Trug making appreciation courses.

We are often asked if we provide courses about Trug Making.  We do, but with the strict proviso that students understand that,  by attending a two day course, they will not be qualified Trug Makers!  It takes at least one year of full time work in our workshops for an apprentice to be proficient enough to make all eight sizes of the Garden Trug, and a further year to become proficient in making the Flower, Fireside Log, Square, Bowl, Cucumber, Oblong and Walking Stick Trugs.  Then, and only then, is the apprentice elevated to the status of Trug Maker.  It takes at least five years more to become a Master Trug Maker.

Each spring we run a course at the Weald and Downland Museum in Singleton, West Sussex, England (near Chichester).  This event is over two days at a weekend and, during the course, students will produce a Traditional Trug using Sweet Chestnut and Cricket Bat Willow Woods.  The tutors will show cleaving, shaving, steaming, bending and assembly of the Trug and students should be able to take home a respectable Trug at the end of the two days. All materials are included in the course fees and all equipment is provided during the course.

Students will also be given a talk, with slides, about the history of the Trug and where it figures today in our modern society.