ABOUT US

Who we are

We are two crafters, husband and wife, parents of a teenager and slaves to 3 cats. We live in the Scottish Highlands, not far from the Great Glen which houses the iconic Loch Ness. We both have a background in healthcare, with over 40 years of service between us.

Our passion is the creation of unique, beautiful, wooden pieces from species native to Scotland but are occasionally tempted by the odd exotic wood. The items may be decorative, functional or a combination of both.

If you have any questions about our work please feel free to contact us.

Hello there,

I am excited (and terrified) to have started this new venture with Woody. I marvel at all the wood-turned objects that come out of our workshop but when it got to the stage that we had no place left to put them, I decided that the time had come to try and find them new homes. So, after lots of 'umming & ahhing', I was tasked with setting up WoodyNess and our website with online shop. It has been so hard to choose which WoodyNess creations to put in our wee shop because each item is an individual work of art that I really admire and feel attached to, I hope you like our selection.

I deal with the day to day running of WoodyNess but in between all the tasks that this involves, you can usually find me attached to yarn with a crochet hook or some knitting needles; wrestling some wire with my trusty pliers; or roaming a breathtaking Highland Glen. I have a particular passion for repurposing things, which comes from a desire to reduce waste and the hoarder and crafting genes that I have inherited from my paternal Grandmother. When it comes to crafting with wire I am inspired by my love of the Scottish Highlands, in particular the majestic Red Stag and the iconic Highland Coo. Maybe further down the line some of these creations will also be available via our online shop.

Anyhoo, I sincerely hope you enjoy browsing our website and that you return to see how it develops. Ideally, I would like to expand into items that might appeal to fellow knitters and crocheters such as yarn bowls, crochet hooks, sock blockers, darning eggs and mushrooms, wooden buttons and various yarny notions.

Cheerio for now

Hen

Aka Alexandra

Woody

Aka Marcus.

I’m the maker of the wooden stuff. Hi!

I discovered the crafting bug in 2015 after buying a Mora 120 carving knife and a batch of carving blanks. I started whittling spoons, small animals, hairpins and tried my hand at a few kuksas. More recently I’ve been experimenting with making bandsaw kitchen utensils.

The woodturning bug bit after a day’s tuition with a local tutor. The day was a revelation, awaking a desire to try my hand at this skill on a more serious basis; I had to get me a lathe! In late 2019, the desire fulfilled, I was gifted a Record Power woodturning lathe for a significant birthday by Hen.

For me, the process of making stuff from wood is absorbing, challenging, cathartic and I’d even say meditative to some degree; time at the lathe is an escape from the stresses of my full-time ‘other’ job. Each piece of wood is a blank canvas. This raw material is a gift from nature, and I feel a strong obligation to give a new ‘life’ to something that may otherwise end up left to rot or turned to ash. I study it before presenting any tools, trying to imagine what shape will best highlight the presenting features of the grain: should I add texturing;  colour in the form of stains, acrylics or waxes to enhance the final piece; should I just let the natural features speak for themselves?

Inspiration comes from shapes, textures and colours in nature, the work of other turners I admire, and the world of ceramics and pottery. On occasions, the turning process is more spontaneous, the final piece emerging as the wood is tooled.  And then there are the ‘accidents’, finished items that are an adapted or adjusted version of what I set out to create, the product of an ill-judged ‘one last tweak’ forcing a change of direction.

I aspire to improve, to continue to experiment and challenge myself in the knowledge that there will be hits and misses along the way. I am keen to produce unique pieces and avoid mass-producing the same designs, as I believe that this would risk stifling creativity. Each piece is considered and executed with care, given attention and time.

Finally, there is a part of the maker in all handmade pieces; in the planning, the tooling and the detailing, the pleasure and sometimes the pain, the failures and successes, the sweat in the summer and the cold endured in winter are all in there.