Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 7
THE WOODTURNER
In a threshing barn on a 17th-century cattle farm, woodturner Sharif
Adams creates tableware using a method that dates back millennia
M
ealtimes at Sharif Adams’ little stone cottage
are uniquely peaceful. The rural setting,
amongst lushly wooded hills and sheep-flecked
pastures, certainly creates a relaxed tone, but the
real secret to the tableside tranquillity is Sharif ’s
wooden tableware.
“When you use wooden plates and bowls, you
don’t get all that metallic clanking and scraping you
get with china crockery, which makes meals so much
more relaxing,” says Sharif. “And wood keeps food
warmer for longer, so you can savour it more. When
people talk about the slow food movement, wooden
tableware is a big part of that.”
Prandial peace – the kind of quiet that makes a
meal feel almost sacred – was just one of the reasons
why Sharif took up a career as a bowl turner. He
had initially trained as a violin maker in London,
and then an antique furniture restorer, before being
drawn to the simplicity of woodturning.
Using a method developed in the Middle
Ages, Sharif crafts his bowls on a handmade pole
lathe – an H-shaped wooden frame with a central
driveshaft, powered by a foot treadle. “It’s a very
simple design that doesn’t need electricity, batteries
or power tools, so I can work in the woods and be
completely self-sufficient,” he says.
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