“The northern part of the Gorky region (of Russia) is a single glorious expanse. A green carpet of water meadows spreads along the lower left bank of the Volga and beyond them stretch boundless forests. In autumn these forests are particularly beautiful: dense firtrees enhance the yellow -tinged lime and Birch; the luxuriant maple canopies turn purple and orange and the sun tints the venerable oaks with noble bronze”.

So runs a kaleidoscopic contemporary description of an area that includes the Nizhni-Novgorod region long famous for its colorful woodware.

A recent Russian writer describes his folk art as follows ‘the motifs of Khokhloma painting are both simple and poetic, consisting of floral and plain geometrical patterns. Flowers and clusters of berries interwoven with sweeping grasses and golden tendrils curve gently over the wooden surfaces. Some of these compositions are restrained, others lavish; but all reflect the Russian people’s love of nature and quest for beauty. Khokhloma ware derives its bright, festive character from a distinctive matching of scarlet, black, Silver and gold. This dignified and lustrous combination gives the woodenware an aura of great value. What is all the more remarkable is that Khokhloma “gold” is not real, but the ingenious invention of Russian craftsmen’.

To achieve the gold effect on wood is far from simple. First, the unpainted articles are primed and coated with drying oil. Next they are polished with powdered aluminum (powdered tin and more rarely silver were used in the past). The ‘silvered’ wares are then painted with heat resistant Colours, varnished and fired in kilns. The heat turns the varnish yellow, the ‘silver into ‘gold’ and mellows the vivid design with an even, golden tone’

The Khokhloma folk art, (named after a small village) has a long history with evidence going back to at least the seventeenth century. In a letter to his bailiff a certain boyar called Morozov issued an order in 1659 for the following. ‘One hundred painted dishes polished with powdered tin, both large and medium, of the very same kind possessed by us earlier, not forgetting twenty large painted wine bowls, twenty medium and twenty somewhat smaller’.

By the eighteenth century painted ware was being produced all over Russia but many found the original Khokhloma ware a hard act to follow, even today the best work comes from the traditional region. The majority of Khokhloma ware is turned and originally intended for use. The plainer pieces were used every day, even by the peasant community. The finest, highly decorated items were brought out for special occasions only.

The observations of a court physician, G. Rehmann whilst visiting Markaryev fair, the largest in Russia in 1805 give us some idea of what was being produced at that period.’ Among many other objects worthy of curiosity, I was often astonished by the great bowls of as much as one and a half arsheen (equal to 107 centimeters) in diameter turned from wood which did not show the least signs of cracking, in spite of the scorching heat and the strong reflection of the suns rays from the sand where they lay. There were smaller bowls than these with lids, which held up to forty smaller ones placed one inside the other’. Rehmann concluded his observations with, ’these are veritable examples of the art of turning’.

The popularity of Khokhloma ware was such that production had expanded to other regions to meet demand and led to the manufacture being highly organized. The Nizhni-Novgorod Provincial News wrote in 1855; ‘There is remarkable activity in the Khokhloma region, one village makes wooden blocks from which another turns bowls while a third village paints them’. Over five hundred woodturner’s workshops were situated in the Semionov district alone. This is an Interesting division of labour and an unusual example of mass production throughout a large rural area, how I wish I could have been there to record the process!

It is stated that many of the lathes, being water powered were set up in workshops along the banks of the small but fast flowing rivers Kerzhnets, Linda and Uzol, ‘hand’ driven lathes and others powered by horses also existed.

The output from these turneries was eagerly purchased by the peasant dyers of Khokhloma. ‘ These craftsmen lived in tidy, close-knit community’s and their premises were unmistakable: a dye-house smelled strongly of paint and burned drying oil and it’s entrance was always cluttered with baskets containing the finished wares. A wealthier peasant would own a large dye-house equipped with two enormous kilns, numerous drying shelves and a spacious cellar where there was room for ten people to work’. Men, women and children were involved in priming, coating with drying oils and applying the final decoration.

It is amazing that what started out as a true folk tradition over 300 years ago is still thriving and remains basically true to it’s roots, albeit on a more organized scale. Apart from Khokhloma ware most visitors to Russia will have at least one set of Matrioshka dolls in their luggage. These dolls within dolls have long been a source of fascination. The undoing of the main doll to reveal others almost ad-in-finitem has always produced wonderment and appreciation for the woodturner’s art.

