Curved Dressing Table

Spent today putting the finishing touches to my latest piece of furniture, a dressing table (or possibly a small desk). It is made from zebranno and bird's eye maple.

I will be taking this one to an exhibition this week at the Mall Galleries in London.

http://www.societyofdesignercraftsmen.org.uk/exhibitions.html

Make Mine A Large One!

I have just finished my longest radiator cover to date. This one is 2300mm long and 38 slats!  In theory the design will work up to 3 metres in length, anyone interested?

Usually I ship via a courier with the cover in a sturdy MDF custom made box.  However this one will receive the special treatment, due to it's size I will deliver this cover personally.

New Design - iPad Stand

My latest design, an iPad stand.

Woodform 2011

The Woodform 2011 exhibition opened today.  An amazing venue and a display of great furniture and sculptures.  The exhibition was busy and we had many entries in the comments book, here are a few.

"Fantastic designs & craftsmanship!!"

"Beautiful! Amazing work"

"Just amazing. What craftsmanship"

"Work & skill very RARE today!"

"A beautiful display of pristine workmanship, Excellent!!"

"So lovely to see real craftsmanship."

"Wonderful! Life brought out of the wood."

     "Wonderful warm wood - astounded by the variety and inspiration and skill at the exhibition."

"Refreshing exhibition - in contrast to jaded commercialism - lovely to see such artistry."

     "Absolutely beautiful.  A genuine pieces of art"

"Amazing.  Would like to have stayed longer."

"WOW!! Absolutely wonderful!!"

Unveiling of the 4 Rifles Display Cabinet

I recently enjoyed the hospitality of the 4 Rifles.  The evening started with the unveiling of the new display cabinet, followed by their inter company novice boxing competition. It was a black tie event so I had to dig out my dinner jacket.

The cabinet is looking a bit bare at the moment, however I am sure the boxing team will soon be filling it with silverware!

Follow the link for more information about this oak cabinet.

Customer's Radiator Covers

One of the most satisfying aspects of my work is the feedback from customers.  This is especially true for my radiator cover design, I always look forward to receiving photos of  installed work.  Here are a few recently sent to me.

This is a 'read to paint' version of my design and the customer has done a great job with the paint work. This cover was also unusual in that it is floor standing. My covers are usually wall hung and are mounted above the skirting board. The problem taking the cover to the floor is the skirting board issue. The end panels will require a cut out to accommodate the skirting if the cover is to sit flush to the wall. In this case the customer sent me an accurate template of the skirting which enabled me to produce a tightly scribed cut out.

All my radiator covers are made to measure, which means I will design and make the thinnest streamlined cover for a radiator. There is no need to compromise on one size fits all and eat into your valuable living space.

Oak Display Cabinet - Finished....Almost!

For the last month I have been working on this display cabinet in oak.

Well, it is now finished, well almost.......

Just waiting for the glass to arrive.

The carving is of the 4 rifles regiment cap badge and the 4 rifles is where this cabinet is heading.

A close up of the carving work by David White.

The Big Glue Up - Part 2

Time to finally glue up the top unit.

That's the all the tricky gluing out of the way for this project.  Next the doors.

Designing Day

Today is a designing day, I will be out of the workshop and in the office, I thought I'd share some of my designs that have yet to see the light of day.

The brief for this design was a wooden briefcase.  All my initial designs start life on paper, it allows me to quickly doodle ideas, if any of the ideas appear promising I will fire up the computer and launch Google Sketchup.

Sketchup is great tool for quickly getting ideas in to a format that is easy to present to clients.

Most design ideas will require a period of tweaking before they start to feel right.

Once I'm happy with the sketchup drawing I will usually render the image to produce a realistic(ish) image with the desired materials.

The Big Glue Up - Part 1

Two large side panels for the top unit,

and the base unit.

Finished & Finishing!

Most of today was spent pre-finishing components for a big glue up tomorrow.

These panels and frame components make up the base unit for an oak display cabinet that I am currently working on.

However, while I was waiting for the oil to dry before the next coat, I did have time to finish assembling a small radiator cover.

I also decided to open a shop at www.etsy.com, some what annoyingly you can't use "?" or "!" in your product titles. Which is a bit of a problem when your branding is "Cool Radiators? It's Covered!"

A Busy Day!

A busy day driving around Kent. Dropped my desk off at the Langton Green Gallery. Then on to a customer to take some picture of newly installed radiator covers.

Stopped by the workshop to apply oil to some oak panels.

Then home to update my shop at folksy with new images. Finally, I decided to start a blog!