What daughters do for dads...

Andrew Hollins - or rather his daughter Bethany (My dad has the best shed ever so I hope he sends you a picture!) - contacted Shedman about his collection of original paintings by Australian artist Pete Browne. Shedman asked Andrew if he had a shed and here's his response:

'daughters!
they do set you up!
i do have a shed, but alas no pictures
and just like my life it is narrow, chaotic, cluttered but every now and again things of worth, beauty and even genius emerge!
used for running repairs to the house, garden and equipment
the most recent article to be finished was a house number for my mum - attached
as for the genius bit - still in development!



the originals of the pictures i sent by peter browne
double in price every 3 years! add to your shed collection and your income in one easy move!'

(Love that 17, says Shedman...)

By the way, Bethany works for the Royal Horticultural Society who happen to have a Flower Show this weekend at Tatton Park near Knutsford, Cheshire .

Note about Pete Browne:
'Peter Browne was born in 1947 in West Wyalong NSW.
Peter Browne claims to have been found under a sheet of tin in West Wyalong around 1947. Raconteur and scallywag, Peter moved into a ruin at Silverton and established it’s first art gallery, where he held court for travellers entertaining them in his almost roofless “renovated “ ruin for many years.' More about Pete at Outback Artist.

Shedworld - the adventures of Shedman

The Big Day Out Parker's Piece Cambridge July 2007

Shedworld, Shedman's personal blog, is now live at www.shedworld.net. It features the random jottings of Shedman on the road, travelling far and wide through shedland. Occasional notes about plans, people, projects - and sheds.

Shedworld provides a refreshing personal view of sheds, poetry, and life in general based around Shedman's present and previous projects. As time allows, Shedman will be updating the Shedlife site with projects old and new. If you've met Shedman at projects in the past he'd love to hear from you. - and do send in any reminiscences or pictures if you have them.

Cuisle Poetry Festival

Limerick City Ireland October 2005

Gordon Brown's Second Home?

'Hello Shedman, we enjoyed meeting you recently at Ledbury. I was passing Westminster Palace recently and noticed a floating shed...

All the best

Paul Kennedy
Herefordshire'

Creepie-Crawlie Shed Quest

Wherever Shedman runs a project he likes to go on a Shed Quest to find the best sheds in the zone. Mark Cockram is a bookbinder/book artist who's on a shed quest of his own. He's been invited to exhibit in the South Bank Centre in 2009. The exhibition is called the Pestival and is about the world as perceived through the eyes of insects. He wants to create a Garden Shed Gallery.

Mark needs to find an old dilapidated shed that has lots of evidence of insects living in it. Can anyone out there help at all? If you can, send a message via Kontactr with a picture if possible - and while you're at it, tell Shedman what you do in your shed!


Mark's teaching in India and takes his tea breaks in a shed.

'The shed gallery will be one part of a much larger exhibition,' Mark writes. 'For the shed to have impact it would have to be of a reasonable size. I think that the older the better. The contents would be important as I would not want it to look like a disney film set.'

First to feature - Andy

Good to start with some really traditional shed activity.
Nothing like a bit of swarf!



'Use a lathe and other machinery to make models, tools and items for friends and family
Repair household items
Just outside the shed I melt aluminium in a flowerpot
It's also somewhere to keep the lawnmower and gardening tools' says Andy.
He runs a blog at http://workshopshed.blogspot.com/

Andy wins a signed copy of Shedman to mark the first post on Shedworld.

What do you do in your shed?

What do you do in your shed? You can post your answers to this searching question here at Shedlife, which has launched just in time for National Shed Week, that great institution of the British summer orchestrated by Alex Johnson at Shedworking and Uncle Wilco at Readersheds.

Shedlife launches for UK Shed Week

Shedlife, the new blog devoted to answering the question 'What do you do in your shed?' is being launched to coincide with National Shed Week 2008 and Shedman's visit to the Ledbury Poetry Festival (from July 4th - 163 years to the day since Henry David Thoreau took to his cabin in the woods at Walden Pond).



Shedman has been travelling the world for over five years now on a unique journey of discovery, a kind of spiritual quest with roof felt. It's been a costly, beautiful, wry and amazing all at the same time, often with splinters. But the one thing he's learned is just how creative people are, how inventive and how generous in sharing what they do in their sheds. Shedman feels it's time he shared his experiences and ask everyone who does things in sheds to share theirs. He's looking for great writing, superb images and extraordinary feats. You can send an email via the contact form or add a comment to a post. At the same time you can find out more about Shedman's own adventures at Shedman's blog and the Shedman website.