The inspiration for Matrioshka dolls is said to originate in Japan. The Hakone region has been associated with Marquetry and ‘inlaid’ turnery for nearly two century’s (much like Tunbridge wells, England). Amongst the gift and souvenir items produced were wooden eggs in which smaller eggs decreasing in size are contained within each other. These came in sets of twelve or thirty-six. It is recorded that a Yumoto teashop owner was selling such eggs in 1844. Missionaries from the Russian Orthodox Church who had established a mission in Tohnosawa and visited Hakone during the summer took the wooden eggs home to their motherland as presents towards the end of the nineteenth century.

One can imagine the appreciation the Russian woodturners would have had for these Japanese works of art and how well the concept fitted into their own tradition. With their natural flair for ‘folk art’ the Russians have produced something that is totally identifiable theirs.

Further reading: ‘Khokhloma Folk Painting’ published in Leningrad by Aurora Art Publishers.

Some time ago I received a commission from the Caversham Residents Association, supported by Reading Borough Council, to design, carve and paint a sign to represent the history of the village.

The main design components are the bridge over the Thames, the river itself and a swan, representative of the many that have always been associated with the area. The river theme is completed with a working boat travelling under the bridge and a basket maker creating a willow eel trap.

The medieval church of St Peter is prominently carved to the left-hand side with the equally early pilgrim’s well of St Anne close by. A gypsy caravan is depicted travelling over the bridge just as many original examples would have done years ago because the local firm of Duntons produced them in abundance for travelling folk.

Here is the result, which has been mounted on a tall Oak post in the village centre.

It’s the same with artificial flowers. Remember those awful plastic examples from Hong Kong, heavily molded lurid reds and greens that fooled no one? Today, artificial flowers and foliage can be unbelievably life like, but until very recent times there was only another source of artificial flowers for the ordinary home: from the Romanies or Gypsies. These itinerant folk have been wandering the English lanes for the last five hundred years. They originated in northern India from where they started their migration west over a thousand years ago. Why they suddenly left their native land is still an unsolved mystery to scholars.

<< Left: First petal created on the ‘flower horse’

Romanies have always lived just outside ‘normal’ society and learned to live with and from nature. We have all heard of their exploits regarding poaching, taking just what they needed from the wild to survive, but no more. This ethos ran through nearly all that they did. It was the same with their traditional crafts whether peg making or weaving baskets, they took from the hedgerows the Hazel and Willow freely provided. This was working with nature, and the more that Hazel and Willow are cut the more it will grow, it was using a renewable resource.

Another of the Romany crafts was making artificial flowers. Various materials were used, pink and red roses were expertly moulded by hand from candle wax and fixed to twigs. Coloured crepe paper was cut with scissors, deftly folded, tweaked and wired onto a single twig stem. The most impressive blooms however were created from wood, Elder being the Romanies preferred material. Elder produces extremely fine ‘petals’, flower heads in excess of six inches were common and resembled large Chrysanthemums. I have seen similar flowers made by gypsies in Eastern and central Europe, it seems to be a deep seated tradition.

Right: Bloom is parted from Hazel stem >>A short ‘peg knife’ is the only tool required. The Elder should ideally be from two /three-year-old shoots cut into manageable lengths of about eighteen inches long. The knife is used to remove the bark, then with the back of the knife held firm against the knee the stem is pulled against the knife blade to produce a long curly shaving. This is the first of many petals that are subsequently created in turn; one next to the other as the wooden stem is slowly rotated and pulled against the blade. This continues until the flower head is released from the Elder stem. The next step is to mount the flower head on to a suitable looking stem. There was no need to drill a hole in the base of the flower, as the central pith of the Elder was soft enough to allow the proposed stalk to be pushed in. Privet was the favorite choice with its straight growth and shiny dark green leaves.

The Privet was usually ‘harvested’ after dark from the hedges of cottager’s who would often unwittingly buy back their own Privet, complete with flower heads the following day as the Romany women went selling door to door. Some flowers were sold natural, other were softly coloured, either by using natural vegetable or fruit stains or the leached-out dyes from crepe paper put into a bucket of water.

I learnt the craft from an old Romany called ‘Gypsy John’ whose proud boast was that he was born in a traditional Gypsy wagon at ‘Stow in the wold’ annual Horse fair. I have demonstrated making Gypsy flowers at country and craft events for over twenty-five years now. Rather than using the peg knife method I use my homemade ‘Flower Horse’, a simple three legged stool contraption that contains a horizontal knife blade. I find the public never cease to be enthralled when they witness a flower made from wood evolve in front of them in just ninety seconds. Rather than use Elder I have come to prefer Hazel wood as it is very predicable and grows in abundance in my native Chiltern Hills.

