Here's number four in the Big Tree short videos that have been produced by Beatrix Wood of TrixpixMedia.  She persuaded me to describe some of the found objects I've been working on for over 40 years. They are storylines and totems in themselves, partly mine, partly the viewers. Colourful, non descriptive, ancestral messages held on a piece of wood, stone, bark, bone or clay. I don't know where this work comes from.

I've always had a fascination for indigenous art and so called primitive art. Through working in archaeology for many years I always wondered if there was more "art-ifacts" in everyday life in prehistory. This is just a response to it all - echo's from my primitive past.

My landscape is a network of places and I don't separate nature and culture or for that matter mind and body.. I spend a lot of time in the immediate area close to the workshop and home. Approaching it from different angles, directions getting my feeling for the sense of place day after day.

These objects I "make" are not seen in isolation from that landscape, they are not independent. It's my sensorial approach - my archaeology of the senses. Mine is not necessarily an ancient memory, it's more of a deeply accepted response to the aged land, recognising my historical ecology !!
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There is some work on show here 

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here 

There was a redundant piece of ground quite near the workshop that Lothian Estates kindly gave us on a long lease on for community use. We have slowly turned the space around from an unmanaged space into a tree nursery, polytunnel space, allotment, willow beds and hazel coppice.

We have been experimenting on close planting of native trees for future furniture. The miyawaki method of planting at high density is a way of creating a packed pioneer forest of hazel, alder, oak, field maple, birch and gean amongst others on poor ground. Fingers crossed !

We've been planting up more willow varieties to use on our furniture, basket making and garden structure courses. We're creating a tiny orchard inside newly laid hedges with medieval clay and willow beehives. So the new ground holds loads of future promise and a space where we can learn and show others how to achieve quick return for small wooden products. A woodland that stays is a woodland that pays !
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​2025 courses are filling up fast again ... just saying ! Big Tree Hugs everybody, have a great festive !  Best wishes - Eoin
[email protected]

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here ​

The success of any programme of hands on courses and creative workshops is down to the people that attend them ! It's down to the inherent talent, the latent skills of the folks that have the enthusiasm and interest to attend. It's the maker inside them all !

I'm always in early on course days setting up all the tools, laying out the wood ready to work, wondering what the timber is going to turn out like and wondering what the course participants are going to be like. It's such a privilege for me to meet such nice, warm, friendly, bright, conversant people. It gives me faith in humanity and chuffs me to have brought them together. The craic soon starts .. you know before anyone picks up an axe that it's going to be good ! The trepidation in some of the faces will soon disappear as the hidden maker is revealed.

The old dairy buildings and yard at Harestanes, Lothian Estates makes for a calm and unique work space. The sense of tradition, working heritage, being on the land and using the local timber adds to it all. Immersed in the "old ways" only because we use old tools and methods,  but absolutely "of the present", in that we make contemporary pieces of furniture. It's being part of a continuing tradition that most people haven't really thought of when they sign up on a course - however they totally get it by the time they leave.

There's a wonderment glowing out of their faces - they just can't quite believe that the beautiful piece they have completed - they have just made with their own hands. It's such a wonderful thing to watch as they discover found confidence. They have found the un-remembered maker inside them !

The courses attendees are our ambassadors, our outreach squad and many return to help develop courses, volunteer to make products, work in the tree nursery, or some like our Friday crew come and make beautiful products (set the world to rights !)  My homies - love them all to bits !

So part 2 hopefully shares an atmosphere of the place, gives hope and optimism  - and the reason - not just the need to be part of it all !

​2025 courses are filling up fast again ... just saying ! Big Tree Hugs everybody, have a great festive !  Best wishes - Eoin
[email protected]

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here ​

Big Tree pal Beatrix Wood of Trixpixmedia has just completed a series of four video shorts about Big Tree Society. It's an acknowledgement of  many things, but mainly to the support and following that we have had in the past fifteen years by all the amazing people that have attended  a course here at Harestanes.

​It's really a nod to the 5000 people who didn't know they could work in wood. or for that matter complete an amazing piece of furniture. To all those lovely and infectiously friendly volunteer makers that turn up week in week out and to all those other "drop-ins" that have spread the word - a big thanks because we couldn't have done it without you !

The videos are a bit about what I'm about, a bit about what we're about, and a bit about what the future may be about !!!
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Please get in touch if you found the courses enjoyable, life changing - or if you want to help in the coming years!
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2025 courses are filling up fast again ... just saying ! Big Tree Hugs everybody, have a great festive !  Best wishes - Eoin
[email protected]

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here ​

Another great day of instruction by Graeme Walker Hedge Laying Instructor & Contractor and skill shown by a hardy group from all over the place. Big Tree thanks to Graham, Mike, Kirsten, Samantha, Diarmuid, Anthony, Tom, Claire and Simon.
That’s the orchard Scotch Hedge at the Big Tree Nursery site all looking ship shape. We will put some new apple trees in and plant up more willow beds now that there is more light introduced. More hazel, holly, hawthorn and hornbeam going in to fill the gaps.

Well that was a busy year of making and creating. A Big Tree Thankyou to all of you who attended our courses. Its you guys that create the buzz and craic! we've so many new faces and some "repeat offenders" as well. We will be putting up a calendar of next years course this week. Some old favourites and a few new ones ! We've always been well supported throughout the years and the places go fast - so have a look and see if there is a course that you or a friend may like to attend. There are Big Tree vouchers available for gifts or if you want a special group or work day please get in touch with us. It's a popular way to spend a day with colleagues or pals ! See course list here 

Getting all the stool top blanks sorted out today for the last of the InStead Stool making workshop that we offered as a fundraising reward for Trixpix Medias beautiful film TIm Stead : Magician With Wood. We are so pleased that Beatrix Woods documentary has achieved such great success at The Swedish International Film Festival (Best Feature Length Documentary) and many others ion the Far East and elsewhere in Europe. The film will be on general release very soon and daytime telly as well ! An inspirational film about an inspirational man and his work in wood. 

We ran our first Wagatabon tray carving course last recently. Brian (our resident spoon and shrink pot guru) and I have been wanting to organise this course for a few years. Our good friend Masashi Kutsuwa gave us permission to follow his making guide. Mas worked with us here in Scotland 2004-6 and was a great inspiration for many approaches in the workshop and now teaches full time in Gifu Academy of Forest Science and Culture in Japan. One of his earlier books on green woodworking is available online.

As part of a fundraiser for a documentary film about Tim Stead : Magician With Wood This was a donation reward for a place on a course where donors made not one of Tim’s pieces of furniture but one of their own InStead Stools! Hosted by Eoin Cox & the award-winning Big Tree Society using Ash and Elm, stools inspired by one of Tim’s early designs. Working in greenwood, old tools and in a traditional way at Tim’s first workshop in the late 70's at Harestanes, Scottish Borders.
It was a pretty intense day with a great mix of generously minded people who wanted to know a bit more about Tim, maybe pick up a vibe from the old workshop and hopefully absorb the material, tools and process of making. Exploring and examining the porous boundary between the skin of the wood and the skin of heir hands !!!
Tim always encouraged and Big Tree hopefully continues to encourage and inspire others to combine the head, hands and heart in a creative making process. Thanks to Mark, Jen, David, Bob, Alastair and Linda for putting in a great shift and generous donation to the film.
To follow the progress and get more info about this inspiring documentary by Beatrix Wood please have a look here  
​Big Tree thanks to Eilidh at Out-There Artisan for the unique and wonderful catering