Tuesday 18 August 2015

Wood from the Faroes!

I brought a very fragile but beautiful wooden bowl home with me from my recent trip north. The Faroe Islands are bleak and the landscape has no big trees. There were shrubs and small trees but it lacked the magestc growths that we take for granted.

Hundreds of years ago when the land was uninhabited a group of Celtic monks settled there. In their tiny coracles were a few sheep. When the monks died out the sheep proliferated...

Today together with fish the sheep are a huge part of the economy of the whole place. Any shrub on the bleak hillsides gets eaten by the sheep. The only trees are found in well fenced gardens. The ones that are native are cherished but wood for building is imported.

We visited a small cottage workshop during our visit perched on a cliff above a wild sea...

The wood carver was at work, taking small logs and holding them onto a circular saw. We saw him holding the logs until only thin shell like cases remained. He made very fragile lamp shades revealing the growth as the light shone through the wafer thin wood.

I bought a bowl made from sycamore. It was slighter thicker than the lamp shades and I hoped to get it home in one piece. I took great care of it during the journey home and it now sits in my sitting room.. It's made of sycamore and is very beautiful. My eyes follow its delicate lines every evening..

Of all the things I brought home it's this triumph over nature that fills me with joy every day!

 

3 comments:

Ray Barnes said...

It's beautiful Jean. Not what you'd expect from such a bleak area of the world.

UKViewer said...

Lovely bowl. And the story attached to it is wonderful as well. :)

Revjeanrolt said...

Exactly.....to have watched the process in the tiny little hut was amazing!