This chapter of the Tales of Yurt Power, is about the Two storey yurt which we built a few years back on the Canvas Chic campsite. We had been dreaming for awhile about the magnificence of the tent palaces of the Mughal Emperors and were designing our own…like a two-storey yurt… …a good place to […]
This chapter of the Tales of Yurt Power, is about the Two storey yurt which we built a few years back on the Canvas Chic campsite.
We had been dreaming for awhile about the magnificence of the tent palaces of the Mughal Emperors and were designing our own…like a two-storey yurt…
…a good place to begin this story is when I went to Canvas Chic in the Ardeche region of France to open the doors on all their yurt covers.
Canvas Chic was one of the original yurt campsites, in fact they probably coined the word ‘glamping’, and was situated in a beautiful green (Mediteranean) oak forest on the edge of the Ardeche gorge, with its magical prehistoric caves, rushing river and free roaming wild boar. (I say ‘was’ because not long after we were there, the owners sold the site and took the name ‘Canvas Chic’ with them, leaving their name ‘Milles Etoiles’ (a thousand stars) for the new owners).
Canvas Chic site
The ‘opening the doors’ task was so called because they had bought new wooden doors for all their 14 yurts, which were bigger than the old ones, so the canvas needed opening up at the doors.
Some time later, when we were on the road in our nomadic workshop, we were called to Canvas Chic to make a cover for their terrace, which evolved into to a Turkish Pole Tunnel Tent using bent chestnut rafters, going into an oak ridge pole.
Turkish tunnel tent
The next project somehow became the Two Storey Yurt (remember here that the truck was built with this in mind…)
But how to do it…? When we were wondering how to make the frame, we heard about a French yurt maker who had bought a few Kyrgyz yurt frames with the idea to make a yurt-related structure, but had decided to take his family on the road in a horse-drawn wagon, so was selling the components. We worked out that by cutting some of the roof rafters down, magically it was exactly what we needed for the two-storey yurt frame, and one other yurt (but that’s second story). The Kyrgyz make their frames from willow by hand, shaping the components with a toothed draw knife, which are then coloured with an orange-red dye.
Nomadic workshop and Kyrgyz Yurt frame
We weren’t so into a central pillar or an internal staircase as they would block the space, so the fixed deck for the top 20’ yurt sits on 8 pillars, with a side supports held by lots of metal. The rim of this deck then acts as a big wheel for the lower 30’ yurt. The staircase became an outside spirally one.
Deck in process
There was a willing group of volunteers who helped with the building process, which involved being transformed through the up cycling of an industrial stove for the metal of the deck (and conscious cooking).
Bottom yurt frame in place
Looking up from bottom yurt
We thought it was going to be quite a job to put the top yurt cover and frame up, but it ended up being relatively simple, by doing it inside-out instead of outside-in. (Those who have ever erected a yurt will know what I mean).
The two-storey yurt was finished in time for the first Yurt Makers Conference Gathering, where yurt makers and experts came from all over the world to play, vision and eat a lot.
Two Storey yurt complete
Our aim is to encourage more campsites to incorporate a tent palace at the centre to bring the people closer to a tribal feeling: the the true magic underlying the campsite experience, where a group of people come out of their separate lives, live in nomadic shelters and get a feel of the group mnd.
“The spirits intent yurt cover was made using measurements only, yet when it arrived it fit our frame really well. after a bit of rain & shrinking, it fit like a glove! really good quality sewing & design too. highly recommended.”5 paragraph essay example
“The spirits intent yurt cover was made using measurements only, yet when it arrived it fit our frame really well. after a bit of rain & shrinking, it fit like a glove! really good quality sewing & design too. highly recommended.”
5 paragraph essay example
“Spirits Intent manage to meet seemingly impossible deadlines with perfect canvas work. They have a great attention to details and a wide knowledge base which they take the time to share, I use them for all my canvas work.”
“Spirits Intent manage to meet seemingly impossible deadlines with perfect canvas work. They have a great attention to details and a wide knowledge base which they take the time to share, I use them for all my canvas work.”
The above title is of a book I would love to recommend everyone (and the goddess of love especially) to read. My favourite bit is of how the author’s grandfather’s funeral supper gets cooked on the celling, with the cooks being upside down!. We will borrow the title style for this entry and call it […]
The above title is of a book I would love to recommend everyone (and the goddess of love especially) to read. My favourite bit is of how the author’s grandfather’s funeral supper gets cooked on the celling, with the cooks being upside down!.
We will borrow the title style for this entry and call it “Of Fire and Of Water” to do a little a series of tutorials in nomadic fire and water.
The other day we decided that as we now see the road rising towards us again, it is time to make a stove for our 4×4 overland camper. As we like to make things hard we decided to make a water tank for it the at the same time.
We will however start with the stove here, so this will be a tutorial in how to make a gas bottle stove to heat up your heart.
Step one, find a gas bottle and cut to size. 
Step two cut door openings 
Step three, cut some extra pieces for doors, and for the top and bottom.
