Wobbly chairs and french polish!

Another afternoon course for the lovely folks from the local U3A group. This time their demonstration "wish list" included how to French polish, how to replace little bits of missing veneer and what to do with wobbly chairs!

We went through the processes needed to turn shellac flakes into polish, how to fill the wood grain and then build up a finish using a polishing rubber. Most people had a go and were surprised at just how much hard work it is building up the endless layers needed to get a deep shine to a piece of wood. Then we talked about animal glue and how to reglue loose joints in a chair........ preferably without having to take it apart too much.

It was fun and the time flew by.

U3A course update

The sun came out for us on Wednesday and warmed up the workshop nicely, which was just as well because four of us were squeezed in there working on various projects.

It was a follow up to the U3A course we held back in November at the local library, three of the people wanted to learn more. So we spent a couple of hours cleaning and preparing the surfaces of a table and the top of a chest of drawers for refinishing. We ran out of time before the whole job was done, but even so made a lot of progress removing stains and uneven colour!

The U3A course

We had a lovely time at the library yesterday. Everyone bought a project along and we discussed each in turn, everything from stripping and re-finishing a metamorphic table to re-weaving a rush seated fender stool. We also spent some time discussing buying at auction, or more to the point, what NOT to buy. How to spot really serious problems that would cost too much in time and money to restore. Then we had a tea break and afterwards split into two groups, one to discuss restoration techniques and one to try out the steamer method of caning a chair. The time flew by!

This lovely gentleman bought along a steamer chair and his cat mauled fender stool!

A cane, rush and restoration course for the U3A

Tomorrow we will be holding an afternoon training session for a few people who are members of the local U3A or to give it its full title, The University of the Third Age. This self help organisation is a brilliant idea, I hope they don't mind me linking to them or quoting from their website:

"U3A stands for the University of the Third Age, which is a self-help organisation for people no longer in full time employment providing educational, creative and leisure opportunities in a friendly environment. It consists of local U3As all over the UK, which are charities in their own right and are run entirely by volunteers. Local U3As are learning cooperatives which draw upon the knowledge, experience and skills of their own members to organise and provide interest groups in accordance with the wishes of the membership. The teachers learn and the learners teach. Between them U3As offer the chance to study over 300 different subjects in such fields as art, languages, music, history, life sciences, philosophy, computing, crafts, photography and walking. A typical U3A has about 250 members but could be as small as 12 and as large as 2000"

We have met quite a few of the local members over the past few years as each in turn has tackled a new project. Some are learning upholstery whilst others have worked on cane and rush seated chairs. Tomorrow we will try and fulfill their "wish list" - I asked the organiser to ask everyone what knowledge they would like to leave the session knowing, a "wish list" if you like of skills and information. It's going to be fun, we will be covering everything from removing stains on wood to how to shop for antiques, passing through cane and rush weaving tips along the way. We are holding the session at our local library so none of us has far to go. Our last course was in Leamington Spa, a very long journey for us, but we had a lovely day in a pretty village church hall teaching about a dozen people cane and rush work. The organiser bought a magnificent home cooked feast for lunch which included home made soup, sandwiches and cake - fantastic! We didn't get home until 10 o'clock at night! At least this time we can walk home in five minutes from the library!