This week at IASTudios

Hello everyone,

Shorter and belated blog post this week as I haven’t been in the forge too much and I completely forgot to take pictures of what we have been up to. Joe has mainly been tweaking and adding to the new booking system. Elliott WAS making spatulas until he managed to hurt his knee seemingly by just existing and then spent the rest of the week updating risk assessments. Dan has been making some basket weaving tools for a commission.

Elliott has been making spatulas with our view to creating more offerings in the realm of bbq equipment. We hope to expand more on this in the future, so watch this space if you are an avid bbq fan. Unfortunately Elliott managed to hurt his knee so had to spend more time sitting down so he decided to spend his time - as the nominated safety officer of the forge - updating risk assessments for the workshop. I can confirm that paperwork is not Elliott’s natural calling, so I think that these may take a while. I am sure his knee will be fully repaired and then some by the time that these are complete.

Joe (me) has spent most of his time this week at the desk as well, making tweaks to the new booking system, calendar, and general website backend things. The only work in the workshop that he’s done in the forge this week was a commission for a tool to push arrowheads out the back of archery boards. Just something quite quick and simple and ready for purpose.

At the weekend Joe had a market stall at a Buhurt (full contact armoured combat) tournament being held in Gloucester. This stall was successful, and I hope to be able to sell at more in the future. I did however manage to catch the sun something rotten and have been likened to a squashie since. I am writing this blog whilst in a bit of a sun-scorched fever dream and shall be staying in the shade and lathering on after-sun for the next few days I imagine.

Dan has been making a selection of basket weaving tools. The three tools on the left are wrapping irons, and the two on the right are called bodkins (not to be confused with the arrowtips). The wrapping irons are used to pack the woven willow down on the staves of the basket. The bodkins are used to create holes in the weave to allow for more willow to be pushed through and woven in. They can also be pressed into the end of the willow to split the willow into finer strands.

The Arrowhead poker

This little guy is made out of some 6mm round, and a small piece of rough sanded oak, finished with linseed oil. I cant help but think that this looks and feels like some kind of “safe shiv”.

Basket weaving tools

All in all, a relatively quiet week here at IAStudios.

Cheers to the next one.

~The IAStudios team