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.

What is it Winter already? Time to look at old photos then.

Strange times. This week the weather has swung from mosquito ridden damp warmth, to very heavy rain, then sunshine followed by chilly, cloud free nights. I'm obviously not the only one who's confused by this weird weather. These are emerging daffodils in our garden today.

And this is a beautiful flower that has decided that October is the month to shine.

All so very topsy turvy. The rhododendron hedge was in flower at the end of last month for the second time this year and oddest of all, a white rhododendron flowered white in the Spring and then purple in the Autumn. Peculiar.

However, the unpredictable weather is a perfect excuse for getting all of the admin and other boring "housekeeping" duties in order. It was while I was in the process of filing old photos that I came upon these very old images of work I'd completely forgotten about. Work that was done at a time when I did more of the heavier restoration....and had more space! Here's a "before" photo of a well worn piece.

We still have this old shopfitting cabinet, it's perfect for holding all of the bits and pieces you need to use every day. Each drawer is familiar to me, I know exactly what is in each one without even looking. It still looks moreorless the same, even though I've used it everyday for about 10 years, but here was the photo I took immediately after it was finished.

I don't care where I end up, or what I end up doing in the future, this cabinet goes with me!

The end of the Summer Season

Where did the Summer go? We seem to have had wet, wild weather for months now and it's been punctuated by far too few days of sunshine and warmth. What's the betting we'll have beautiful bright clear skies right through the Winter when it's too cold to go outside and enjoy it.

The bad weather has made a lot of jobs more difficult. We've been trying to "get our house in order" for months, (if not years) now. Clearing out the detritus that seems to accumulate and multiply over time. We are getting there, spaces are beginning to appear and rooms are beginning to look tidier, but oooh it's hard work and the bad weather isn't helping!

There's always another weaving or restoration job in the workshop waiting to be done, which is wonderful, but also means that we are usually under pressure and get very little time off. We keep our diary of work over on Facebook these days,  https://www.facebook.com/FormerGlorySeatWeaving mainly because it is quicker and easier to update. We will still be blogging regularly, but I'll try and choose the subjects or jobs that deserve to be described in more depth than can be done on Facebook.

So....the last few weeks - what's been happening? Well we've had loads of Bauhaus Cesca chair panels to replace, (the 60's are definitely back in vogue). The second of four very large African chieftains chairs needed a new seagrass seat, a couple of sets of Moller Danish chairs needed re-cording and a surprising amount of pots arrrived for cane wrapping of the handles. We also did our last show of the year at Frome. For once, it was a gloriously sunny day! I'll leave you with some pics.....

 The early morning mist

 After the mist burned away it was a glorious day

Quite busy too.

An update on the embargo

I'm sorry, I didn't realise how long it had been since we last blogged. We have been busy on a lot of fronts.

In the last month, we have done our last two weaving demonstrations of the year. It was a strange feeling, demonstrating the craft that we have practised for so long, meeting new people wanting to have a go, their fresh faced enthusiasm, whilst at the same time knowing that the rattan embargo problem hangs over all of us involved in this specialist trade. Should we really be encouraging new blood into the craft when there is the possibility that the necessary materials may become totally unavailable? A difficult dichotomy.

We decided that we couldn't just sit by, watch and wait. So I e-mailed and tweeted a few people with a link to our blog post about the embargo. It took a while, but thankfully people are rallying. Robin Wood of the Heritage Crafts Association has told me that he is "on the case" bringing the Basketmakers Association and other individuals together to see what can be done. One of our customers, a full time professional weaver is so concerned that he has bravely set up an e-petition, thank you. Here is the link:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rattan-export-ban/

As I write, almost a hundred people have already signed and commented in the first two days. Now other organisations and individuals are adding their weight to the cause by blogging, tweeting or commenting on Facebook. Thank you all, please spread the word!

Whether all of this wonderful support will have any effect goodness knows - but doing nothing isn't an option, hope you agree.

On a purely selish level I want to be able to continue to restore things, bring stuff back from the brink. It hit me hard when I realised that without rattan peel, splint and reed, this crib would be have been landfill. Is it wrong to feel that way?