Darren and I were walking home in the snow yesterday having spent some time together at The Finishing Room. He asked me a really good question; whether self employment and doing what I love had fulfilled my expectations. It made me realise that the past year, and certainly the past 6 months have been something of a blur and that I haven’t made time to reflect on what’s been achieved. Now I know I say every time that I write a new post that my blog has been woefully neglected, and once again this is true. The blog has been such a great tool for summarising and marking the key stages of my tran ..read more

Ok, I think I’ve kept you in suspense for long enough so here it is……… fan fare please……. the new name for my business is…….. As I’m sure you can imagine, choosing a new name was a difficult process, but in some ways this one was gifted to me by my new location and it just felt so right. The space that I now occupy is a listed building that once housed workers who would inscribe geometric designs onto the blown glass before it would be acid etched – the space was one of a number of ‘Finishing Rooms’ that existed on the site. Fast forward to 2017 and you’ll find me in the same space working on ..read more

I’ve decided that it’s probably a good thing that I don’t have children because I’m not sure I’d like the responsibility of giving them a name. I like making the kind of decisions that can be changed at a later date if required, or decisions where there’s little consequence attached to getting it wrong like should I have a Chocolate Digestive or a Bourbon Cream with my coffee – because they’re both winning choices, right? Having to choose a name for your business is definitely not easy. You have to think about so many things! Does it represent what you do? Does it represent where you want to g ..read more

About 9 months ago my workshop buddy, Dean and I noticed a pair of surveyors measuring up the building that we occupy. We thought we should ask a few questions. it turned out that our workshop and the rest of the victorian factory buildings around us were in the process of being sold off by our landlords to housing developers who have been desperate to build on the site for years. But what about our workshop?? We were told that the deal wasn’t imminent and that we would likely have 18 months before we needed to go, but in the last few months more and more of the units have become vacant and De ..read more

So it’s been three months since my last post and what a three months it’s been! As always I started out with the very best of intentions to keep you updated with progress on my concave (egg) chair but by the time I returned to Tresithick for my final week of tuition, the deadline for my written research project was looming and I’d done my usual trick of leaving everything to the last moment!! Needless to say, rather than showing you lovely people gorgeous pictures of my chair, I was hurriedly pulling together a bibliography, referencing photos and attempting to print a sizeable 19,000 word pie ..read more

There’s something about this egg chair that I just love! I don’t know if it’s the anticipation of how it’s going to look (I’ve already ear marked a space at home), the tailoring process of attaching the panels directly to the shell for the perfect fit, or simply the way that my Kirkby wool conforms to the lovely shape – I just want to keep hugging it! The starting point – 5 panels cutStep 2 – all pinned into place along the desired seam lineStep 3 – trimmed and ready for sewingStep 4 – all sewn and ready for reattachment Covering the chair has been unlike anything I’ve done so far – smooth, pi ..read more

Darren and I were walking home in the snow yesterday having spent some time together at The Finishing Room. He asked me a really good question; whether self employment and doing what I love had fulfilled my expectations. It made me realise that the past year, and certainly the past 6 months have been something of a blur and that I haven’t made time to reflect on what’s been achieved. Now I know I say every time that I write a new post that my blog has been woefully neglected, and once again this is true. The blog has been such a great tool for summarising and marking the key stages of my tran ..read more

Boom boom! I’m sorry about the corny title, I couldn’t resist. Well it’s been a busy old fortnight so far. I’m really starting to feel the (largely self-enduced) pressure of completing both of my chairs before the Diploma verification deadline. Worst case scenario I could defer until next year and take more time to complete them but I’m eager to get it done this year.  The seat fabric goes on… I’d love to blame the fabric or something else outside of my control, but I think the long and the short of it is, traditional upholstery takes time! Yes, the fabric has added an extra element as th ..read more

Ok, I think I’ve kept you in suspense for long enough so here it is……… fan fare please……. the new name for my business is…….. As I’m sure you can imagine, choosing a new name was a difficult process, but in some ways this one was gifted to me by my new location and it just felt so right. The space that I now occupy is a listed building that once housed workers who would inscribe geometric designs onto the blown glass before it would be acid etched – the space was one of a number of ‘Finishing Rooms’ that existed on the site. Fast forward to 2017 and you’ll find me in the same space working on ..read more

I can’t believe that three months have whizzed by since I was last at Tresithick and updating my blog *slaps own wrist*. Remember this little velvet beauty?Well, here I am once again and this time it’s for a couple of weeks. The plan was to complete my traditional armchair this week so that I can start my next diploma piece, the egg chair, next week (more on that soon). That said, it’s already Wednesday and it’s not looking like that’s going to happen. So where were we? Looking back at my last post I had just started to apply the top fabric to the back of the seat, but in actual fact by the ti ..read more