Life Changes

It's been a long time since I gave any updates here, hope you'll forgive us. There have been so many changes in both our business and private life that I don't quite know where to begin.

We have been overwhelmed with work for the last year or so, some very enjoyable and interesting projects like the design of a Danish cord seat for a very beautiful rocking chair hand made for the "Masterpiece" exhibition in Chelsea. It attracted a great deal of interest, so much that we have four more similar chairs awaiting seats in the next couple of months. We decided not to take part in any exhibitions for a year, hoping that we could keep ahead of the workload and maybe take some time off.

Fluggadugga was accepted by the Crafts Council Directory.

https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/directory/maker/kim-ravenscroft/

Elle magazine included Former Glory in their "Secret Address Book".

And some famous people were photographed by Vanity Fair under the Chiltern Firehouse lampshades.

Some fame perhaps, but not a lot of fortune necessarily.....

After my last post in July of 2015 we were beginning to enjoy a few weekends away and visits to friends - the lovely bonus of not having to work every Bank Holiday at an exhibition. And then at the end of August a bombshell dropped. Our youngest son had just settled back into a new life here in Dorset after a period of working away. He started to feel unwell....... the diagnosis was acute leukaemia.

It has been a rollercoaster ride over the last eight months or so, chemotherapy and cancer treatment in general is very difficult. However, our son has been a superstar - totally positive in attitude. He had a brilliant Consultant and amazing care in hospital. I won't go into detail, but thanks to the progress medical science has made, our eldest son was found to be a perfect bone marrow stem cell donor, so in March of this year our youngest son had a transplant to "reboot" his faulty system. Thankfully he is now at home recuperating. Fingers well and truly crossed for a disease free future.

There's still a long journey to make back to "normal", (whatever that is) but there is a light burning bright at the end of that tunnel. How lucky we are to have two such incredible sons.

Sometimes life throws lemons, so we make lemonade - by the gallon.

The Last Six Childrens Chairs for Christmas

Well here we are coasting up to another New Year. I hope that it will be a happy, healthy and prosperous one for everyone. So to end 2013, another festive half dozen chairs and bears to celebrate.

Gromit climbing on an 1870's cane seated chair.

Big bear and pink bear Kylie, (yes a joke present from my son) next to a porch woven American rocking chair.

Young Sweep on a recently finished colourful painted chair.

Shawn the sheep climbing on a William Morris rush chair.

The oldest bear on the oldest chair. Ted sitting on an 18th century "Bodgers" ash chair.

And finally lovely old Sweep contemplating the Christmas tree from an arts and crafts rush seated armchair.

Hope you've all had a great Christmas and we wish you all good things for the coming year!

The Twelve Childrens Chairs of Christmas

Okay, I'll admit it - I am a Chairoholic!!

The main problem with this obsession is that chairs are a bit big to collect, so I've compromised....I only collect child sized chairs now!

So for Christmas this year here are a few of my favourite old kiddies chairs that I've dressed up to celebrate the joys of the holiday season. The soft toys are all much loved family favourites, some are over 60 years old. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

The first day of Christmas. This is a mid Victorian rush seated chair adorned by Big Ted and Kylie.

Day two. This is Gromit gazing at an angel on an American mid 20th Century armchair.

Day three. Sweep dreaming on an 1890's rush seated armchair.

Day four. Shawn the Sheep climbing onto a Victorian Bentwood.

Day five. A very special bear - Ted - looking proud in his hand knitted outfit.

Day six, half way there...... Gromit gets everywhere!

Six more next week.

 

How To Restore A Hand Woven Cane Chair Seat

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FVYVKHC

This is one of the main reasons why the blog has been a little bit quiet for the last few months, I've been doing a lot of general sorting out here at FG headquarters and one of the projects I've been itching to do was a makeover of the DIY booklet that we include in all of our Hand Cane Seat Kits. Well here it is - finished!

It had to be done, all of the paperwork and images that have accumulated over the past 20 years were starting to get overwhelming, it's still going to take me a long time to sort them out properly, but at least I've made a start. This is the first DIY instruction booklet makeover, more are in the pipeline already. If you're interested have a look at our Facebook page for more updates.

