Anthony Bryant is internationally recognised for his unsurpassed work in ‘green’ woodturning. He has developed a technique to produce extremely thin-walled pieces using green timber which is softer and lends itself best to his practice. He stretches the potential of the material to its furthest limits – both in scale and in his unrivalled ability to turn to an absolutely breath-taking thinness.
For this exhibition, Anthony has used wood from fallen trees found across Cornwall.
Trengwainton
Trengwainton House & Garden is a National Trust property, located only a mile or so outside of Penzance. It is home to the Bolitho family, who originally made their fortune through the local tin and copper mining industry, subsequently branching out into banking to become Barclays Bank.
These Elm Vessels (Elm Vessel I, Elm Vessel II & Large Elm Vessel) are also made from Elm found at Trengwainton House.
Large Elm Vessel is a major piece. I am surprised that this piece was only made 10 months ago, as the images look very wintery. I cannot believe that I actually managed to make this one, as it was such a heavy section of tree (full of sap), with the initial lump weighing approx 2cwt (100kg). Whilst I was cutting it with a chainsaw, I was anxious that the branch extending out the side would fling itself apart when revolving in the lathe.
Godolphin
Godolphin is a beautiful house located only a mile or so from where I was born and grew up. I now live and work approximately six miles away. It has a wealth of documented history associated with the local tin and copper industry and my ancestors worked in many of the nearby mines.
The large oak tree from which the oak vessels in this exhibition were made was sadly blown down in a big storm about five years ago. As so often with big trees, it fell in a very awkward spot, both in and across a river, with the top branches damaging a neighbouring property. It could only be extracted with the help of a crane.
The first large vessel that I made from this tree was very heavy but I could see immediately that it had some really beautiful ‘wavy’ grain. It was hard work turning this piece but I was quite happy, until half way through when I hit something hard… I couldn’t believe my eyes when I dug out the first bullet. In my 40 years of woodturning, I had never hit a bullet. I carried on turning for another ten minutes and then hit another bullet! They were deeply embedded therefore probably shot into the tree at least 70 years ago. I had visions of the whole tree being riddled with similar bullets but thankfully I never found any more. Normally, when there is steel embedded in a tree, such as old fencing nails, there is a bright blue stain from the steel to give a warning, but in this case there was nothing as the bullet was made from copper. Thankfully, copper is softer than steel.
Watch our film below full of visuals on this story.
Tremenheere
The Tall Ash pieces are made from wood that came from Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Penzance. The Ash tree came down several years ago in one of the many gales that hit West Cornwall during the winter and thankfully the owner of the gardens, Neil Armstrong, contacted me to see if I was interested. As usual, the tree had fallen in an inaccessible place and I couldn’t get a vehicle nearby for easy loading. I spent many hours sweating and heaving the large, heavy lumps uphill out of a lush, boggy area to where I could eventually load onto a truck, praying that we wouldn’t get stuck on the way out.
Visit us in person to see Anthony’s fantastic wooden sculptures from the 1st – 24th September 2022.
