Shrink Pot Carving Course
16 August 2025
09:30 to 16:00
Spend a summer’s day in our beautiful Woodland Hall learning woodwork techniques to make your own shrink pot on this training course in the Hampshire South Downs. Our tutor, Chris Matthews, will teach you how to use traditional hand tools to carve your own pot from locally grown wood.
This technique of making a container is generally considered a very old Scandinavian tradition but was also used in South and Eastern Europe. A shrink pot is a fun, creative greenwood project which utilises the natural shrinking properties of the wood as it dries to form a pot.
The body of the pot will be drilled and chiselled out then refined with a spoon knife. The base is made by carving a loose, thin disc of dried wood to fit in a groove made inside the base of the pot.
As the wood dries over the following weeks, the body of the pot will shrink snuggly around its base to create a useful and beautiful container.
The pots can be used to store dry foods, coffee, tea bags or trinkets, pens, and pencils. There will be a small group of 6 students on this day to allow plenty of tutor support for all attending.