Fashion. From Georgian to 60's...and back again!

I was recently made painfully aware that next year will be the 20th anniversary of the "birth" of my trading name - Former Glory. Where did all that time go? Thinking about the range of furniture in the workshop these days and looking back, it's amazing how fashion has changed peoples preferences over so few years in relative terms.

In the beginning it was mainly Victorian and Georgian furniture that came in for restoration. Spoonback chairs and heavily carved walnut, little barley twisted tables and anything made from rosewood with ornate inlay and mirrors. Pretty, practical, occasionally OTT and to be honest sometimes huge, heavy things that were difficult to move and consequently gave me problems with my sacroiliac joint that I still suffer from today.

After about ten years it became more about Arts and Crafts. William Morris, Godwin, Macintosh etc. The prices of anything from this design period went through the roof and people realised that it made good economic sense to keep their Art furniture in good order. We saw plenty from this period, probably because lots of it had hand woven seating and labour intensive oil and wax finishes that need attention periodically.

Nobody wanted "modern" back then. I remember distinctly being lambasted for having a soft spot for this practical simplicity of Danish mid 20th century design and worse still being raucously laughed at for lusting after the slightly imperfect hand made beauty of rush seated country chairs.

But then more recently the world changed again. Modernist designs were "in". The Bauhaus, Danish and progressive designs, all previously largely unloved and out of favour, were finding their way to our workshop. I've lost count of how many "Cesca" chair seats we've replaced, (named 'Cesca after Francesca, daughter of the designer) and if I had £1 for every Danish chair we've seen........well!

Finally a proper comfort zone has arrived for me.

So.....where next? Shall we go around in a big circle and find a renewed interest in the classic lines of the Regency period, or will it be a yearning for the decorative - a return to Victoriana?

Well that's anybody's guess, but my money is on anything original, comfortable to use, beautifully made, practical and SMALL. All power to the independent makers of this World, your time has come!

What say you?

One African Seagrass Chair finished, just one more to go.

Chaos still reigns here at F.G. Stripping the wallpaper off in one room revealed a need to re-plaster the walls, so this dirty job added to the already burgeoning list of other things "to do" has left us with the feeling that maybe we'll never get to the end of the work! It'll be a while before this room is back in commission.

However, work doesn't do itself, (as much as sometimes I wish it would) so soldier on we must! The third and penultimate African chair is finished and I'm mustering up the courage and concentration to start the last one soon.

It is lovely to see the finished article, but such a lot of weaving, effort and time goes into it. In between times for a bit of light relief, we're catching up with all of the drop-in rush seats and cane chairs that need repair. Trouble is as soon as we think we're getting ahead of the workload, more arrives, don't get me wrong.....I'm not moaning!

Another beautiful thing has happened, here's our new friend, his name is Digby and he's 14 weeks old.

Sadly he's not ours he belongs to our friend, but I have a feeling we may get to see him often. What more could we ask for!

Snow, Decorating and Chairs Galore.

Well it's been a long time since I last wrote a blog post - sorry! Perhaps it's something to do with the Winter season, it's harder to be enthusiastic when it's dark and cold outside don't you think?

We've had more than our usual share of snow and ice here in Dorset this year, I admit it's very pretty, but I guess because we never expect to see so much bad weather here in the south, it always causes chaos. Trees down, roads closed, burst pipes....it's all happened locally. And then when the snow melted to be replaced with icy winds, there were three bad car accidents in one week in our little village thanks mostly to the ice. Each time the road was closed and in one incident the fire brigade were called to cut the roof off one of the cars. Like I said earlier, snow LOOKS pretty!

Today is dry and sunny, it's even feeling a bit warmer, so I'm hoping that enthusiasm returns with the good weather!

