Published at 15:44, Wednesday, 03 March 2010

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THERE’S nothing as beautiful as a hand-crafted piece of furniture. While we might have to buy flat-pack tables and chairs when first setting up home, there is nothing that says luxury more than a good quality piece of craftsmanship.

Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be practical or believe to be beautiful said the artist William Morris – and with a lovingly-made table, bookcase or other piece of furniture you can have something that is beautiful to look at but also of practical use.

But the craft of the furniture-maker is a dying one. Modern machine-made furniture is so cheap – disposable even – that the cost of paying someone for their hours of labour can be prohibitive.

Fortunately, a few enthusiasts keep the skills alive but we’re in danger of losing the knowledge of how to cut a tree and hand-craft it into something beautiful.

Which is where people like Ralf Bidder come in. He’s a bodger – the old term for a chairmaker – and someone who believes that there has to be a better way for our society to exist other than importing millions of cheaply-made chairs and tables from some distant part of the world and the environmental devastation that such a way of life demands.

Ralf believes that locally-sourced and replenishable wood can and should be crafted into beautiful furniture. So he’s chosen to turn his back on all but the most useful modern machinery and rediscover the methods of hand-crafting wood.

It is a tough existence but there’s no doubting the idyllic nature of his lifestyle from an outsider’s point of view. Instead of commuting to work and sitting in front of a computer, he heads to his workshop in a barn to be greeted by his only neighbour – a Shetland pony. And during the day when he is working with oak, elm and larch, his only visitors are likely to be the robin and blackbird which pop into the barn to feed on any scraps to be found.

The only sounds are likely to be the sound of metal cleaving through the greenwood or the soft whisper of wood being shaved or smoothed. But before you hand in your notice and decide to follow Ralf’s footsteps, remember it is also very hard work. For a start, he has to work in the barn in the cold of winter as well as the heat of summer. They are long hours and, no matter how much he charges for his work, it is likely to equate to a very poorly hour-rate. No craftsman ever embarks on his trade to become rich. This is a labour of love.

His interest in woodwork began as a child when his father would take him to the woods and teach him to a bow and arrows from hazel wood. Ralf said “I was always drawn to woodwork. I wanted to do something really creative. ”

However, he persevered with an academic career studying agriculture, and later environmental studies. He also studied theology and this fed a life-long quest for him to find spiritual understanding. He combined his practical work in environmental studies with a ten-year stay in India. After that he stayed in Sri Lanka and studied Buddhism.

His travels took him to many other countries but he eventually settled in England in 1999, family connections bringing him to West Cumbria. Ralf’s initial workshop was in the open air in Mitredale where the lack of any electricity – save a small amount created by a solar panel – meant he had to work entirely by hand.

“I used wood from trees blown down in the storms of 2005. I worked on my own and would have to carry out the trunks by hand. It is very labour-intensive and involved many hours of hard work,” he says.

Fortunately the wood was European larch – a very light wood. The use of ‘green’ wood is often favoured by bodgers as it is still soft and malleable.

The silence of the woods led to the name of his new company: Silent Forest Creations. “The silence is incredible” said Ralf. “The only sound was of the metal tools going through the wood or the sound of the pole lathe being worked. It was quite exciting.”

His first exhibition of work came last year at the centre for Complementary Care in Muncaster – he can’t speak highly enough of the support he has had from the centre’s Gretchen Stevens. He sold some of his work at that first exhibition and he is also selling some work at his latest exhibition at Egremont’s Lowes Court Gallery.

Ralf also has a number of other exhibitions lined up for 2010 and his reputation is beginning to build.

His work includes tables, chairs, benches – anything that can be made from wood! He is always on the look-out for local sources of seasoned or kiln-dried wood and has latterly made work from elm and oak. But his commitment to the environment means that with every piece sold there comes a certificate showing that new trees have been planted to replenish the wood.

Ralf can be contacted on 0772 7449717. Some of his work can be seen currently at Lowes Court Gallery, Main Street, Egremont.

Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk