Hello everyone!

I am back with my most ambitious video documentation yet!
Here is a very detailed demonstration of how I made my very own morning coffee cup from my hand tools from a rather lovely log of fresh cherry wood. It took over three moths to make.

I really hope that you like this video. It was such a joy to make and produce and I put a lot of energy into both the carving and the shooting and editing. I hope this energy can be felt through the screen.

I began with a processing a lovely green cherry log into a split half. It was very tricky to saw and split but I got there in the end! I would eventually love a better hand saw, and I am sure that I will quire one someday. The splits went well and I soon began hollowing with my adze to get to a required depth before aiming some satisfying wood shavings with my twca cam carving tool. I love using this tool because it uses my whole body and I feel that I am working with the material in a specific way. I also love how sculptural this hand tool is. To push the wall out further, I used a loop knife to just get to that organic, artistic shape that I drew at the beginning into of the video.

I then axed away the waste wood to create a blank with my carving axe. I love reusing the axe because I feel that it contains so much expression. I feel that I can channel my wood and feelings into motion to create. The blank took a lot of work, but I soon got stuck into using a carving knife to rough carve. The rough carving took two sessions in total, but I was so happy with this initial form.

I then took some measurements from the rough carved cup’s ‘green’ state so I could compare it for research of its after to build data on how wood shrinks as it dries. The cup took about three weeks to dry! And it lost a lot of weight and of its overall size but it still fitted the required depth and was a perfect size for my morning coffee still.

When the piece was fully dry, I set my mind to some finishing cuts. The finishing cuts are a balance of meditation, patience and perseverance. I love how calming the mind needs to be in order to make repetitive, but satisfying shavings. The overall finished piece was a reflection of this calm state and the cup felt like a pebble or a vegetable after.

When the piece was finished, I then lacquered it using urushi lacquer techniques that I acquired and learnt in Japan. I was so lucky to learn some authentic techniques and I think that this heritage craft is becoming quite the staple of my practice. I absolutely love the resilience of the cured urushi and for me, it solves the problem of wanting to have my cups withstand the stress of boiling water.

After 1 month, my cup was finished and was ready to be tested and used for its first coffee!

I will let you see the final results, but I was so happy with this outcome and the cup reflects my practice and hand tools and analogue techniques. I really hope you like this video and can take something away from it.

Thank you for your support.

Samuel Alexander x

Tools used:
Axe - Thorn Wood Forge - Merlin Carving Axe
Adze - Josh Burrell - Radii Adze
Twca Cam - Nic Westermann - 40mm Double Edge
Loop Knife - Belzeboo Crafts - Custom
Knife - Adrian Lloyd - Slojd Knife
Saw - Silky Saws - Gomboy 210
Knife - Nic Westermann - Slojd Blade
Knife - Dave Cockcroft - Detail Knife

Other Items Used:
Gransfors Bruk - Sharpening Stone
Urushi - Suki Kurome
Camphor Oil
Coffee Press - Aeropress
Brush - Deborah Schneebeli Morrell


Chapters:
00:00 Project Introduction
08:58 Wood Prep
10:52 Initial Cup Hollowing
22:34 Axe Work
29:27 Carving The Cup Form
40:11 Collecting Drying Data
46:20 After Drying Data Comparison
49:48 After Acclimatisation Data
51:55 The Finishing and Detail Cuts
58:50 Urushi Methods
01:09:28 The Finished Cup
01:12:22 Hot Water Testing
01:13:47 The First Coffee and Goodbye