Auctions.

I went to my very first auction a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't really sure what to expect as you don't really get any auctions out in Malaysia where I grew up (not the done thing buying old stuff, we want everything to be new and shiny). I got a little over-excited at the auction and couldn't resist a spur of the moment purchase, and was unpleasantly surprised by the concept of a buyer's fee which pretty much doubled the price of what I bought (an old 1970s movie poster for those curious Joe's out there). Having been to one, I now consider myself an old-hand and am ready to get down to some serious auctioneering.

I went off to auction again last Saturday in hopes that I would find something good (especially since scouring second hand furniture shops in the East End didn't seem to be doing the trick) and came away with a couple of rolls of fabric for practice, but sadly, no furniture. There was a lovely set of three chairs going for £12, but for some bizarre reason my nerves failed me at the last minute and I didn't bid on them. Have been kicking myself about it all weekend as its now week two of my furniture hunt and I'm still coming up empty!

I'll give myself one last try this Saturday and if I don't find anything I might give up on auctions for a bit. Does anyone have any bright sparks as to where else I can find cheap furniture to upholster?!

Bargain fabric, no chairs!

Knit one, purl one.

Warm and snuggly for Scotland

Its amazing what you can learn off the internet. Me, I'm trying to learn how to knit. At the moment I can only knit in a straight line, which is somewhat limiting. At some point I will gather up the courage to try some double pointed needles, they just look scary.

A friend very kindly knitted me a scarf for my birthday and it looked amazing. It could have been store bought/machine made as the stitches were so even! The stuff I have made on the other hand has a handmade feel to it (code for slightly lumpy and bumpy). I also seem to have an overabundance of scarves (straight lines!). Good thing I am going to Scotland where it is very cold, or so I have been warned.

At some point, I am hoping to use some knitted pieces in my upholstery. That is if I can gather the patience to knit enough squares together. Its frustrating how long each piece takes to knit and it gets a bit boring by about row 6 of the same pattern. Kinda wish there was a "skip to the end" button. I will however persevere. Watch this space.

Bread.

Is this smooth enough? Guess we'll find out

So this post is not related to woodworking, upholstery or any other crafty matters. But seeing as to how I've had so much fun doing it, I thought I would share this as well.

Starting off...doesn't look like much

I baked bread for the first time this morning. And boy, was it satisfying. Kneaded the dough to "satiny smoothness" per recipe (or as near as I can get it) and am now waiting for it to raise so that I can knock it all back again. A lack of time up until now has meant that I am a little late to the baking game, but better late than never! I've been itching to this for a while now, inspired by the pictures that my friend David keeps posting of his bready adventures and a weekend jaunt to a lovely Shropshire farm over the May bank holiday where fresh bread and newly laid eggs kicked off a fest of gluttony (with a couple of easy walks in between).

The dough has quite a weird and unexpected consistency when kneading - you can feel it trying to rise at the same time, so much so it feels like its almost alive. I found the whole thing slightly off-putting to be honest, almost like having a fat white grub trying to escape being squashed. Almost enough to put me off bread making again.

...I'm not convinced its meant to look like this. But at least its ready just in time for lunch! Am hoping it will taste good.

A dinky little footstool.

In need of some loving

All done!

Finished my first upholstery project (fanfare is going off in my head!), the dinky little footstool I got from a second hand shop a while ago. It started a little ominously when I arrived at school two hours late after having forgot to set my alarm. This is what happens when you stop having to get up for work in the mornings! But I digress...

I must say that I found the upholstery process pretty satisfying. This despite the fact that my fingers are a little numb and swollen, being unused to such hard work. I also appreciate much more why everyone keeps telling me that there's no money in this - material costs are high, nay, exorbitant (especially fabric), not to mention the time cost of producing the thing (even if I was paying myself minimum wage to do this, total production cost is triple what I could sensibly expect to sell it for). Looks like I will have to revisit my business plan.   

Since everything in this shiny new world of craftsmanship is a chance for me to explore things I've had no prior experience with or appreciation for, I opted for the traditional upholstery method even though it was going to be more work (after all, in it for a dime...).

Mae's take on upholstery:
"In addition to the technical skills and patience needed to upholster a piece (sewing skills are handy, the ability to hammer in tacks in a straight line doubly so), one also needs an eye for colour, textures and shapes." 

I looked at a lot of fabric before settling on the cover for the stool, and its amazing how the feel of it changed with each swatch. Looking at my dinky little stool now that its done, it seems perfect to me. But if I was honest, there was a point when I was beginning to doubt my choice of "thai sapphire blue" (although in my defence, I had a pretty limited choice of leftover paints to use). I had no real idea of what I wanted the cover to look like and what would be the right fabric to finish the project off. I just knew that I would "know" when I saw the fabric. I'm not sure this is the most scientific way of getting things done. Or if it will work every time I need it to. It certainly didn't end up where I thought it would.

It was also very interesting looking at everyone else's work. There's always someone who does something which makes you think "damn, I wish I had thought of that". But I guess that is the beauty of it all.

What else did I learn from this? That fabric is awesome. And I want a sewing machine.

In case you are interested, here are some pictures of what went on in between:

 

A lick of paint and some hair  

First layer of stuffing all done. Look at how proud and square the corners stand

A couple more layers...

This is not a cake

Easter and such.

