46
The West Dorset Magazine, June 3, 2022
Culture
After pandemic, local arts & crafts In 1906, a small craft exhibition was held at Hinton St Mary and its success led to the formation of the Dorset Arts and Crafts Association in 1907. The association’s first exhibition
was held at Blandford Corn Exchange in 1907. Since then, exhibitions have been held annually, apart from a break during the Second World War. The association was registered as
a charity in 1967 and supports local artists and craft workers through the annual exhibition and through the awarding of an Arts & Crafts Grant to groups or individuals.
By Marion Spencer The covid-19 pandemic may have brought many challenges and negative aspects to all our lives, but it also instigated many positive changes. One of these has been a resurgence of interest in traditional arts and crafts and an acknowledgement of the sense of wellbeing gained by learning a new skill or filling your home with original art and handmade objects. Members of Dorset Arts and Crafts Association (DACA) have been bringing their quality mix of traditional and contemporary creations to a wide audience for over 100 years and despite the challenges, still managed a smaller but highly successful version of their annual event at The Purbeck School in Wareham in 2021. Techniques and ideas from books and videos are all very well but there is nothing like the live experience. This August, visitors will be able to enjoy the full DACA experience once again with five days of demonstrations, exhibits of fine art, crafts and photography and children’s workshops, plus a selection of stalls where they can meet the makers and buy their work.
ONE GOOD TURN: Peter Thomas at his lathe
Peter Thomas and Trevor Ball are long-standing members of DACA who champion the importance of learning by watching. Peter is a self-taught green woodturner and stick-maker who learnt the latter by watching his grandfather making shepherds’ crooks. Trevor also taught himself to work with the living wood, after observing Peter at his lathe and ‘getting the bug’. As a farm manager in Rampisham, Peter had always had an interest in wood and purchased his first lathe second-hand: “For the first few weeks all hell let loose, but I became absolutely hooked,” he said. Soon Peter had pushed the machine to its limits and decided to make his own using a five-horsepower grain elevator motor, some angle iron and MDF pulleys.
Once he retired due to knee trouble, his hobby became a full-time cottage industry, working from his shed built of locally-sourced Douglas fir. His passion was never intended as a business but soon he had accumulated so much work he took some to a small event in the village and sold out. Gradually he attended more and more shows and gained a reputation in the craft. In recent years Peter has dropped the majority of shows, mostly selling directly to a loyal following, but he still enjoys the annual DACA showcase which he has taken part in since the early 1990s. Peter said: “With the history and length of DACA it needs all the support we can give, there can’t be many organisations with over a hundred years of history and the encouragement they
give to young people , by awarding an annual grant, is fantastic. One of the other good things is the have-ago workshops, I ran one for several years, not turning but making a walking stick and they used to queue up.” Following his army career, Trevor had been a gamekeeper and woodsman on the farm Peter managed and was inspired by the work he showed at a countryside fair organised there in 2006. By the time he also retired, Trevor was just as passionate about turning. He said: “I had planned to be a furniture maker but the first tool I bought was a lathe. After that all the tools I bought were funded by selling what I made. I can remember bringing my first bowl up to show Peter, he must have been horrified!” Although Trevor considers Peter his mentor, neither believe in formal teaching because of their love of using living wood. Trevor said: “We both have the philosophy that the worst thing you can do is go for lessons, because you are brainwashed in to thinking there is only one way to do things. There is no set way, we even sharpen our tools differently. Peter is ambidextrous for one thing, which annoys me. I would
