Saturday 18 July 2015

More Lampshades

Once again I've neglected this blog. I could blame the amount of work that's being going on... life's happenings in general.... visitors... housework....any number of things, but in truth it's probably because Facebook has become the place where I now keep a log of daily life. But, it's not the same is it? So here is the meat on the bones of activities here at FG Towers.

There has been a lot of work - in phases as always. A batch of rush chairs followed by a set of Wegner's Wishbones, then endless cane work, every conceivable thing from a day bed to a sunrise back. Next it will be four sets of Danish chairs, all different, plus eight various other chairs, that's August and September gone.



No chance of a holiday then!

We have also finally been able to rebuild the workshop, well sort of. There's a new felt roof complete with raised twinwall roof lights - not a moment too soon as the old corrugated plastic one was leaking and rattling on its fixings in a storm. There were a few occasions when I was convinced that the whole thing would rip off and disappear into the garden, but it didn't and I'm very happy about that. We also fitted a new double glazed door to the back wall which is great, no more freezing cold easterly wind whistling through the old wooden door and it gives a lovely glow of morning light for the "dirty working" end of the studio.


What else.....oh yes, more bespoke woven pieces for design houses. I really enjoy this aspect, I'm loving the creative, problem solving needed to imagine and then make something that doesn't already exist. Keeps the grey matter from fermenting, hopefully!


Most requests are for lampshades at the moment, but I have a lot more ideas in my head....just need the time to do it all now.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Another year

I can't believe that it's been over a year since I last blogged, it's true what they say, time definitely speeds up as you get older!

It's been a busy year, Bernard our horsebox moved onto pastures new and will become a "glamper", (quite a fitting retirement really). We have hardly had time to leave the workshop and only did two exhibitions all year. I also damaged my back early in the year and it took almost two months before I could move without pain so we fell behind schedule which really put the pressure on.


We started work on the long overdue project to bring our home into the 21st century. Paint everywhere, walls taken down, ceilings replaced, new windows, curtains and carpets - basically chaos for months...and it's still not finished.


So what's in store for the New Year? First thing so far is a new look for the Seat Weaving Supplies website - that was a whole week gone! The dreaded price increases had to be made courtesy of the fluctuating world currencies, there's always some reason why prices have to go up, but strangely they never seem to go down.


I was also thrilled to see this in Vogue magazine, an article about the Chiltern Firehouse with two lovely pics of the lampshades I made for the bar. They were even mentioned in the editorial, but sadly no-one knows me, so it was the design house that were credited. Hey ho!


Happy New Year!!