As well as TWIGS' Green Woodworking venture, we offer facilities for individuals of all skill levels to undertake more "conventional" woodworking activities.  For those who want to learn the basics of woodworking under supervision, a skilled volunteer is available to teach and mentor on Tuesdays, although the volunteers who attend on other days would also be pleased to help and advise.  All this is carried out in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. 

For those who already have some experience, there is plenty of scope to manufacture horticultural/wildlife related items, either for use on the TWIGS site or for paying customers. 

We make wildlife habitats such as nest boxes, bird feeders/tables, bat boxes, hedgehog boxes, butterfly boxes, lacewing boxes and various other weird and wonderful items, some of which you quite possibly haven't even heard of!  I'd never heard of a "Bee Mansion" until I was asked to make some recently!

There is also the opportunity to learn woodturning - as well as a "pole lathe" in the Green Woodworking department, we have an electrically powered lathe for the more adventurous and our resident wood-turner is always happy to teach you the basics and get you started.  

Of course, we are respectful of the fact that timber is a precious and rapidly depleting resource.  We therefore consider carefully what timber we use and where we obtain it.  Where practicable we use recycled material, off-cuts from local joinery companies and we've even used redundant pallets where appropriate. 

Virtually all the wood we use comes from recycled sources - very often literally straight from the rubbish skip. Discarded pallets are our principal material although we could also use joinery off-cuts and wood kindly donated by companies or private individuals. In addition we also make use of other recycled items such as old inner tubes and wellington boots from which we make hinged and weather seals for our bird boxes.