Step four, using your crane flatten up the top and bottom pieces. 
Step five and, beat the flattened pieces even flatter with a hammer (also useful for those without cranes). 
Step six, get someone else to cut long strips of metal from an old chassis for the grill. 
Step seven, while that someone else does the hard work, quickly weld the top on.
Our spring cover rush has come to a head this week, when we were called to increase the size of the yurt covers from one of the Yurtshire sites: all three yurts were to be extended from 16’6″ to 17′ diameter. The yurt covers we made were perfect but it turned out the frames were […]
Our spring cover rush has come to a head this week, when we were called to increase the size of the yurt covers from one of the Yurtshire sites: all three yurts were to be extended from 16’6″ to 17′ diameter. The yurt covers we made were perfect but it turned out the frames were erected too small when the measurements were taken (we make all our covers from measurements so we usually don’t see the frames), and now needed to grow some to allow for all the furniture. We took our Mercedes camper-Worksop truck, loaded with a sewing machine and all the equipment needed to do the job. And drove through the night to Umberslade farm, home of the lunar festival. 
The three yurts looked so perfect on arrival. 
I was wondering what the owner was thinking, I thought wow what a good job we did, as he was late we thought to ourselves maybe we can just tell him we fixed it when he gets there without doing anything. But being the nice elves we decided to start stretching the yurt covers using some Spirits Intent cover wizardry.
We were somewhat tired from not having slept properly, although driving through the night brought the nomads in us awake. So by the time the owner arrived with some extra covers from one of the other Yurtshire sites, it was getting very clear it is going to be a very long day. We had to get one of the yurts changed while the holiday makers were still using it. So that was the main challenge for lunchtime, they agreed to give us an hour to do so, with some extremely fast roof cover magic we got that done, and when they came back they said they did not even notice the difference (don’t know if we should see it as a compliment). 
It was now mid afternoon and we still had to open two yurt roofs, and extend the walls of both, the weather forcast was for heavy rain in the night, so leaving the yurts roofless was no option. We were sewing for all we were worth, and so when our friend Henry Dowell (fellow yurt maker) came to collect his 32ft cover, we were in stitches, not sure if it’s because we were so devastatingly tired, or that the jokes were actually funny. It was 21-00 pm and we realised we just did a 5 to 9 work day. Totally exhausted we went home into the truck to sleep, the last joke for the night was “it was a really hard day’s work (understatement) just to stretch those yurt covers a few cm”. It was near death by yurt making, we thought it was funny anyhow. In the middle of the night the rain came quite hard.. 
…so at 4 am one of us (not saying who) went out to put the chimney through the star cap. I guess we earned our breakfast. 
And so on departure the three yurts looked lovely (but not very much unlike when we arrived). Tom Sterne (the owner) was fun to work with, and we both agreed the yurts did look better, it was amazing how much difference that extra space did.
It’s that time, once again, when the people wake up from their winter hibernation, look at the daffodils and say, “Crikey it’s spring – better get moving”. For Spirits Intent, and our now sister, Wild Canvas, this means making yurts, tipis, Bushcraft tents and custom covers ready for the season. Much of our work is […]
It’s that time, once again, when the people wake up from their winter hibernation, look at the daffodils and say, “Crikey it’s spring – better get moving”.
For Spirits Intent, and our now sister, Wild Canvas, this means making yurts, tipis, Bushcraft tents and custom covers ready for the season. Much of our work is the sewing side of things, and many have already designed their campsites over the winter, but there’s always a few calls that go : “Hi, just dug my 2 yurt canvases out of the barn, and realise that they have holes in them, and it may rain this year, so we probably need new ones. I know it’s a bit late but is there any chance you can get them done by the end of the week?”
We like challenges and somehow it all happens.
The next delivery of canvas
Swimming in the P V sea. Camp cover for Wild Wise
Sand and Khaki Canvas Mountain
Yurt Canvas and Felt Peak going to Henry Dowell
2 more of those Wild Canvas Baker Tents – ready for the wilds
Truck Boxes and Overland Campers We are getting ready to go on an adventure, to take the Zodiac tent and create a centre. It means we needed to get some kind of a storage container so we can store in movement. So the other day early in the morning saw the Morning Star on the […]
Truck Boxes and Overland Campers
Morning star
We are getting ready to go on an adventure, to take the Zodiac tent and create a centre. It means we needed to get some kind of a storage container so we can store in movement. So the other day early in the morning saw the Morning Star on the way to Bristol, to get a storage container to go on the back of our bigger Mercedes 1823 .
Burnt transit
Tnt box
I did a turn at westeligh (westerly road) and the guys in the scrap years were hard core but funny, so we soon got it on the back of the truck. One can’t believe how much weed grows around parts of Bristol, It was surprising to me anyhow.
