Pedal to the metal..

One of my favourite things as a maker is when you get an unexpected email from someone who has an unusual problem that needs fixing - it’s so good to be able to help people out with repairs when its all to easy to chuck away something when its broken…got to reuse,remake,fix things!

I was asked if I could repair a little welded cam-bracket on a beautiful old pedal steel guitar this week so I had to fit it into my schedule! I was/am a musician and occasionally get asked to do repairs and renovations on musical instruments in London. I’ve refinished, rewired and generally restored old instruments over the years, and it makes a change from the big pieces i’m madly trying to finish before the Christmas break.

This job was a very small delicate weld to hold a little plate back onto a rod (an actuator?) Which I did using a very steady hand an a very fine Tig welder…it solved the issue and was a neat little repair! Lots of years left in the instrument now..

Give me a call or email if you have any of these little jobs you might need doing, i’m always happy to take a look and help.

Narrowboat Steel Doors

I was called out recently to help a client who had a break-in on her boat - I had to make an emergency repair and a new steel door for the aperture. I used a good, thick sturdy 3mm sheet of steel and worked hard to get those fiddly angles just right - metal is unforgiving if you make a mistake, obviously, but there’s the skill in what I do I suppose…

It fitted beautifully and with the addition of some great internal locks, made a secure, safe barrier to any unwanted visitors…as a local metalworker in east London, it was great to be able to help someone in the community.

feel free to contact me for a quote if you have any requirements yourself.

Domestic interiors

Here’s a piece ive just finished and installed in a house in east london. It’s a dresser, fitted storage in an alcove, handmade by me.

As a local woodworker I like working in the area , its good to be part of a community.

Contact me if you need any domestic storage for your own home.

Wardrobes

Here are a pair of bedroomfitted wardrobes for a bedroom in a local house in Hackney. Plenty of storage and a good solution to clutter. It’s good being a local woodworker serving the local area!

Contact me if you have any requirements!

Passing it on…

I recently worked on this with my little girl, we wanted to make a sundial and put our heads together to make something which was a little different to the trad sundial you’d see lingering in the garden of a country house.

We added a bit of zing to it and steel, just tack-welded and sprayed up, looked good! A bright red that really sings out in the sunshine..

I love working with kids and mentally count the days until my girl can spend her days making whatever she dreams of in the workshops where I work. I’d happily let her loose on any of the equipment I use and the deftness of kids’ making hands and the wildness of their ideas is a joy.

I think we don’t give enough credence to that, don’t give them enough rope to do these things I really think they can safely do.

A wise man I know once said the pyramids were built by teenagers, basically ; sadly no one lived to be very old as an Egyptian slave or worker, and I agree with the sentiment of the abilities of the young to be massively capable..

The sundial worked, by the way…just imagine one in blue, yellow, green…

Restoration

Here are some photos of an exterior decorative wood restoration I undertook on a residential house in North London a while back. The original Victorian decorative woodwork was in a sorry state, the wood was slowly deteriorating over time - there is something very satisfying about cutting in a new piece of timber and the repainting, remaking the post and minaret with new wood. Copying decorative features is always fun too, it takes a good eye for proportions and a little bit of detective work, which I love. It’s going to have a long life again, as it was. Good as new!

If you need any thing similar to revamp your property, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a quote.

Don’t fear the weaver…

I’ve been sat tonight, having taken my work home with me, to sit in front of the fire as it’s lashing down outside, and learnt something new! That something being weaving a seat on a prototype I mentioned before - it’s so good! I’m quite enamoured with the process (and the outcome). It’s got all the elements of activities I really love, contemplation, concentrating on a problem (because it has been a bit of a mindbender) reflective but strangely mechanical, rhythmic…it's great with music on too, David bowie has been soundtracking my evening.

It’s fine work, fiddly, even, which makes a change to dealing with large pieces of furniture. It’s the same in some ways, it’s a one off handmade piece of homeware, a bespoke seat not unlike others that I make, painted steel and cord, but its also a door to another process, another set of possibilities. I want to do more when I can, I start seeing them in different colours, a small production run of beautiful, covetable objects. My head has been spinning off onto looms, rugs, blankets, trying to make an Indian pit loom described by a friend of mine she had seen….Moroccan weavers in tiny doorways with an enormous loom…ach, so much to do…..might have some of these woven footstool for sale soon - keep your eye on the website and Instagram…

Small spaces - houseboat

In London and most cities, we all see to crave space, more space, bigger fittings, bigger rooms, bigger bigger bigger!

