Just a quick post to thank every single person who has dropped by over the years. This week we hit a million views, and for a wee blog like this I feel thats a good achievement. However it could not have been done without each and every one of you, so to everyone who had ever visited, thankyou and we salute you.
Saturday, 17 December 2022
Monday, 5 December 2022
Sunday, 4 December 2022
Making Artists charcoal
Most artists know that the best drawing charcoal is made from willow, so having a few artists in the buzzard family we decided to make some for them.
First thing we did was cut and debark the willow
We then found a suitable size tin and cut the willow to size to take up as much room as possible inside
The thickness of the willow is also imperative, it needs to be the right diameter to make the correct size of charcoal
Tin filled as much as possible then the lid with a small hole punctured in the top to allow moisture and gases to escape. Once that's done it's placed in the campfire.
The charcoal formed nicely with only one issue, it curved badly. This I believe was due to the fact that we didn't rotate the tin in the fire and one side heated faster and longer thus causing the curvature. Still, the charcoal worked brilliantly and little pieces put into elder twigs make great pencils. The artists were very happy.
