The Great Scottish Craft Hoolie

I carved my first spoon in 2016;  having always loved the infinite variety in wood grain, and having always been interested in craft and making, finding greenwood carving, and specifically spoons was like a homecoming.  What gets me about spoons is their functionality – I’m interested in making beautiful things, but I’m even more interested if they’re useful too.  I like repeating shapes and striving for repeatability and consistency – to some, that’s boring, but to me it’s how I go deeper into this particular rabbit hole.

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I started practicing woodcarving the year before the pandemic, as a way to decompress and ease the stress of working as a musician/busker full time. After the pandemic, I took 6 months off and went on a long journey across the US, crafting and busking for donations, making up stories for my little characters as we traveled along. Ultimately, I started teaching my first classes there, and once back in Scotland, I decided to put all that energy into building a community and bring together ancient  skills, tradition, creativity, innovation,mindfulness,well-being, storytelling, mental health and more, all in one room, with just a little block of wood and a sharp tool. And a cup of tea or coffee.

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I've been a Painter/Decorator for 40 plus years and have always made things but started working more with green wood around 2015. This led me to spoon carving and then got involved with Ian Glendinning in 2018, which led to The Fyne Stirrers spoon carvers. It snowballed from then leading down a rabbit hole to modifying existing tools and making new ones, this led naturally on to leather work, to protect the new blades.

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Ian has been a green woodworker for longer than he can remember, mainly pole lathing. However after his first Spoon Hoolie back in 2018 he was so inspired that he went home and started his own local spoon carving club, The Fyne Stirrers based in Mid Argyll. At this year’s Craft Hoolie Ian along with fellow Fyne Stirrer John Cupples will be teaching leatherworking, making knife and axe sheaths and other leatherwork projects.

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With qualifications in both gardening and arboriculture to his name, Paul is a skilled green woodworker and trainer with twenty years’ hands-on experience across a range of sectors.  As a founder and director of woodland groups, Paul combines his knowledge of rural practices with his interest in social wellbeing to help build stronger, more connected communities.

Never comfortable without a project on hand and a tool with which to shape it, Paul’s practical nature and love of the outdoors continuously drives his workshops in creative new directions.  He aims to continue passing on traditional green woodworking skills to anyone in earshot, inspiring and empowering the next generation of Scottish forestry workers.

Paul is committed to restore hazel coppicing across Scotland and reinvigorate coppice crafts.

Craig has been a green woodworker for the last decade or so, after he fell in love with the fact that with a few relatively basic tools and a fallen branch you can create a decorative or useful object that will be used and admired for a lifetime. Craig works at Green Aspirations delivering mental health programmes, skills workshops and our kids holiday club, all of which have encouraged him to explore more crafts, including basket weaving. Craig enjoys working with his hands and turning simple, natural materials into something beautiful and useful.

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Jo is one of the directors of Green Aspirations, looking after the day-to-day operations as well as charcoal production. In 2024, Jo trained as a blacksmith, completing the City & Guilds in Forgework and, since then, has been offering a range of workshops using traditional tools and techniques, including forging using charcoal made on site. The focus has been on developing engaging workshops where beginners and hobbyists can learn and hone techniques that can be used on a range of projects, to make blacksmithing more widely accessible.