Woodworking: Small Wooden Tools for Crafts */**

Image

Teacher: Meelis Kihulane

In this two-day workshop, you’ll learn the art of crafting essential wooden tools used in belt weaving. You’ll have the opportunity to create your own:

• Weaving tablets (kõlad) thin, versatile tools with holes in each corner. Warp threads, strung through these holes, form a grid.
• A band knife (vöömõõk) a wooden tool to beat down the weft threads, ensuring a tight and compact weave.
• A shuttle (piirits) a tool designed to carry the weft through a grid in warp.
• A rigid heddle (tihv), a tool for weaving belts with simple patterns.

We use various local wood species that are suitable for making these items.

Making small wooden craft tools is a feasible job even for those who have no previous woodworking experience. A more skilled participant can also make several tools in two days, so by the end of the workshop, you’ll have a set of handcrafted tools ready to bring your weaving ideas to life.

If you have a specific design of a tool in mind, send a photo or drawing to the organizers. The instructor can prepare the workpiece accordingly.

Meelis Kihulane is a skilled furniture restorer with over 20 years of experience. For the past decade, he has been passionate about promoting and teaching Estonian traditional carpentry. By reviving the age-old master-apprentice method, Meelis imparts his knowledge of native woodwork and furniture making.

A curator of several woodworking exhibitions, Meelis is also the author of "Containers, Boxes, Sieves: Making Bent-wood Items." He champions traditional carpentry techniques, primarily relying on hand tools like knives, chisels, saws, and axes. Most of his raw materials are sourced directly from nature, minimizing pre-processing. Meelis is also actively involved with the NGO Edev Eremiit.

https://www.facebook.com/edeveremiit

Image

Image