Shrink pots

Can you make a wooden box with a coherent, stable wooden connection of two parts without glue and only with the power of nature? You can! These wooden boxes are called shrink pots. They are carved from fresh branches (green wood) and make use of the fact that wood shrinks during the drying process. A base of dry wood is inserted into a fresh hollowed-out branch so that a tight wooden pot is created during drying. The procedure for making such a shrink pot will be illustrated in this booklet. Tools are presented and step-by-step instructions guide the reader from start to finish. This guide is aimed at both beginners and experienced woodcarvers. The description of the individual steps is user-friendly and simply written. The making process is accompanied by many drawings. You will be rewarded with very special and unique wooden boxes that can be used in the kitchen for tea, coffee, spices or sugar, for example. Out eyes then enjoy the unique wooden creations every day, and they are also very practical.

When she's not conserving or restoring furniture, Bettina Lutzke is carving all sorts of wooden spoons and wooden boxes, or preparing for one workshop or another to infect others with her enthusiasm for woodcarving. She has been a qualified restorer of objects made of wood and modern materials for over 20 years. Her enthusiasm for wood as a material and historical woodworking techniques led her to spoon carving more than 15 years ago and to shrink pots a few years ago.