Two years ago I contacted the wood turner Björn Peck to ask him if he could make supported spindles for me. Another wood worker had recommended him to me. The first thing Björn said when I emailed him was “I want you to show me how you spin with them. I can’t create a tool for you if I don’t know how you use it”. So he came to our house and I showed him how I spin on supported spindles. He has been making spindles for my courses ever since. Yesterday he came by with another spindle delivery.
Finding supported spindles
I have been teaching supported spindle spinning since 2016. For a while I had been very frustrated over the fact that my dedicated students had gone home after the course and ordered spindles from the U.S. or Australia and had had to wait three weeks for their spindles to arrive. In that time they had most probably forgotten all they had learned and practiced in the course.
I had a vision of finding a wood turner in Sweden who could provide me with spindles for my students – both for teaching and for the students to buy after the class. I wanted the students to be able to practice the technique straight after the course, when it was still fresh in their memories.
Finding a wood turner
When I contacted Björn I realized straight away that he was serious and dedicated to his work. He wanted to do this and he wanted to do it good. I explained to him what I wanted the spindle to do. I had taught a few supported spindle spinning classes by then and I knew what my students struggled with and what they needed in a spindle. During that first summer Björn worked on different prototypes and we emailed back and forth. We met a couple of more times so that I could try his new models. It’s a good thing that we live in the same city.
A spindle journey
That fall I taught a class again and for the first time with Björn’s spindles. He had finished them just a couple of days before he brought them to me. They still smelled of fresh varnish.
Spindles and pucks were made in local Swedish woods – apple, maple, cherry, birch, bird cherry, laburnum, walnut (not Swedish) and rowan. The bowls matched the wood in the spindles and had a metal indentation for the spindle tip to spin in. All the spindles were sold at the course.
The students gave feedback about the models so that Björn could improve them. For the next batch Björn made the indentations in the pucks a bit deeper so that the spindle wouldn’t dance out of them.
A few weeks later I taught a five-day course in supported spindle spinning. The students had lots of time to try the spindles and give feedback to Björn. They were very thorough in their investigations and eager to help Björn make the spindles even better.
Later I also visited Björn in his workshop where he had rebuilt some of his tools to be able to improve the balance of the spindles even further.
The balance in his spindles is now flawless. He allows the wood decide the design and adapts his technique to that. If necessary, he puts a metal weight in the whorl for balance. The indentation in the pucks is now made of glass, which makes the spindles spin forever.
Navajo style spindles
Many people had asked me to teach Navajo spindle spinning. I really liked the idea, but it would only work if I could get Björn to make Navajo style spindles for me. A friend had brought me two Navajo spindles to Sweden by a friend who had been to the U.S. in business. The company doesn’t ship outside of the U.S. since they couldn’t guarantee that the spindles would arrive undamaged or at all.
I asked Björn and he promised he would try. He warned me that he might not be able to make the shafts straight enough on such long spindles. Despite that, I created a course called A spindle a day, including Navajo spindle spinning and hoped to all my spinning goddesses that Björn would be able to make the spindles.
After a lot of research, trial and error, he presented Navajo spindles for the course. I brought them to to the course and they were an immediate success, as was the course.
Spindle delivery
It is course season again at Sätergläntan craft education center and I am teaching the second edition of my course A spindle a day. The course has been sold out for many months, but due to the corona crisis many students have had to cancel their reservations.
Still, there are enough students in the class to go through with it. The school has adapted the courses and the activities to the social distancing rules of course. I go to Sätergläntan this afternoon to teach this much awaited second edition of A spindle a day. Björn came by yesterday with a lovely spindle delivery – supported spindles, Navajo style spindles and a couple of in-hand spindles.
A proud cooperation
I am so happy and proud of the cooperation I have with Björn. He makes spindles for my courses so that my students can walk home with a high quality spindle made by a professional wood turner in local woods. I listen to my students’ feedback about the spindles and pass it on to Björn, so he can improve them even further. We are both winners in this cooperation. I get happy students who can continue their spinning journey after the class with a professionally made tool. Björn gets his spindles sold to happy customers. There is, however, no money exchanged between us. He does put me first in line though, when I have a course coming up.
When he came to me that first time two years a go I told him that he probably would be able to sell spindles all over the world. He didn’t believe me then. But now he does and his shop sells out in just a few days after he has updated it.
You can buy Björn Peck’s supported spindles here. If there are any left.
More resources:
- For a discussion on ergonomics in spindle spinning in general and supported spindle spinning in particular, watch this webinar on spindle ergonomics.
- I have gathered the challenges and experiences of my supported spindle spinning students over the years. In this free course on how to pick a supported spindle and bowl you will learn what came out of these experience and what I think is important in choosing a supported spindle and bowl. Some of Björn’s earlier spindles are in the course.
- In the summer 2020 issue of PLY – the supported spindle issue – I have written an article about the flick, including a discussion of the importance of the shape of the spindle for successful spinning.
Happy spinning!
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Amazing collaboration! I immediately went to the web page and was gobsmacked with his work.
Yes! He is very talented.