A long winding country road slowly dissolves uphill into the main street of Sieffen where private homes and small shops share the roadside. Everywhere are large carved, turned and painted wooden signs, many of them animated, pronouncing proudly the local toy making tradition. At the village centre is the church, which itself features in some of the toys. All around are small factories and workshops, some built in the Alpine style of the region.

One has to ask the inevitable question, how did this toy making tradition start? To find the answer we have to travel back to the 14th century with the discovery of metal ores, especially silver and tin. The rich mountain towns such as Annaberg and Marienberg were founded upon the riches extracted from the Erzgebirge mines. By the middle of the 17th century mining was in decline although the last mine to close in Sieffen was in 1849.

Miners were familiar with wood, it grew all around them, it was used in the mineshafts, to build mining machinery and for their wooden houses. As a pass-time, they carved wood through the long winter nights into figures depicting their own mining community and those around them. Figures in traditional costume holding and working with the tools of their trade were very popular.

Coinciding with the major decline in mining was the introduction of pillow lace making. In 1571 one Barbara Uthmann was employing over 900 women making lace, there were approximately 10,000 by the end of the 16th century and by 1845 the figure peeked at 40,000. Pillow lace requires up to 100 wooden bobbins per worker, that’s a lot of bobbins and a lot of work for the lathe. The first documented woodturner in Seiffen was described as a maker of plates and spindles (bobbins?). A turner from Seiffen is known to have travelled to Leipzig fair as early as 1690 and from the mid 18th century ‘goods from Sieffen were well known on the European market.

By this time figures and toys comprising of a number of turned elements rather than purely carved items were well established and from 1810 the ‘discovery’ of ‘hoop’ (ring) turning enabled the toy makers to extend their range considerably. Turning profiled rings that could be sliced into many single animal shapes to produce farm yard and Noah’s Ark toys efficiently added greatly to the toy maker’s repertoire.

It is perhaps the ‘smoking man’, or ‘manikin’, that really brings out the essence of the characters of the area. These small figures represent the traditional occupations of the region over the last few hundreds of years, miners of course, but also peasants’, itinerant salesmen, village sweep and postman. The one thing all these manikins have in common is that they smoke a pipe. A traditional German carol starts with; a man with nothing in his mouth is a poor type. And never will a man among us be seen without a pipe… This is a reference to the ubiquitous habit of smoking among men at the time. These smoking men are made in two sections and when the top half is lifted, usually at the waist, a metal cup is revealed. A fragrant ‘candle’ is placed on the cup and lit. The two halves are reunited and soon perfumed smoke emanates from the figure’s mouth, there is no flame, the ‘candle’ just smoulders slowly.

Much of the Seiffen toy makers’ production is concentrated on the Christmas market. Indeed, the Village itself is one large festival during the three weeks leading up to Christmas. With new fallen snow reflecting the lanterns and candles of the evening processions to the church from where traditional music is played and carols are sung, the place is thronging with visitors who want to celebrate the festive season in a truly wonderland setting.

Many of you will be familiar with the so-called ‘Christmas Pyramids’ incorporating piers of seasonal figures such as angels, the nativity, and musicians, all set in motion by the rising warm air from decorative candles turning the horizontal fan at the top. These were made from the early 1800s to decorate the local’s own houses, not till 1902 were they first produced commercially. Over the years they have become more elaborate, made possible due to the many lathe turned components. Since the 1930s some communities have built giant versions several metres high in the town squares as part of their seasonal celebrations.

To ensure all this is secured for the future Sieffen hosts a school of toy making. It is furnished with first class machinery; a whole shop is devoted to woodturning and boasts a long bank of lathes that would be the envy of most in the teaching profession. The second shop comprises of every machine required in the manufacture of toys. The students normally attend for three years after which they are fully grounded in the trade and are eagerly sought after by the local manufacturers. The school, which on my visit appeared to have an equal number of boys and girls, is sponsored by the local Toy Makers Guild.

Sieffen boasts a wonderful museum covering the whole history of the region. The collection is displayed on two floors and is a must for anyone interested in the history of woodturning and toy making. There are reconstructed rooms representing a toy maker’s living quarters and a ‘hoop turners’ workshop plus a collection of antique lathes.

