by How can you best connect to a teenager? When my son Hugo ended his Abitur, I knew that I wanted to make a trip with him to take a last trip before leaving the house. Ideally, a trip that would leave both of us with a few happy memories.
Easier said than done: a woman from the lifetime and a teenager are completely different animals. I wanted to run. He wanted to be driven. I wanted to get up early. He wanted to sleep. I wanted to eat unusual. He wanted Pub -Mrub. I wanted to be active. He wanted to lie on a sofa or crawl along a dizzying abyss. I wanted to talk. He didn’t (at least not with me, hours after hour). The problem where you should go seemed insurmountable.
But there was an activity that we both enjoyed: to do things and build. Could this be the answer to our “binding” gust? When I suggested that we make a three-day stone carver course to the south and then a wooden class deep in an East Sussex forest, he nodded.
We could spend our days together but not entertain. The start time would be somewhere between him and my preferred increasing hours. Our creative efforts could be interspersed through the food in pubs that are suitable for each of our food preferences. And the travel requirements were minimal. We would rely on my mother in Lewes (but there is a good selection of local accommodations, including a youth hostel in a converted Sussex farmhouse in South Downs, which offers options from private rooms to bell tents). To boot, we can get more than just a few memories. Conran-ISH wood shells and Hepworth-Ish stone sculptures swim in front of my eyes. Yes, that could work, we agreed.
To our surprise, a lot came to the “private tour”, in which our sculptures were publicly praised by the tutors
And so we appeared with a little fear in the Skelton workshop shortly after Hugo’s last A-level test. In a hidden columns of the South Downs, not far from Hassocks, the Skelton Stone-Carving Studio is located near the important, deceased sculptor and letting sting John Skelton (the students can visit scentons sculpture garden near the sculpture garden in the courses). The wide barn style workshop looks over weird vineyards, which also contained a very cool wine bar and a very cool restaurant to our surprise and joy. The Artelium Wine Estate offers Vineyard tours and tasting sessions and discovered that the wines became our lunch point (sausage boards and homemade bread) for the next three days after the wines had won several awards.
But first we had to decide whether we wanted to carve letters or sculptures. We both decided on the sculpture. We then had to make another decision: what kind of stone? Hugo chose a beautiful green granite while I selected a large block of Italian soap stone. None of us had arrived with ideas as disorganized. The course tutors provided books to inspire us and after a little discussion with our eight fellow students, we both decided to become abstract. After three days with open-air chisel, hammering, grinding and polishing, we had sculptures that were viewed well enough for the show at the end of the course. In addition to our (continued) surprise, there was a lot to the “private tour”, in which our sculptures were publicly praised by the tutors. We celebrated with a dinner in the weapon, a gastropub in typical, served stone -baked pizzas, and something that describes it as a “good -loving burrite shell” that consist of sweetener, black beans, guacamole and all the other things that are loved by his mother.
When sunlight flocked through the leaves over us, wood chips ran through the granular air and the sweat from our brows
The next day we drove to the east to a privately owned forest in front of the battle. Here we hoped to master the ancient art of building wood with pole drawes, now a cultural heritage. Amy Leake Amy – youthful, petite, impressive muscular – had set up our stauming vines in the shade of a huge, spreading oak. After you have introduced us into our rotations (simple devices in which Amy made himself, in which saws, rope and a tradel transform the wood), she showed us how to become a huge piece of wood into something ax into a bowl. When sunlight flocked over us through the green leaves, wood shavings ran through the granular air and the sweat from our brows. A pole lathe requires strength, endurance and skill. Thanks to Amy’s experts, we were the proud (albeit exhausted) owners of two beautiful shells until the end of the day.
To relax, we went to local transport to find fish and chips on the beach on the beach, followed by a crazy Golf golf on the sea front. After all the Trenling, it was back in Lewes to get a well -deserved sleep.
I look at our (proudly shown) sculptures and bowls as I write. They always make me smile. Not because I see the embryonic production of two artistic geniuses, but because they remind me of Hugo and I remind me while working with our hands, from blood, sweat and laugh. In addition, the shells are perfect for serving chips. I will do this every day through a number of digital photos.
Skelton workshops runs A three -day Beginner workshop by 29.-31. July for £ 216 including all materials. Amy Leake operates a number of green woodworking classes (£ 200 for two people per day) including brush production and spoon carving