But its actually quite a discipline in itself to try and make functional pieces for smaller spaces…you have to be prudent and economical with space, able to cover up the gubbins of pipework and wires, doors may need to function in a different way. It’s a set of criteria without much room for manouevre, you need to pare things down to neat, but attractive functionality. And in many ways, I feel that it’s a good skill in itself.

Narrowboat carpentry and interiors can be a particular challenge, but worth it!

I myself live in quite a small space and like to make attractive bespoke carpentry and fittings for my own space - it’s all unique and I like that.

The photo below was a neat bathroom vanity unit I made for a London houseboat interior.

Omega workshops

I’’ve got an abiding love of the Bloomsbury group interiors and Charleston house, after visiting a few years back - it’s sort of got a less sleek, more artisan kind of appeal like some of the utilitarian mid century stuff and echoes of arts and craft era too - sort of bridges the gap in my mind - I just love how there was no rules to it other than what looked and felt right and was hugely individual. I loved the omega workshops pieces produced under the guiding eye of Roger fry too, artistic and individual…makers (well, artists) making what appealed to them…a commercially not great, but so, so good…

Screens

For the last few years i’ve been quite obsessed with making decorative screens, room dividers, both out of metal, ERW steel frames with fabric, and also painted panel screens.

Below are two examples i’ve made, one as the bare metal, pre-painting and the other a finished decorative piece.

They are a great piece of furniture and I have kind of come to see them as an extension of the gallery wall, if you know what I mean - a canvas, a piece of art, a pictorial element to your home. Something about making them from scratch and painting or decorating them really appeals to me as a maker and as an artist. Functional art / design with more of an individualistic soul…i’m not sure which it is, perhaps both and I find that meeting of my two practices really fertile and intriguing. I'm trying to refine the materials as they always tend on the heavy side…so it’s ongoing! But that’s the beauty of it, I suppose….

Hiding your talent…

This was such a fun brief…create a useable table which doubled up as an electric piano cabinet on a chic narrowboat..it was a brain teaser - had to be high enough to play the piano comfortably but not so high as to be an un-functional table…I always think the best way is to just sit, measure, get a feel for height and as a designer (and as a human living with the piece!) You just know when something is right…you just do. Everyone has that designer's sense - we're all designers! I loved the colour combo that the customer and I came up with…that’s VW orange code paint and the edges were trimmed in English oak. Contact me if you’ve got a project in your mind!

Prototyping…

I’ve been working on this project, this morning, playing with painted steel, vibrant ultramarine blue..it's one of the most fun bits of my practice, working out what works and what doesn’t in a design but trusting your eye, your sense, that what works, works..there’s so many little paths and possibilities, little decisions to be taken, some blind alleys and byzantine paths to get where you want to go…this bespoke design is going to be a stool, part of a homewares design, something new..fingers crossed and faculties sharp!

Studio furniture

Loved making these studio shelves from steel and reclaimed wood for a great client recently. Bespoke fabricated steelwork shelf brackets and adapted reclaimed wood from a dairy. Lovely old boards with a lot of character and patina and wear.

Big projects..

I thought i’d share a photo of a recent project which really excited me and i’d love to do more of…a bespoke staircase in steel and reclaimed wood, made at blackhorse workshops and installed in a home in the London area. Steel and wood make a great effective space saving combination.

Projects like this rely on good measurements and a bit of vision to see the final object, even when it seems like a daunting project! As a designer maker I love challenges like this.

vibrant colours rule!

I've been working on this new collection of pieces of furniture and getting really excited by this combination of colours! table base in 40mm box steel sprayed in VW orange (same as the old vans) and a reclaimed solid wood top painted in a sort of aquatic turquoise and edged in london oak. Keep visiting for more updates on these pieces as they come...

A small job for today...

Here's a small side table/coffee table in Oak with a steel frame, degreased, primed and ready to paint! not sure what colour the base will be yet...any ideas?