Never have I been in a town or village where it appears the whole community is involved in the production of so many diverse objects made of so many components, but with a common theme, and all based upon a long tradition. What impressed me is the attention to design and standard of finish of everything these craftspeople produce, be it a small tree decoration or the most expensive ‘Pyramid’. What is more, the people in the Erzgebirge Mountains are proud of their history and do all they can to promote and protect it. Long may they do so.

We had never visited an Arab country before and the thought of exciting Souks in a walled Medina, the Kasbah, carpets, spices and Camels, this had to be our next holiday. Morocco beckoned, to be precise our destination was to be Marrakech. Flight time from Gatwick was just over three hours, and with a ten-minute transfer to our hotel everything was very relaxed. The hotel (El Andalous) is situated two kilometres from the old city centre, half an hours stroll or a cheep taxi ride.

Two types of taxi operate in Marrakech, the’ taxi petit’ or the ‘taxi grand’. The petit is all you would normally need within and around the old or new city, being the smallest they are also the cheapest, ten-twenty Dirhams (60p-£1-20p) will take you to most places during the day, prices rise during the evening slightly. A ‘taxi grand’ will cost a little more, and being mostly Mercedes have extra room for larger parties, they are also uniquely allowed to travel outside the city boundaries and so are available for longer sightseeing journeys. Always agree a taxi fare before you start your journey.

As usual we were keen to leave the confines of our hotel and eager to explore. We headed on foot towards the highest landmark in all of Marrakech, the imposing tower of the Koutoubia mosque (C1184-1189) still resplendent in it’s rather refined Moorish style. This led us to the old walled city (Medina) and into a world unlike any we had previously experienced, only a visit to Goa a few years ago came close. Standing in ‘Place Djemaa el–Fna’, referred to in general as ‘la place’ in French or ‘the square’ in English, we were presented with a 360 degree panoramic spectacle such as one might find in an Arabian storybook.

With the large Koutoubia mosque behind us we surveyed a frenetic scene of minor commerce. Wizened old men wearily pulling handcarts laden with all manner of merchandise, colourfull carpets piled high, new made chairs and mysterious boxes. Other goods, building rubble and the detritus of everyday living were being conveyed in carts pulled by sad looking donkeys, their drivers giving them an occasional prod with a stick to remind them of whose boss. Green horse drawn carriages conveying newly arrived tourists added some serenity to an otherwise frenetic scene. Entertainers were in the Square en-mass, all trying to extract some loose change from our pockets, usually in exchange for a ‘photo opportunity’.

Kaftaned-attired dancers with their shell lined, tassel swirling hats and bells were complimented by an assortment of other ethnic musicians. Burka wearing women were doing good business decorating arms, hands and faces with traditional henna designs, others were squatted beneath parasols in readiness to tell ones fortune. Storytellers and elder educators attracted large crowds of locals, as did the ‘medicine men’ with their stalls laid out complete with jars of mysterious remedies and skins of long deceased animals.

There were no western hippie groups muscling in on the entertainment act, as is the case in most European countries, the entertainment was purely indigenous, and very colourful. The brightly dressed ‘water carriers’, with their Day-Glo ‘lampshade’ hats, shiny brass drinking cups and bells would have been prime contenders for a leading role in any British pantomime. I found the snake charmers less than charming, but there were still many who could not resist having the ‘snake around the neck’ photo to take back home. I do have to admit though, that the wailing of the snake men’s trumpets and the beat of the drums certainly added to the atmosphere.

Again, we were not enamoured at all by the men with their captive monkeys forced to endure an alien environment in the pursuit of tourist cash. Towards the periphery of the square were stalls selling spices and local fruit, I have never seen so many dates, and strung-up figs piled high tempting passers by. Enclosing all this are numerous cafes and restaurants encouraging the visitor to relax and do some people watching.

The best advantage points for an over-view of the Square is from one of the terraced roof top restaurants with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice or a glass of the local sweet mint tea, or maybe a coffee with a plate of petit pours. Any time of day is good for this relaxing and entertaining experience but late afternoon in March with the sun low in the sky is particularly evocative of the Eastern spirit.

This is when the square prepares it’s-self for the nightly feasting of it’s inhabitants. Food stalls illuminated by gas lamp and light bulbs push the daytime entertainers to the margins as cooking stoves and copper tea urns smoke, steam and hiss into the ever-glowing skyline. Customers seated around the bustling stalls can indulge in various delights such as boiled sheep’s head, snails served hot in china dishes seeped in snail liqueur or hard boiled eggs stuffed into a large bread roll.

