Bill Blyth
Of The Woods
I have been involved in timber in various ways for nearly 40 years, each piece of timber is different, and working with rare woods is a privilege and a challenge.
I want to capture something of the age and history of the timber, and history in the other materials I use.
For instance in these pieces, the Irish bog oak may be anything up to 3000 years old, the yew is from a 1500 year old tree,
the English oak from a Buckinghamshire Estate has been naturally seasoned for many years.
Antlers have been used since the earliest hunter gatherers, and some of those artefacts are around to this day.
The hand beaten brass bands and copper rivets are materials used throughout history and worked in a traditional way.
There is a natural appeal in these materials, the shapes and forms are there, but it’s also a struggle to create what I see in them.
I can’t just pick it up and say ‘this is what I’ll make’, I have pieces of timber around me as I work, I’ll be walking past it for quite some time, maybe weeks or months, before it’ll tell me what I want to make with it.
Sometimes it’s just one element and I see that, and the rest grows from that piece of wood.
I have an idea in my head but then as I work with it the timber dictates what I do - bringing these elements together, that’s the creative process.
Bill Blyth
07402 621619