Building an Off-Grid Community: Lessons from Abundant Earth - Jo Bolton & Matt Whitaker - BS101

I have been working with wood and steel for over twenty years now. What first attracted me to these materials and the crafts of the Greenwood and Forge was their immediacy, the need for a very few tools in order to be able to create practical, everyday objects. Alongside this work I also operate a mobile sawmill that is used to cut both Farm and woodland trees into useful planks and beams. This feeds into another aspect of my work, building timber frames, from sheds to Barns.

Teaching and Craft
Alongside of the teaching I love to make for its own sake. The joy of something springing from hand and tool. I mainly work on a foot powered lathe and turn wooden mugs and bowls in the same style as the vikings when they came to these shores. The materials for most of my work come directly from the woodland at Abundant Earth; five acres or so of semi-ancient woodland that is managed in the traditions of coppicing.

Sawmill.
It is surprising how much wood in modern forestry is left to waste. The odd ton here and there does not make sense in the world of large lorries and machines. I started off with a chainsaw milling rig and over the years have progressed to a fully mobile bandsaw mill that along with our landrover can go most places on a farm or woodland to mill the log where it fell. This makes a lot of sense for the small woodland owner or the farmer for a small amount of timber. Priced by the hour, no job is too small.

As a child I was often thrilled by countryside adventures with my family, fascinated by rock formations, river valleys, coastlines and wildness, my interest in this natural world developed and led me to a degree and then a Postgraduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture. Learning about plants and design, and exploring sustainability, with a postgraduate study into Utopian communities, informed my life to come.

Willow work and Teaching.
As a member of this community and workers co op I am a mother, a basketmaker and a yoga teacher. As a basketmaker and willow worker the whole process is important to me, from growing my willow, harvesting, sorting, and drying it, to preparing the willow, soaking and mellowing, and finally creating baskets. I love the ancient connection to the landscape and our heritage that this craft offers me.

Constantly learning, I am inspired by various teachers, and love to pass on what I have learned to my students. I run regular workshops on how to make baskets, both for beginners and for more advanced students. My own baskets follow a curvaceous and often ergonomic form as I follow the path of the willow and the body.

Yoga and Somatic movement.
Discovering yoga whilst Wwoofing in Spain, I was in awe of the space this created in my body and mind after a hard days work. My teacher training, in the late 1990s began with the Iyengar tradition, but has since been informed by many other traditions and teachers, including Donna Farhi, Vanda Scaravelli, Uma Dinsmore Tuli, somatic movement and meditation. These, and training in… Read More