Back in the day

So what does that mean then – "Back in the day"? Does it mean "I remember when..." or does it mean "When I was young..."?

Anyway, back in the day when I worked for people, December was the time of Christmas parties. Going too as many as possible was the thing to do, so you become one of the 'faces' on the Christmas party scene. You would get tickets to all the parties, "The Tech Apps party", "File Server party", "JFPIG" to names a few, but as always our party was always the best one to attend!

When I moved onto other companies, the parties were different, and that is mainly due to the excess of money spend on them. Free wine and beer all night, bar staff walking around with trays full of cocktail drinks that you help yourself to, a vodka shoot where you lay beneath a mini ski-jump made of ice and vodka is poured down into your mouth, the biggest chocolate fondue fountain you have ever seen. But at the end of the day, the simple parties where better…even if the food was some sandwiches supplied by Benjy’s.

I don’t think I will have a company Christmas party this year – I have to put up with myself all day and don’t think an evening of my own company will be swinging!

Since my last update I have done a couple of shows. The first was held in Chelsea Town Hall and was called "Handmade in Britain", and that was during November. The show I did last week, "The East London Design Show" was held in Shoreditch Town Hall (seems like lots of shows are held in town halls).

It is an experience doing a show, standing up for hours on end, talking to people about your furniture. It has to be done though, and gets my name and work out to the public.

Here is a picture of my stand at the East London Design Show.



Must get on now. I am making a pair of bedside cabinets. It seems to be taking ages to make them, but I keep getting interrupted by these shows!!!

A stones throw away

Today I went round to a veneer merchant to buy some sycamore veneer. It is for a pair of bedside cabinets I am making. The sycamore will be married up with some oak, and will give a light/dark combination.

The veneer merchant I use is on a big industrial estate in Beckton, East London. It is really funny as I grew up in East Ham which is only a couple of miles away, and even more odd as my grandfather worked on the gas works that used to Beckton before it was knocked down many years ago (Seen the film 'Full Metal Jacket'? That was filmed in some of the old gas works before it was finally pulled down. I remember them filming it, as all the building were made to look war torn).

Although I now have my veneer, I won't be able to use it for a while as we have a new veneer press in the workshop that is currently being renovated, as it is probably over 50 years old. It is hard to describe what a veneer press looks like. It is a cross between a cider press, a printing press and a medieval torture machine! When it is finished I will post a picture here.

I have added a couple of video links to the gallery section of my website...see if you can find them!

The trio of bookcase have now been installed and some pictures of them can also be seen on my website.

I have my first show coming up in a couple of weeks. It is called Handmade in Britain and is being held in Chelsea Old Town Hall. I have never done a show before so I am sure it will be an experience!

Till next time.....

Working from home...Scooby Doo.

Today I have been working from home busy getting images sorted for some postcards - not of my recent holiday I should add! I have three shows coming up over the next few months, so I need some sort of publicity that people can take if they like my work.

I already have business cards made - I did those earlier in the year. These are the first business cards I have ever had in my life...I can't have had a job in the past important enough to warrant them I guess. I always get a smile on my face when I think about business cards, as it reminds me a story about my dad. Many many years ago, he was given some business cards to give out to clients. A few months after he got them, I happened to find them in a box in the shed. When I asked my dad what they were doing there, he said "I gave some out, and then someone phoned me up. I don't want that to happen." Hopefully people will phone me up!

The set of three bookcases I have been making are now finished and are ready for me to collect them from the workshop. I will get some pictures done of them and post them on my website.

A lot has happened...

...since my last post! Honest.

First of all, I did a major revamp of my website. This was for two reasons. The first was I wanted to change the look and feel of it - this was not too difficult as all I had to really do was change the CSS that provided the site style. As a result, and the second reason for the changes, was because I then found it only worked with IE7 - so I had to do more little CSS tweeks to get it working on various other browsers. It now works on IE6, IE7, FireFox, Chrome and Safari. I am holding back on testing it on IE8 for a while.

I have also finished my sideboard. You can see pictures of it in my website gallery.

My nephew who is 15 had to do two weeks work experience. For his second week he came to the workshop and together we build a coffee table he designed. I don't have any proper photographs of it yet, just this one I took in the workshop.


Currently at the moment, I am making three oak bookcases. They are to replace some old shelves in a chimney breast alcove. Eventually there will be a fitted cupboard in the alcove.

Anyway, I am halfway through my summer holidays at the moment, having just spent the last five days in Shropshire, and flying tomorrow morning to Croatia for a week. I'll send a postcard!

Drawer action

I was out a couple of months ago with some chums for some after work beers and a curry.

One of them, we shall call him 'MM', says he remembers seeing something on an Antiques Roadshow type TV programme many years ago about how to spot furniture with well made and fitted drawers.

The expert said that a well made drawer can be pushed shut by the pressure of one finger at the side of the drawer. If the drawer is well made, then it will glide in. If not, then the drawer will stick and bind (it will 'rack').

I said I would post a video of the drawers in the Ash hall table I was making, to show how they open and close....have a look.

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If you want to see more pictures of this table, then have a look at the gallery shots of it on my website

I am still around...don't worry.

Bad bad bad bad. Has it really been over two months since I did my last update? Bad bad bad bad. I will do more updates - yes I know I have said it before, but I will now aim to do one at the end of each week.

Anyway, in those two months I have not just been sitting down enjoying the sun that seems to come to us late spring/early summer. I have actually been doing some work.

First of all, I have finished my hall table, but to be honest, I haven't done the mirror yet. I do have the mirror glass (it is all wrapped up in the workshop with 'danger' signs stuck to it) but have been side tracked by other things.

So what else have I been doing? Well, when I ordered the wood for my hall table, I made sure I had enough to make a small sideboard. This is made frame and panel construction, the frame being from the ash, while the panels made from something called olive ash - it just has more colour than ash and can look a bit like olive wood. I have nearly finished this project, I only have the handles to make and then I can move onto the 'finishing' of it. This will be new, as I normally use oil as a finish, but for this project I have decided to use a spray finish which will be something new for me to learn. Lots of furniture made in the workshop is spray finished, and it is a very useful skill to have.

Also since my last post, I have given my website a complete revamp. I have changed the look and feel. Go have a look, and while you are there you can have a look at the hall table too!

Website update - Tallboy pictures

I have made an update to the gallery on my website to include the pictures of the cherry tallboy.

Go have a look and you can see what it really looks like.