PreTown Workshops

What Is Pretown?

Before Spoontown begins, we are offering ‘Pretown’ – a selection of highly skilled tutors offering nine incredible two and half-day workshops.

Pretown runs from Monday 20th to Thursday 23th July 2026

Each class will have a maximum of between 4 and 8 students each.

Covering a wide range of skills for beginners, intermediate and advanced. With varied topics such as carving, adze making and bowl turning.

Courses start from £230 including camping for the duration, lunch and some materials.

In the evenings, we will have a campfire and plenty of opportunities to meet everyone. A food van and bar will be available.

Pretown tickets will be separate from Spoontown tickets.

Pole lathe bowl turning

Amy Leake

It’s such a pleasure to be able to teach over the extended time at Spoontown Pre-town, this course is suitable for beginners or for those with some experience in turning to take your skills to the next level. We’ll start with a simple bowl to understand tool positioning for the best results, then move onto your choice of either more simple bowls to consolidate skills / bowls with handles / end grain cup turning. A general level fitness is required as well as some hand and leg strength.

Sold Out

Hand-cut printing techniques

Diana Brook & Lee John Phillips

Explore a range of printing techniques such as relief print, screen print and intaglio print.
Objectives are to understand the different approaches to the discipline and aim to produce a range of branded outcomes to support your own brand, logo, habit and loves.
We will design, carve, and print simple designs on Lino for business cards, gift tags and promotional literature.
we will cut stencils for screen printing onto fabrics ( tees and totes) and we will explore the lovely process of intaglio print and the endless possibilities of this creative approach.
All processes are sustainable and can be used for multiple prints and multiple outcomes.
Everything you need will be provided. All you need to bring are ideas and a little imagination…… I will have my iPad to help your creative juices run.

Purchase Course

Willow log basket

Ellie Morgan

Make a fantastic big willow log/washing/household basket. In this course you’ll learn how to weave this really useful basket starting with a base, adding stakes, weaving the side and completing with a border and handles. Perfect for carrying logs, washing, mess and small children.
You’ll have an opportunity to use various weaves and types of willow do add decorative interest.
This course has been designed for beginners, but as we’ll be using quite big willow you will need a degree of hand strength.
All materials and tools supplied.
There will be a £25 – 30 supplement to cover the cost of the willow.

Sold Out

Coppersmithing, Foldforming, Chasing and Repoussé

Georg Schulte

A 2.5-day experience where you can choose from various metal-forming techniques to create a bowl, object, pendant, or other piece of jewelry.

You will learn how to bend, stretch, hammer, and shape metal into an object of your choice, while gaining deeper insight into the craft of metalwork in a more decorative approach than you may know from traditional blacksmithing.

Sold Out

Spooncarving and more, in 7 Clear Steps

Jan Harm ter Brugge

Learn to carve your own wooden spoon with clarity and confidence.
In this hands-on course you’ll follow a clear, repeatable 7-step process, from fresh blank to finished spoon.

We’ll cover straight spoons, side-branch ‘shcoops’, and mini mugs, with a strong focus on safe technique, design aspects, and efficient knife and axe work. You’ll learn to read the wood, control grain direction, and solve problems as they arise.

You’ll leave with finished work, a solid method, and the confidence to continue carving on your own.

Sold Out

Spoons in Prehistory: Ladles from Crooks

Martin Hazell

Wooden Artifacts seldom survive from prehistoric times: they are the ‘missing majority’ of Material Culture, but the few surviving wooden spoons show a marked leaning towards ladles, usually carved from a natural bend or ‘crook’. This course will look at prehistoric and early historic ladles, and there will be the opportunity to experiment with recreations of prehistoric techniques using Flint and Bronze tools. Having said this, our aim is fundamentally, to make a ladle or two, and ‘normal’ tools and techniques are also perfectly appropriate !! Should be a fun and interesting few days !

Sold Out

Spoontown improvers class

Martin Rutherford

The course will focus on crafting a cooking spoon, exploring the full process and techniques required to achieve a finished product each time. You will work with a range of traditional tools, including the adze, the Twyca Cam, and the shave horse.

The main aim is to develop and strengthen your existing woodworking skills as much as possible within the time available.

We will work together as a group throughout the process, while I also provide individual guidance to each participant. This one-to-one support will focus on improving personal tool skills and building confidence, helping you reach a higher level of craftsmanship in a relaxed yet productive learning environment.

Sold Out

Sloyd knife making

Nic Westermann

I’m very pleased to be putting on this longer format course again as it allows for a more relaxed and nuanced experience, you will forge a sloyd blade of your own design, as well as another smaller blade of your choosing- detail, chip or Kolrosing are all possible.

You will then grind the blank to refine the shape and grind the bevels; hollow, flat or double ground are all possible, all with purpose made jigs so even if you have no experience in grinding you can still produce a perfect bevel.

Handles will be carved, the blades heat-treated and sharpened and fitted . Depending on the blades you forge different sheathes will be made.

This course assumes no prior knowledge and is open to all, but would especially suitable for anyone that has been on simpler sloyd making courses but wish to expand their skill set.

Sold Out

Deep Dive: Spoon Carving

Nico De Wispelaere

This advanced three-day workshop focuses on the design, functionality, and craftsmanship of the wooden spoon. It is intended for participants with prior experience in knife and axe work and is not suitable for total beginners.

Participants start from a spoon blank and approach the spoon as a functional design object. Throughout the workshop, we explore proportion, geometry, crank, and surface quality, and how these elements influence balance, comfort, and use.

Day 1 Cooking spoon: focuses on design logic, proportions, and advanced knife techniques, with attention to reading the grain and carving clean facets.

Day 2 Eating spoon: deepens axe work in different positions and develops the crank of the eating spoon.

Day 3 is dedicated to refinement and finishing cuts, focusing on surface, tactile quality, and final detailing.

Sold Out

Bulbous Vessel Carving Course

Samuel Alexander

During this course, participants will be guided through a slow, detailed, step-by-step approach to creating bulbous, organic vessel forms from a log using carving methods. The course will start at the very beginning of a vessel journey from the initial split and prep of timber, followed by freehand hollowing using a provided adze, double edged twca cam and loop knives. During hollowing, participants will be shown specific movements and methods to ‘undercut’ a bulbous, organic hollow form. From the hollow, the course will lead on to efficient axe technique and method to reach an even blank before refining with the knife. The course will echo themes of slow making, flow and mindfulness with plenty of room for creative decision making in collaboration with material.

The session is aimed at those with prior carving experience and have perhaps tried carving cups before. It also requires a lot of standing and movement.
Participants will be provided with hollowing tools but will need to bring their own axe and a sharp carving knife, if they do not have this, I can bring some with prior notice.

Sold Out

Pretown Timetable

Monday 20th July 2026

Gates Open 3pm: 8pm

Registration: Collect Your Wristband

Pitch up: Tent or Campervan

Induction: 8pm – 8.30pm

Tuesday 21st July 2026

Morning Workshop Session: 9am – 12pm

Afternoon Workshop Session: 2pm – 5pm

Wednesday 22nd July 2026

Morning Workshop Session: 9am – 12pm

Afternoon Workshop Session: 2pm – 5pm

Thursday 23th July 2026

Final Workshop Session: 9am – 12pm

Finish, Chill Out and Carve: 12pm – 3pm

Main Spoontown Event Starts: 3pm

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