My stand at ELDS 2010

So the show ran for three full days, with a private view on the Thursday night. 

I must say that although I normally stand up all day in the workshop, at the end of an eight hour day in front of my stand, my back was killing me!  I must have looked an older man than I actually am as I walked down the road towards the tube station, and then struggled to sit down on the train.

Although the weather was cold, there was good attendance at the show. Of course wanting to look my best in front of all the public, I could not risk wearing a hat on my way to the show in morning as my hair would get messed up and be sticking up all over the place. I never realised I was that vain.

Here is a picture of my stand this year.

In addition to having just furniture on my stand, I also had a number of different boxes for sale (jewellery boxes, pencil boxes, champagne boxes).  I am pleased to say I sold a good fair number. It does make the day more pleasant to sell something!

I am back in the workshop now making a blanket chest. This I hope will be one of the items in my next show.  For details of my upcoming shows, check out the 'Exhibitons' page on my website.

It was the night before....

....not Christmas (but could be with all the snow we have had - even in London), but the start of the East London Design Show.

Yes, once again this year I am doing the show. I have been setting up my stand today in good time for tomorrow's opening at 18:00 (private view). Then three full days of standing in front of my stand talking about the work. If I had a Twitter account, I could tweet. But I don't. So I won't.

I have also updated my website to list the shows I am in...it is now in a new table called 'Exhibitions'. Funny that!!

Watch this space for news of the show!

What's the buzz?

So in my last post, I was talking about a black and white chest of drawers that I was making. Yep, done that now! And also I have made the following items:

• Two bathroom cabinets


• Four jewellery boxes from oak and sycamore


• A shelf unit for a computer room


• The carcass of an AV cabinet


• Twenty two drawers made from cedar


• Nine dovetailed pencil boxes


• Three book cases

And at the moment I am alternating between making a sideboard and a blanket chest. So I have been busy.

Today I have been spraying some of the sideboard door. The sideboard is completely black, and having sprayed 35 big panels black, the spray room is now black. And sometime, like yesterday, I seem to get as much black over myself as over what I am spraying. Don't ask how or why, but yesterday I did manage to spill 1/2 litre of the lacquer, all over the spray room table, floor, my measuring scales and myself. Although there was lots of black running everywhere, the air was a dark shade of blue!

While I am waiting for coats of lacquer to dry, I swap between projects. So today not only have I been shaping the legs of the blacket chest, I have also been making some 3d CAD models of a drinks cabinet I want to make for early next year.

I plan to make the cabinet from oak (the light brown in the model) and wenge (the dark brown in the model). As it is a drinks cabinet, the top most shelf will be used to hang wine glasses from, while the other shelf used to store spirits and mixers. I can't decide yet if I should made something for the bottom shelf area for storing wine bottles lying down.

Past and present

I have been busy the last few weeks - helping someone in the workshop making a table in fact.

The chance came up that I could help make a table that is a nine-tenths scale reproduction of a table that William Wilberforce used to sign the document that abolished the slave trade. The original table is held in The Museum in Docklands, London.

The we made was about five foot round, eight curved faced drawers and a leather top writing surface. The table stood on a traditional style curved leg assembly on four brass castors. The wood used was a mixture of modern material for hidden areas (ply and the like), with mahogany being used for all the visible surfaces.

Two of us working on it, and it was finished in about five weeks. Not bad going!

So now I am back to making my own pieces. I have come up with a range of product I want to make that allow people to have bespoke furniture, but at more affordable prices. These pieces won't be a cheap as the Nordic/Oak/Pine warehouse places, but won't be as expensive as high end pieces (but I can still make them if required!). All the pieces can be made larger/smaller as required.

The first piece I am making is a chest of drawers. It is being made so one half is white and the other is black. It looks as if someone has got two chests, cut them in half and stuck them back together again. A bit two-tone perhaps?

I am just at the phase now where I am spraying the black half...and it is a right pain, as you need to be very careful not to get dust and dirt on the surface as it really shows. And in a dusty workshop that is hard!

Twenty years ago

Yes, it was twenty years ago that I joined NatWest IT. It was the first day of a nine week training course in Jackson Structured Programming and PL/1.

Seems like only yesterday........

......and here I am now those years later not doing IT as a profession any more.

Anyway, the SDC ended the other week. Three shows in three months. Not bad. All different, and all different experiences. The one I enjoyed the most was the East London Design Show. Maybe because it was the second show I had done and knew a bit more of what to expect, and also I had my stand better organised too. I am sure the more shows you do, the better the experience.

I made a bathroom cabinet for our own bathroom, as the one we had was too small and falling to bits (not made by me I must add). The new one is great. Big enough to take every bottle of smelly bathroom stuff, and with two really big mirror doors. So last weekend, I took down the old cabinet, painted the walls and ceiling, then hung the new cabinet. It looks so much better now. Should have been done years ago!

Finished - Bedside cabinets

First of all, let me wish you all a Happy New Year!

Just before Christmas, I finished a pair of bedside cabinets made from sycamore and oak. Go have a look at the pictures of them on my website.

I wanted to get the cabinets made for a show that starts this coming weekend (9th - 17th Jan 2010), being held at the Mall Galleries in London. It is a show run by the Society of Designer Craftsmen, which I am a member of. They are an organisation of craftspeople from various disciplines, so at the show there will be much more than just furniture!

Pop into the show if you are in the area...do you wants some bedroom cabinets by any chance (or any other bedroom furniture)?