One more week until Sherborne Castle......

The weather suddenly changed for us, it's gone from unseasonally cold to RED HOT! Currently we have a glorious Wedgwood blue sky and the temperature is 24-26 degrees. Unfortunately, very hot is almost as bad as very cold when you have a 10 foot tall, 19 foot long wooden horsebox to strip and re-finish. We're having to take time out of the sun to avoid getting heatstroke, but it's nearly finished now - at least everything dries so much quicker in the heat.

Here are a couple of "in progress" photos I took late last week, first the state of the weather beaten offside of the truck....

And now after a few hours with the soda blaster.....

We are spending a lot of time outside just now, but we have got the phone with us! Please forgive us if we take a bit longer than usual to answer. We should be finished in the next couple of days, (more photos to follow).

Rodney

Well, today wasn't the best - we took Rodney our magnificent 15 year old persian cat to the vet because he was "out of sorts". Little did we know, at 5.30pm today, he was make his final journey. There was nothing that could be done. It seems from the various tests that he had virtually no red blood cells, a heart murmur and his kidneys weren't too good either. The lovely lady vet said that it wouldn't matter if we "threw everything we have in our armoury at him, the outcome would be the same, there is nothing that can be done to save him".

Oh dear, what now..... such a shock. 48 hours ago he was sort of off his food - tonight, he's not here.

It doesn't matter how many times this has happened with other pets/companions before, the pain is so acute, there is no immunity.

Tomorrow will be better hopefully - a little less blessed without the presence of such a gentle, loving soul, but at least we were privileged to be his guardians for so long.

Please forgive us if we are a little slow to respond over the next few days, Rodney wasn't "just a cat".

Sold out......

Sorry everyone, but we are running very low on some weaving materials!!!

We have been innundated with orders for all sizes of centre cane so now unfortunately 1.5mm and 5.0mm diameter are completely out of stock. As I write, we do still have limited stocks of 2.0mm, 2.5mm and 3.0mm and have ample amounts of other sizes. All hand cane is in stock except 1.6mm which is sold out, stock levels of cane panelling, all rush cords and everything else is fine. A new large order for rattan is in the process of manufacture and is due to be with us in June.

Please keep an eye on our website for updates here, or at Seat Weaving Supplies

Pink

All of the paperwork for the shows is completed for the year - hurrah! So to celebrate and brighten up my day, I took a tiny break from rushwork this afternoon to inspect the garden. Despite the unusually cold weather for May, pink is doing really well. This azalea is beautiful, almost flourescent

and the clematis looks like it's covered in pale pink snow it has so many flowers

It'll be all too brief though. With the north wind still blowing, the petals will soon be off!

A weekly update

What a week, so much to do and so little time.....no change there then! The weather has been too bad to work on Bernard, blustery wind and rain virtually every day, so our plans to have the horsebox woodwork stripped by now have been well and truly scuppered. Progress has been made though, 8 cane panels, a cane chair, two Wegner Wishbone chairs, three rush chairs, four Danish Moller seats and a drop-in pad were finished last week, then yesterday four seat pads were prepared for upholstery. It makes me tired just remembering.....

The pressure is on. The building regulation documents came through for the garage/workshop/house extension this week and our eldest son is keen to start work asap. He is a site/project manager by profession, but this is his first "baby", the first good sized project that he will oversee from start to finish on his own. There is of course the added bonus for him that he will gain his own en-suite bathroom to his bedroom! His first action is to take down MY WORKSHOP AREA!!! The strict instruction is, "you've got 6 weeks max and I want it back". Equally I know that it is not going to be easy for him because the roof of the new garage/workshop extension ties in with the house extension - it's all a bit complicated.

On top of this we collected the advertising leaflets for Dorset Art Weeks and the "Meet the Artist" evening tickets from Stewarts Garden Centre yesterday and last week sorted out the details for demonstrating at the CLA Game Fair - the sudden realisation dawned that our show season begins in just 3 weeks time and we have at least one large show a month until October.

We'd better get a wiggle on then. Linda, I hope you're reading this - now you know why we need help!!

June 1st - VAT "D" day!

Sorry everyone but the time has come............As of June 1st Seat Weaving Supplies will be registered for the dreaded VAT.

We will be absorbing as much of the 17.5% increase as we can. What it will mean in real terms is most of our prices will have to increase by between 10-15%. Please forgive us! We haven't increased our prices for many, many years, (as our regulars know) and fingers crossed we WILL NOT need to increase them again any time soon. We are absolutely commited to keeping these traditional skills alive, so promise that we will always source the best quality materials at the best price possible for the benefit of all.

As an example, hand cane currently £40.00 will be £45.00 per kilo for 2.00mm - 4.00mm, £22.50 for a half kilo, currently £20.00 etc. The "Reel Rush" and other cords currently £9.00 per kilo will increase to £10.00.

There is some good news though........for those of you who are also VAT registered it will mean that your materials will cost you less because you can claim the VAT back!!!! If you need to order loads, may we suggest placing an order in the next couple of weeks.......could save some money.........

I'll run away and hide now.

Rain stopped play

It's raining. Soda blasting the trucks woodwork is not the thing to do in this weather, we'd probably end up with a kind of soggy cake mixture in the gravel! So as it's supposed to be a sunny Bank Holiday tomorrow and the rain has stopped play for now, we'll switch back to some show and work preparation that we can do indoors.

I've finished one huge basket for the Dorset Art Weeks exhibition, (you'll be proud of me Cathryn - it's an antler inspired woven work, my first!) It measures virtually 19" in all directions because I got a bit carried away. I also have two more in the process of weaving, completely different from the "antler woven world", but still very large pieces - why couldn't I have come up with something smaller and therefore quicker to make?

So at last I get to do something a bit more artistic, modern and creative using those dying traditional skills! Back to the soggy workshop to do some more.