The New Year's workload arrived promptly, which is great news, as long as you have lots of spare space to store stuff until you get around to it. Unfortunately space is something that we've never got enough of at the best of times. However, this year in our infinite wisdom, we made the problem even worse by deciding that the time had definitely come when the house decorating had to be done. Picture the scene, all of the room space normally inhabited by waiting work is non existent, instead it's occupied by random bits of decorating equipment - step ladders, paint pots and piles of stripped
wallpaper. It is an obstacle course, I keep telling myself never mind, it can only get better! ("sighs")

There is a lot of interesting and challenging work in hand, so that helps. The last two African chieftain chairs are here and started already.

There's quite a bit of cabinet work to do on a few other chairs like this one that needs an arm transplant.

And to fill up my last few working hours, I revamped our webpages! Have a look and please let me know what you think. http://www.formerglory.co.uk/

So all in all a busy time. I'll try to post blogs more regularly, but in the meantime if you're interested we'll be posting "workaday" news on our facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/FormerGlorySeatWeaving

2013

Another New Year and a number "13", here's wishing everyone a lucky one!

The Indonesian rattan embargo is still in place.....at the moment, but fingers crossed that the situation will change this year. I think we could all do with some truly GOOD news. We are back to work now with a vengeance, first seat of the year was on this lovey old traditional spindle back dining chair.

Today it's something a bit different, a green paper fibre rush back on this Shaker style rocking chair.

The lady who had his chair made for her daughter over 30 years ago said that she never liked the webbing panels, I'm inclined to agree with her. I hope she likes the new weaving we've done when it's finished!

The run up to Christmas

Always a busy time of the year one way or another! For us it's the deadline to finish customers furniture in time for a perfect Christmas holiday and the time when our regular customers for materials need to stock up to meet their own deadlines. So all in all we are very much kept on our toes.

The last few Mondays in particular have been very busy on the phone, so much so that sometimes as soon as you put the receiver down, it rings immediately. Doesn't leave a lot of time to weave, but we are getting ahead now.

Some Magistretti seat pads

Quite a few unusual cane chairs

And a few very old and very beautiful rush chairs

Our first order of cane materials has arrived and a second is due here in the next week or so. Hopefully we will have enough to keep everyone going for quite a few months yet. No sign so far of the Indonesian rattan embargo being lifted, but keep your fingers crossed!

Rush and cane weaving, perfect for cold, dark winter days!

It's cold!! The leaves on the oak tree have turned a gentle shade of gold, toadstools grow in clusters like freckles on the lawn and the days are shortening.

We haven't had much luck with our efforts to grow vegetables this year, normally we have so many courgettes that we sicken of them, but not this year. This tomato sums it up I think, one of the very few that grew to a decent size and it somehow managed to get caught between the wire shelf!

I enjoy cane and rush weaving more in the wintertime, they are both nice clean occupations that can be done in a small well heated space. We've got plenty to be getting on with and a lot of variety just now. Old and new rush seats,

and lots of bergere work

It makes for an interesting life.

Preparing for Stock Gaylard Oak Fair

There's still quite a bit of client work to do, but we are getting ahead as most of the jobs in the workshop now are scheduled for September delivery. Sooooo.....we can begin preparations for our final demonstration of the year at the Oak Fair. The "to do" list is endless, the horsebox needs work, we have very few pieces for exhibition, must make some footstool frames...etc....etc!

The vintage crib frame that we bought a few weeks ago is getting restored. It's time consuming, but I'm pleased so far.

Going to have to get my old sewing machine out and my thinking cap on - next task is to line the inside with something beautiful! Any suggestions? At least it will be something different to put on our display, with or without a lining!

Here's one of the most recent client jobs we've finished, this chair had a full restoration and is due to go home soon. A lovely old armchair that would originally have been on rockers.

We're also enjoying the Olympics, it's one of the great things about being your own boss, you can watch, (or at least listen to) the telly while you work. Thank goodness the weather improved over the last week, otherwise it would have been a complete washout.

Hey ho, onward and upward....lots to do.

Summer sunshine

It's amazing what a difference a bit of sunshine can make isn't it? The world seems like a different place. We love it when it's dry and warm, work dries more quickly and joy of joys, we can work outside. Case in point, on Saturday we sealed the seats on the last chairs for the National Trust outside in the sunshine, they were dry within the hour....

