an elegant and simple form. Made from Oak dowel and planks with Sapele wedges and dowels, they’ve used FSC certified timber and finished in a wax oil treatment to show the natural quality of the materials used. To place an early order or find out more visit http://www.groupdesign.co.uk or email richardwells@groupdesign.co.uk

It’s about this time of year that the strange builds start to take shape at the workshop. In the last couple of weeks there has been the emergence of some amazing structures destined for festival fields across the country. Pictured here are two made for the recent Secret Garden Party Festival. On a science fiction theme Wilson Palmer built a rocket Sci-Fi library, whilst Pennie Dawes & Josh Lisle built a Geo-Alien.

So if you’re ever in need….you know the people to call! Check out penniedawes.com and wilsonpalmer.co.uk.