Why I do what I do
As you may have guessed from my web site I am not your normal “Carpenter”. A normal carpenter is a man who will fix your door or build a roof on a house.
Don’t get me wrong, I have made and fixed doors in the past. I have hung plenty of normal ones in houses and businesses but the doors that I get the most excited about are the ones that are not normal. The complicated stable doors on my own design Glamping E-dens or the massive 16 foot high oak barn doors that had to be lifted into place with a tractor.
I have also done my fair share of building roofs. My first job in the industry was a roof designer so I’ve seen quite a few and made quite a few. Again normal roofs are fine but the ones I remember and love are the unusual. The restoration of a medieval barn, the curved 20m diameter roof or designing a roof for the Glastonbury Spring Water Factory. For that build, the brief was to use multiple roofing materials with different pitches and levels.
I like the different !
And I love a challenge!
I like to take what I have learned in one project and use it in the next. Take my latest favourite material, corrugated iron or ‘crinkly tin’. I am using it on roofs a lot but I have also used it to make a sign for Orchard Pig Cider. The ‘crinkly tin’ sign now sits above a bar in Gatwick Airport.
When the crowd go left, why not have a look whats on the right?
Currently I have been working on some plywood furniture. It is all the fashion and everyone out there is using Birch Ply. Great material but it is a bit boring and quite expensive. So I choose to use ‘shuttering ply’ or as we call it ‘character grade ply’on my furniture designs. Other carpenters may turn their nose up at this but I love the material.
It has character and a few faults, like us all. There is the odd dead knot, but with these flaws comes amazing colours and textures. It is like, ahh, yes real wood that has been grown by mother nature.. But unlike tree shapes, it comes in great big sheets that can easily be cut with our CNC router. I can make interesting, practical furniture that is both beautiful and affordable.
So this looks like my first blog is coming to an end, wasn’t too bad to write and I hope it wasn’t too bad to read.
If you have something you want made be in something normal made differently or different made normally then do get in touch. I’m sure I can help with your project.
