Making our own Sweet Chestnut shingles
Since we moved to our new site we have been focusing some of our activities on being outside, learning and embracing nature and certainly benefiting from this. Green woodwork is an activity that initially began as a way to carry on making things from wood, an activity that has long been a popular choice for Perlins project members. However, with no power we had to learn about green woodwork and it has been a fascinating journey. Everyone who has done green woodwork over the last few years has commented on the calming, enjoyable and creative nature of this style of woodwork.
Although we had decided to clad the studio with waney edge cladding we had left a small end section free for us to experiment with making our own Sweet Chestnut shingles. Thankfully we knew that Phil from a local Sweet chestnut coppice woodland would be able to supply the billets (12 inch long round logs). He was also happy to show us how to make shingles, and so for a very enjoyable winter and spring - that’s what we did.
Building a greenhouse
Building a concrete base using a wheelbarrow. Lots of project members helped
Delivered by a big concrete truck we wrote our name in the concrete
Perlins building the frame for the greenhouse putting the frame together
Putting the glass in the greenhouse frame in 2025 was our 1st growing season
We enjoyed growing lots of different flowers and vegetables ‘ but written by Samantha Jane Lines
Building the Studio
One of our finest achievements was to build a studio at our new Site - The River Site.
We raised money and were amazed at how many people gave us donations!
We chose to build an eco friendly off grid building powered by solar panels.
It is a special type of wooden building made of highly insulated panels. These were delivered on a flat bed truck and we helped to carry and move them from the car park. The panels formed a basic shell of the building with no windows and doors.
The company that we bought the panels from are called Ecologic they kindly put the panels up for us. It only took them a few days! It was then up to us to finish it off! It was exciting and a little overwhelming but everyone was ready to join in work together and get it done.
The first job was to get the building weatherproof, we were aware that was autumn and we needed to get the roof on, windows fitted and doors on. We did it just in time. We had an inside space, it just needed a floor and to be decorated - but for that first winter we just used it as it was.
We focused on the outside, cladding the studio with beautiful Douglas and fir and larch waney edge cladding. People really enjoyed nailing up these boards.
It was a big project, but we had lots of people who wanted to help. It felt great to have an indoor space, and it didn’t take long before we started to use the space for arts and crafts.