Ready to go back to Cornwall!

The garden has suddenly burst into life, plants that I thought had died in the torrential downpours had survived after all, triumphantly raising their heads to the bright warmth of a somewhat belated summer.

Glorious. Hope it lasts.

Whizzing along

Almost August.....can't believe it! At least it seems to have stopped raining for a while and the ground is finally starting to dry. The legacy of so much rain is obvious here, the drains in the road have sunk down at least four or five inches creating regular pot holes. Every so often you will hear a car or truck bumping it's way through - not good, there'll be some buckled wheels I think!

The good news is we have finished the commission for the National Trust on behalf of the Chapel at St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. The first batch of 54 rush chairs that were delivered to us in January had to be finished for the Chapel opening at Easter and now the last 12 are due to be returned for a large wedding party next month - phew! It has been a long hard slog.

I still need to work it out exactly, but we've replaced 14 or 15 seat rails and a couple of stretchers to be able to re-weave the seats.

Now we can turn at least some of our attention to the last show of the season, (one of our favourites) the Oak Fair at Stock Gaylard. I found this little crib at the market last weekend, I'm so excited about restoring it and hoping that it will be finished for the show.

It looks very sad and neglected here, but I've got plans for it......progress is being posted over on our Facebook page if you're interested.

Well, must get back to it, lots to do!

Weather and work

I'm sure everyone is fed up of hearing about the British weather, discussing it is our all consuming pastime. But I must admit, I can't remember another time when it has rained so much and been so cool and windy at this time of year. There have been floods everywhere, local businesses losing all of their stock to the freak conditions and trees broken like matchsticks causing chaos on the roads. One poor soul was queuing in traffic in the next village along when a massive oak just fell....landing on his van. Luckily he told his passenger to get down on the floor as the tree struck, both of them walked away from the scene shaken but mostly unhurt. The road was closed for the rest of the day while they chainsawed the lovely old tree into manageable chunks and removed it. The old church yard where it grew looks so different now, it's like a huge slug has eaten a chunk out of the vegetation!

We have been lucky in many ways, yes the drive and garden have been under a fair few inches of water, veg and border plants have struggled to survive and most worryingly we haven't seen our tame blackbird Mrs B for about two weeks now, (hopefully she's raising young....) But all in all the only real problems it has caused is with work, nothing is drying as quickly as it should. Humidity is always a problem when you're trying to glue, polish or refinish furniture so all of these things are taking much longer than normal to do, frustrating, but not life threatening!

We've had a lot of work to do over the past two weeks, dozens of cane panels, a glut of rush armchairs, more chapel chairs for St. Michael's Mount and even a couple of unusual Danish drop-on seat pads.

At the weekend we needed to go to the yard to get some rattan poles out of storage for some customer orders. No problem you'd think, but the yard is next to the airport and you have to cross a causeway over the river to get there. Well, you've probably guessed, we got there to find the water gently lapping 12" over the top of the highest point of the causeway and one car already broken down after trying to get through it! We turned back for home. By the time we had a chance to go again two days later the water had gone down, but only just below the level of the road.

As I type it has started to rain.....AGAIN! Heavy almost hail like blobs are beating on the roof of the workshop. Wherever you are please be safe and I hope you can make the most of the day.

So why you can't use ready woven cane panels in an old hand woven chair?

"I'll have some of the cane panelling, it'll be a lot easier to do won't it? My chair is so old it's not worth spending the time or money on hand weaving it, I'll just put a few patches in.....or push the ends of the panel down the holes and glue them in, keep it looking okay for a bit longer, it'll be fine I reckon"

No....... no it won't. Please don't even try.

Why not? Well a hundred and one reasons, but I'll try and put the main ones in order.

Reason 1. Hand woven cane gets its strength from each single strand being woven back and forth across the chair frame stitching up and down through the holes. No glue is needed and eventually when the holes are dry plugged with centre cane you've got a strong but flexible seat. Machine woven panels are not fitted into holes, they need to be stretched into a rout or groove around the frame perimeter which is then lined with glue and a centre cane filet is hammered in over the top to fill the groove. It's strong and can't pull out when it's fitted like this. The two attachment methods are very different.

