Carolyn's handiwork to appear in Robin Hood film (with video)
From a garden shed in Lancashire to the Hollywood big screen.
Carolyn Gillions will see her handiwork star alongside Gladiator star Russell Crowe in a new Robin Hood film.
The $130 million epic, also starring Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, is due for release next year.
Mother-of-two Carolyn, who works as a Tudor re-enactor under the name Lucy the Tudor, has made bow needles and frame saws for the film.
Carolyn, of Moss Lane, Hesketh Bank, said: "The commission for the Robin Hood film was a nice surprise.
"I make frame saws which are the ones that look like a harp so it's curved out and in with the blade along the bottom and tightened up by string.
"Shepperton Studios phoned up and said could they have some. Normally people order one at a time, but they first ordered four and then came back a month later and wanted another four, so I'm not entirely sure what they've done them.
"We're really quite excited, we can't wait to go and see the Robin Hood film. We'll be the idiots at the back of the cinema going 'Look look, there's my saws'."
Carolyn, 43, a former science and marine biology teacher, and her ex-husband visited Kentwell Hall, Suffolk, in 2005 for a Tudor re-creation.
She said: "We thought that would be a fantastic place to go and get the children really involved in history and we'd be interested too, thinking we could do it for a bit of a holiday once or twice, and it took over.
"We just got totally hooked. Since then I've learnt to make butter and cheese and I was forging steel the other day.
"I've made my son a safe conker holer – what boy doesn't need one of those?"
Daughter Beth, 13, has learnt how to spin, weave and knit, and Christian, eight, enjoys display sword-fighting lessons and calligraphy.
Carolyn, whose partner Tim, 47, is a part-time Henry VIII and Viking enthusiast, sells her wares, including brass needles, Mary Rose money pouches and bow stands, at medieval markets.
The other part of her business is going into schools, where she brings the Tudor period to life for children through activities such as grinding grain, weaving with a loom and spinning wool, as well as evening talks for a variety of groups.
She added: "I've got the best job in the world. I'm playing all the time. I'm either playing with children or I'm playing down in the workshop with my lathe, making stuff that I enjoy making."
Visit lucythetudor.co.uk for more information.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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