The ‘Place Djemaa el-Fna’ was just the start of this Moroccan adventure, just a fraction of the old city). There were still fine monuments to discover such as the utterly unmissible Bahia Palace decorated in rich arabesque splendour with its painted ceilings and stucco carvings. The Ben Youssef Medrassa is another must-see masterpiece for those interested in historic architecture. It was founded in the fifteenth century as a university for the study of the Koran. Once it housed nine hundred students, or so we were informed by a weasely old man dressed all in white, who immediately latched on to as a (unofficial) guide and who became more irritating by the minuet, hoping for a tip.

It is common to be pestered by locals offering to take you some where, usually places you don’t want to go like their brothers carpet shop or the tannery where they will receive a small payment from the proprietors. On the other hand you may well be lost as we were at one time. We were pleased to pay the young boy who offered to guide us back to the main square, for his trouble. I imagine he regularly tops up his pocket money this way! The Medina is a large and confusing place and unless you have plenty of time to explore at your own pace it would be worth hiring an official guide for a day (about £30). A guide will also help you deal with the thousands of shopkeepers in the souks and the Kasbah.

The Souk and Kasbah are the two main areas of commerce, made up of alleyways, winding streets and small shops fronting the thoroughfares, and the proprietor of each will insistently ask you to look at his goods as you are passing in the hope of a sale. You learn quickly to politely ignore them, unless of course the amazing array goods on offer tempt you. If you are tempted, bargaining is the order of the day or you will pay severely over the odds! If something is offered for 500 Dirhams, the vendor will probably, after a bit of haggling accept 50! Good buys are clothes, carpets, inlayed wooden items, leather goods and metal work. Lanterns hang everywhere and like much of what is seen for sale will have been made just a few streets away.

If you have the time, seek out some of these artisans. I wanted to find some traditional woodturners using medieval type bow lathes and was successful. Marrakech is a microcosm of pre industrial revolution technology, it’s all there; metal bashing, tanning, ceramics, textiles and all the wood-working trades.

Marrakech can be very tiring on the feet, but in my view is best seen on foot, but hiring a horse drawn carriage will introduce you to many of the sites and experiences at a more leisurely pace. Depending on your bartering skills this will cost between £5-£10 per hour. We took to a carriage to visit the Majorelle gardens, a welcome oasis of peace and bird song just outside the city wall. This was the perfect antidote to shopping in the Souk and dodging the ubiquitous mopeds that form the main means of personal transport, and seemed some times to come from nowhere.

If you tire of the old Medina there is always the new city to explore with its upmarket shops and restaurants, but we decided it was not for us. As a break and an opportunity to see some more of morocco we booked a long excursion through the High Atlas Mountains to the old city of Ouarzazate. This proved to be a good choice. We boarded our minibus at 7am and travelled from the plains of Marrakech to the lush valleys of the Berbers, whose pink hued mud brick homes clung precariously to the steep hillsides. Access to these was often only by way of a rickety rope bridge across a ravine. There were opportunities for those who collect stones and fossils to make some worth while purchases as momentos of the region. After a couple of hours we reached the snow-line becoming unexpectedly stuck behind other vehicles that were having difficulty driving on the ice. This added to the excitement of being more than 3000 metres above sea level. The views were stunning, especially looking back to the winding hairpin roads we had just travelled on.

Once over the summit the landscape slowly changed though snowy white to green, and then to a more desolate but warm rust-red semi moon like landscape so beloved of epic filmmakers. Indeed, Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator were both filmed here. After stopping to admire a hilltop Kasbah and visiting a ‘typical’ Berber home we reached the small town of Ouarzazate. After lunch it was time to retrace our steps for the long journey back to Marrakech.

Our visit to North Africa was full of the sights, sounds, and aromas, characters and colour that I was promised by all the guidebooks with one exception. Even the tour operator dose not recommend Morocco to vegetarians. We are both vegetarians and experienced no problems at all, either at our hotel of eating out, so go and enjoy!

The use of bow lathes has a long tradition. The first recorded example is an illustration on an Egyptian tomb circa 350 BC. Its actual usage almost certainly goes back much further than that. In Marakesh these lathes are used to produce small items such as chess pieces.

I was commissioned in 2006 by Holmer Green Methodist Church to create an altar-piece with a carved cross. This was to replace the old pine panelling that had seen better days and to match the pulpit I had revamped a few years previously.

The church has undergone a complete refit to make it more compatible for today’s needs complete with a multi-coloured pastel-painted ceiling reflecting the gentle light of the stained glass windows.