Reason 2. Pre-woven panelling more than likely won't fit hand drilled frame holes. Machine woven panels are just that - machine woven, they are more accurately spaced than any hand woven chair could ever be. The Victorians, Edwardians etc. didn't always use a ruler when they drilled the holes around the perimeter of a cane chair seat, they often had a template set up by the designer or manufacturer that would create the gauge and design of weave that they wanted that would fit well with their desired overall effect.

Reason 3. If by luck you did manage to get a pre-woven panel to fit into hand drilled holes, then what's to stop it from pulling out the minute someone sits on it? Nothing. I've seen chairs where this has been done and the only thing that was holding the cane in place was a bit of glue on the hole plugging pegs. Now bearing in mind how glossy cane is, it's not going to hold in place for long like that before it goes baggy or worse still gives way leaving the poor soul who sat on it wedged into an open seat frame - not a good thing to happen.

Reason 4. If you're trying to patch an old panel with bits of pre-woven, then the new cane will stick out like a sore thumb. New cane is creamy beige, old cane gets darker with time, so unless you're prepared to do a lot of careful colour matching, forget it. Old cane has usually broken because it's come to the end of its life, it's dried out, become brittle. There's nothing that can be done about this apart from replacement and if you start to try and weave wonderfully supple new cane through the old stuff, you will find the breaks in the old stuff spreading further and further into the panel making more and more work for you.

So what's the answer? Well some would advocate adapting the hand woven chair to take panelling by filling the holes and putting in a rout instead. Sounds great, except that doing this will take about half of the structural wood out of the frame in a crucial spot. You see, seats that are intended to have panelling fitted have the groove cut at least 3/4" away from the edge of a good chunky frame, the holes for hand weaving are generally much closer to the inner edge of a much finer more delicate frame, so if you rout a groove between them....crack....potentially the inner bit of wood can break off. Great Aunt Mildred could find herself once again wedged into an empty seat frame, but this time with some painfully located splinters!

It's up to you, but if you'll take my advice don't waste your precious time trying to "cheat" it really is a false economy. If you love your chair, then have a go at re-weaving it by hand with a cane seat kit or similar, or ask a professional. If neither of these things are possible just now, put the chair in a dry attic, shed, garage....wherever until you can do the repair, or sell it to someone who wants a project or is keen to breathe new life into something beautiful.

For lots more information please look at our websites at formerglory.co.uk or seatweavingsupplies.co.uk

Spindle back chairs

This week I have been consumed working on a set of old spindle back dining chairs. You could say that they had seen better days, all four were "rocky", every joint either loose or apart. One had a broken back rail and another was missing two of it's spindles. A job like this seems straightforward and normally it wouldn't be too bad, just very time consuming. But when woodworm are involved, you never know how much their infestation will affect the work.

It didn''t take long for me to realise that the worms had been in residence for quite a long time!

From the outside there are not too many holes, you'd think that it wasn't too bad - until you see the inside of the wood - just a honeycomb is left! So this leads you on to check all areas around the wormy wood just in case more of the frame is affected and so you end up chasing the damage further and further, making the workload bigger and bigger!

This is the replacement rail in progress.

First the new rail was "blocked out" and then roughly hewn to shape.

Then the slightly oval ends were turned on the lathe.

The remains of the honeycomb of wood need to be taken out carefully before the chair can be put together again!

So eventually number one of four is back together and we start on number two with the missing spindles.

Two new copies made from old wood. For once I really enjoyed making these because we've got a new toy now, an electronic Vernier gauge and it is brilliant! It's so much more accurate than the old manual ones.

Then the chair had to come apart so that I could fit them, easier said than done! It's guaranteed that there will always be one joint that will not come apart no matter what! Anyway about two hours later I could get on with the fitting and colour matching.

Luckily the other two frames only needed to be reglued. So after an overnight rest....

 

........all that needs to be done is the easy bit, to put some rush on those seats!