Surprising weed
Then back home it was time to quickly knock some windows into our Mercedes 814 4×4 overland camper.
mercedes 814 4×4 overland camper windows knocked (quickly)
Been staring at mountains of canvas for some time now…. …which decided us it is time to go to the mountains in canvas (in our larger baker-tent). As you may know we currently live in Wales which happens to be very Wild and beautiful, especially around here. On a Canvas delivery last week we were […]
The Yurt Cover mountain range
Been staring at mountains of canvas for some time now….
Yurt wall ridge
…which decided us it is time to go to the mountains in canvas (in our larger baker-tent). As you may know we currently live in Wales which happens to be very Wild and beautiful, especially around here. On a Canvas delivery last week we were told about the Welsh Robin Hood – Twm Sion Cati so we decided we are going to start exploring at Dinas Hill.
Dinas Hill
His magical cave just happens to be just south of my favourite spot the Llyn brianne reservoir, and we quickly scaled the hill to the cave, and amazingly we found our names on the wall of fame: it is a Welsh secret that anyone who carves their name in that cave becomes…….. (not going yo tell you if you don’t know it already or it would not be a secret).
The Cave wall of fame
It reminded me later on, when came to a waterfall, of the Journey to the Heart of the World by Ian Baker where he goes to seek the illusive mythical waterfall, but to get to it he has to follow a set of directives. The Tibetans believe that the landscape is the body of a goddess and her secret spots are “Beyuls“: (spots that are gateways, some are described like Paradise, some are places in other worlds), but in order to get to the waterfall he had first to go and visit the mountain top, and that also could not be done directly. So circling around Dinas Hill made think about all that, the Body of the Welsh Goddess and her Wild spots. I am a great advocate of the power of the wild, in fact I secretly hope that religion will revert back to the days before gods, when mountains and valleys are where the powers are, powers before they solidified into personifications as mountain gods and goddesses – of rain and thunder) when naturalism was pure and power was pure and nature was pure……. ok enough, breath.
Waterfall
At the top of Devil’s Staircase
At the bottom of Devil’s Staircase
We went through forests and up and down the hills looking for a spot to pitch up that night and and ended up going of the road on one of the most off-road routes in wales: the Strata Florida 4×4 track.
This to me is the best part of Wales, where wild oaks and rough mountains come together, “where wild horses are in the face of the battle”
Wild Horses with face for a battle
It was getting dark, and we realised that our cute little 4×4 just defeated the most 4×4 worthy track and that in fact we don’t feel much for green laning, when with a sigh when we hit the the tarmac again and stopped bouncing. Why people call this fun defeats me with all the burning clutch smell, and fearing for the vehicle anatomy, like worrying about shock absorber bushes etc, , you know that picture of fording a river with your Defender, I mean seriously ?
Baker Tent
So anyhow… we took back to the lake, and,almost dark we quickly pitched up the tent, (the Land Rover Campfire Tent without the Land Rover) and went wooding in the dark and the rain, like good gypsies do.
Baker tent (campfire tent) by the lake
Fire Lit
Gypsy tipping tea
That night was lovely: the wildness of the place and darkness poured colour into my dreams and I felt energised sleeping there by the power of the wilds which was enhanced by fasting the whole day, and walking (and some intense 4x4ing) the Welsh Goddess.
Morning Coffee Yoffi
We woke up early to an amazing misty morning, with canvas banging in the rain and the wind, and our hearts feeing wild. It was like a scene from one of Bill Mason’s documentaries, and a grand victory for the baker Tent, which has proved itself the real tent of the wild. We were recently involved in a heated debate (ok actually it was only me that got heated) about the ups and downs of this fabulous open fire tent, one of our new wild canvas range.
So no more Debate.
Now all the elves have got their boots
Elves in felt boots
Now all the elves have got their boots
Felt boots
This is our latest afghan yurt, or the open fire yurt as we call it, seen here with a smoke flap type wheel cover, to allow for the open fire whilst ensuring the rain does not enter. It has taken us a few years to research our theories about the double bend yurts of North Afghanistan. The conclusions […]
Open Fire Yurt with smoke cowl
This is our latest afghan yurt, or the open fire yurt as we call it, seen here with a smoke flap type wheel cover, to allow for the open fire whilst ensuring the rain does not enter.
Opening the Door
Yurt Fire Side
It has taken us a few years to research our theories about the double bend yurts of North Afghanistan. The conclusions are not conclusive enough, but it seems the high wheel profile is definitely the way to make enough draw whilst allowing the wheel to be covered from the storms.
Due to the fact that our yurts are made from canvas, that can never “breath” as much as the felts of Asian yurts, there is still a lack of circulation like the type one gets from tipi linings.
But all in all it was fun sitting by the large fire sides, over the New Year, with the howling storms outside.
We later put our usual star cap cover on, and installed a wood burning stove so not to soot up the rafters and felt, so our open fire yurt is now called something else.
Stove exiting the double curved Yurt
You can see the double curves of the rafters here too.
The best looking Yurt in the West (and the East and the North……. and the South)
This is what it looks like now, out by the little stream.