The bowl is one of the first items to be made from the OneOak tree.  Martin has generously donated the bowl as first prize in our competition this summer.  Carving is now complete but the bowl must finish is naturally drying process before it can be sealed and polished.

Visit Martin Damen’s website

The children and school will be presented with the award at the Bentley Wood Fair near Lewes on Friday
17 September.

The children really enjoyed talking about what they had done to a very interested audience. They were at ’stations’ around the class room and the judges just chose who they wanted to speak to first, then each of the visited to each pair. The children would have felt very aggrieved if they hadn’t! The children said:

• we did a lot of work, and enjoyed it
• we are proud of what we did
• the judges were smiling all the time and looked very pleased
• they were very nice and kind
• they asked a lot of questions
• we were organised – each pair had their own piece of work/exhibit/art/photos of trips to show to the judges.

Read more about the Royal Forestry Society Excellence in Forestry Award.

We hope you enjoy the pictures below of Martin at work.

The children have also been busy writing poems inspired by the project.  Here is one from Holly Topping, age 9.

Where Are You?

Where are you? Asked the blackbird
Looking for a place to nest.
I’ve been cut down by the forester.

Where are you? Asked the grey squirrel
Hunting for acorns to eat.
I’ve been lifted on a truck and been carried away.

Where are you? buzzed the bee
Trying to find some where to make a hive.
I’m drying out at the sawmill.

Where are you? asked the woodpecker
Pecking in the bark looking for bugs.
I’m being carved into chairs.

Where are you? Tweeted the blue tits
Peering around for a place to land.
I’m being made into beams for houses.

Where are you? Shouted the children
Planting lots of acorns.
I’m being made into something for you.

By Holly

1. All slices have now dried out with this spell of warm weather, and radial sections have now been cut, and the surfaces have been planed and sanded to a very high standard of smoothness, essential to ensure every ring can be clearly seen and measured under the microscope.  Even so, there is a band of rings in the first large branch, 33 feet above the ground, which was found to be rotten.  This branch has had a very serious injury to it sometime in the past and had virtually died, with a band of exceptionally narrow rings which will be almost impossible to measure, let alone count.  This is the branch that they had hoped to use as a brace at the Wallingford Museum but was found to have a rot pocket when cut; this is directly related to this band of very narrow rings.
2. Another interesting fact is that the preliminary ring count of the base of the tree, at one foot above the ground, is about 225 years, so the tree seems to have started growing shortly before 1785.

So, the tree experienced some form of major damaging event in its past, and it is about 65 years older than we thought.  The exact details have yet to confirmed but a planting date of 1785 or before would place its planting during the major landscape design phase of the Blenheim Estate undertaken by ‘Capability’ Brown.

Oak seedlings growing in the hands of Nicholsons

Under the skillful watchful eyes of tree nursery Nicholsons we are all delighted that many of the acorns have germinated.  A new generation of OneOak trees are now growing strongly.

We will soon be planning the replanting of the woodland area where the OneOak tree was felled.  We will have to add another 200 or so oak seedlings to our own Blenheim seedlings, so that every child involved in the project can plant a tree.  The replanting will probably take place in February 2011.

After a filthy wet first day at the Blenheim craft fair, spirits are up at the OneOak stand as the sun is shining today.

Interest in the project has been good and it is has been interesting talking to the many people who grapple with the notion that felling a 160 year old can be sustainable.

The most common question is usually “why this tree – was it diseased or had it fallen down?”. The answer, “because it was ready”, then normally starts a good discussion.

See us at the craft fair at Blenheim Palace this Bank Holiday weekend

Saturday 29th – Monday 31st May

Find out more about the fair Art, Design and a Taste of Summer

• Watch the OneOak film
• Great raffle prizes
• Meet the Sylva team behind the project
• See some of the fantastic OneOak art
• Watch the woodcarvers and artists demonstrating
• Can you count the tree rings?

OneOak DVD

Our 30 minute OneOak film, which follows the tree at the felling in January to the sawmill in March 2010, is now available.

It was filmed by a fantastic crew of volunteers (Charlie Beesley, Chris Baines, Bryn Walls, Sarah Simblet), generously supported by the University of Oxford’s Media Production Unit.  It was edited by Conrad Weiskrantz.

It is available to view on our film page.  We are also making available DVD copies that we are selling for a modest £5 at the various shows at which we are exhibiting this year.