Meet a Maker: Edition 21

Meet John Potter

Learn about his practice of fletching and his business Twangers Arrows.

1. What is your craft and how did you get into it?
I am an accredited master fletcher at Twangers Arrows. Fletching is the making of arrows, including shaping the wooden shafts and attaching the feather. I came into fletching many years ago through the necessity to provide myself with arrows for my longbows.

2. What is one interesting fact about you?
One place I always wanted to visit was the Tower of London and the first time I actually went was to collect an award for the education sessions I deliver at another historic site. It was amazing to see my image on a large video screen inside the Tower.

3. How long have you been making?
I will be coming up to about 20 years of making.

4. Who are your favourite makers in your craft?
This has to be Master Mick Manns who was my fletching master, Mick has since retired from fletching. Master arrow smith Mark Stretton is another master who has my admiration. Mark has shared his vast knowledge with me, encouraged me and became a close friend.

5. What is the most challenging skill/technique you learned in your craft?
Without any doubt the biggest challenge I have had to face is the Master Fletchers examination as it required very high skill levels to pass.

6. What is your favourite part of your craft?
My favourite part of fletching is looking on a completed set of arrows made from scratch to a customers requirements, knowing they are bang on and I can be proud of them.

7. What project are you most proud of and why?
It may sound a bit false but it is true: I am most proud of making a successful self-employed business from what started as a hobby and became a passion.

8. If someone who knows nothing about you and your practice could know one thing, what would it be?
That fletching, in a traditional manner, is preserving both the knowledge of how arrows of all periods where produced, and the hand skills required, before they are lost to time.