It took over 5 months for the idea that I was going to give this carpentry gig a serious whirl to percolate and bear fruit (with a huge visa scare, as yet unresolved, in the middle). In the meantime I enrolled myself on a short furniture design course at Central St Martin's over Easter, to give myself a taster for what is to come.
The brief - design and make a scale model of an item of furniture. Own designs only, no copying. And only 4 days to do it in. Eek.
By the end of Day 1, I was in a bit of a panic - I had no ideas and no idea where to start. We did some basic sketching on Day 2 and by the end of the day I had somehow managed to scrounge up 3 sketches (yay me!) and commenced production on the favoured piece on Day 3. With the help of a minor miracle (and the industrious and oh-so-very helpful workshop assistant, Mark, who guided me through the trickiest bits of production), I managed to make a finished piece on Day 4 (well, un-upholstered anyway...I plan to finish this. Sometime. Soon).

Main tips from the four days:

1. There's no money in it (this nugget of wisdom came courtesy of Rock Galpin, our interestingly-named tutor)
2. I have an instinctive (and not irrational) fear of bandsaws which I somehow need to overcome.

Onwards and upwards.

Final scale model

Chosen thumbnail sketch

What I'm up to at the moment.

My sister says that I'm currently obsessed with painted wood. Maybe. I do like the look, especially distressed wood painted in the shabby chic colours of Farrow and Ball. I'm pretty sure you can replicate the distressed feel of old, painted wooden antiques (bleaching it in the sun springs to mind), but given (a) my limited funds with which to purchase things to experiment with and (b) my inherently impatient nature (what, wait for more than 1 hour for something to finish?!), I've decided to go the route of painting my little weekend projects in leftover paint from sis' house project. Its gone quite well, says my non-critical, non-judgmental eye. You'll best be the judge of that. But be kind. At the start anyway.

Display taster box made at Ian' s cosy weekend class

Same box laid artfully in the long grass amidst the aliums. Seems tiny from this angle

Keepsakes and mementos

For those interested, a very nice man named Ian runs weekend woodworking classes in North London and you can pick from a number of project-based items. I did two with Ian, the display taster box (above) and the memento box (right). I haven't quite figured out how to finish the memento box, probably a clear varnish of some sort.


Link to Ian's classes below.
http://www.signeddesigns.co.uk/

Upholstery.

So one of the things I am quite interested in is upholstery. I imagine it takes years and years of practice to reach any acceptable level of skill with this (as with so much else), but I would love to do something with fabric. Lots of it. Kinda like the things that Squint makes, only better quality and made with love. Have enrolled in several taster upholstery courses. Footstools mainly.

Here's a peek into this wonderful world (and yes, Jan, the tutor, was quick to point out that there's no money in it either)...I spent a couple of days hammering tacks into my thumb and calling it progress. I've also learnt that I don't seem to be able to hammer a nail in straight. Oh well, I guess practice will make perfect.

I'll upload some pictures of the finished product in due course.

Getting started with webbing and tacks

Weaving it all in

It would be helpful if I could hit a nail in straight. See the little bit sticking out the pine? Maybe not, give the size of this image. But its there, taunting me.

Now its getting exciting - bridal ties and fibres

Hullo.

So I thought I needed a blog. I thought long and hard about it (ok, so all of 10 seconds), overrode my moral objections to subjecting the world to my random thoughts and my instinctive dislike for jumping on the social networking bandwagon (yes I still don't have a twitter account, although that may change soon)... and here I am.
My reason for doing this? I guess the fact that I've had a eureka moment and decided to take the plunge to pursue my pipe dream of being a carpenter - its not often one forsakes the well-worn path on the corporate wheel for a chance to do something which inspires you. And I thought it'd be nice to track my progress in the coming year. If nothing else, it will be something I can look back on and laugh at.
Like so many others in the City, I've felt an overwhelming need to "do something with my hands" for quite a while now. To make something beautiful and pleasing to the eye, and to indulge in a sense of whimsy and play in the process. And most importantly, not to be stuck in an office for 16-20 hours a day drafting legal documents, whilst the world and my vanishing youth passes me by.
I have much to be grateful for from the City life, I've made some good friends along the way and earned enough dosh so that I can give the carpentry gig a good whirl without being too worried about feeding myself for the next year or so (although the fact I don't have a pension does play on my mind every now and again). Its not that I didn't enjoy the legal work and the not-so-occasional adrenaline rush of signing/closing a deal in the wee hours of the morning after a long, sordid slog, but something else was missing.
Whilst I'm at it, here's another bone from the well of honesty (I know this is a mixed metaphor, but its late and I'm bushed, but I don't think I can fall asleep until I've gotten this bee out of my bonnet) - this decision scares the crap out of me (I have yet to tell mum and dad, I figure I will save that disaster to as late in the game as possible). But it felt amazing walking out that door on my last day of work, and knowing that I'm taking a chance at it. Life's too short. Time to put my money where my mouth is and see if I have what it takes to make with wood.
In a stroke of genius, I've figured basic woodworking skills are a pre-requisite to becoming a furniture designer/maker (having had zero woodworking experience prior to the start of this year), so its back to school for me. I've got another 4 months to go before the furniture design/making course I've enrolled myself on starts. Between now and then I'm going to dip my hand in with weekend courses and projects - after all, it probably will help get things off to a flying start if I can hold a saw and/or hammer in a way that will not cause imminent injury to me or the people around me. Also, not having used the left side of my brain ever, it can't hurt if I stick my finger in one or more crafty pies and try and stimulate some bloodflow to the region.
I will keep updating you on my exploits from time to time (pictures et all). Without a doubt there will be some comedy moments in store, together with some trials and tribulations - but here's to hoping that the good bits will outshine it all. Thanks for listening, and do pop back from time to time.
Ta