ABOUT

About Me

I have been creating and selling interesting and unique wooden items for over 15 years. 

This started by making presents for friends and family and once they were “full” 
I had to find other outlets for my creations.

 Generally my work is sold at craft fairs and events in Norfolk with the occasional foray
into Suffolk and Derbyshire.

The hardest part of what I do is finding the unique pieces of wood in the first place.
They have to have character, interest and if possible a history.

I have been making things out of wood for over 15 years.
I enjoy the whole process of my woodcraft, from sourcing the wood that I use,
to deciding what unique and interesting thing to create from it
and finally passing it on to someone who will love and cherish it.

One of my main sources for wood is pieces that are left over from two Suffolk people
 who work with wood in different ways. 
One makes high end bespoke furniture (and spears for English Nation Opera!), 
so wood with knots and splits and other defects is waste to him. 
The other processes whole trees into usable wood, mainly planks for tables
 as well as beams for mantlepieces. 
The knobbly bits from the edges are just what I am looking for.

 I have been working with both since I started and they now put pieces aside for me, 
but still when I visit their yards, the first place I look is the waste pile. 
What is more, they can usually tell me where the tree was growing.

The reclaimed oak beams that I use are usually ones that have been “left over” from barn conversions. 
Some of my current stock comes from a barn near Sudbury and others, 
via my daughter (I have taught her well), from an old mill in Whaley Bridge (Derbyshire).

The oak I currently use for coffee tables legs was once a fence in Dereham.

The only wood I use that I don’t know the full history of is some that I buy via eBay. 
One seller I use in Warwickshire does sometimes say where the tree was growing, 
the other, a timber yard in Hornchurch, does not give any history of the wood.

Usually when I purchase “new wood” for projects like oak coasters, 
it comes from the “offcut shed” of a Norwich sawmill, 
pieces left over from them fulfilling other customers orders.

I have even been known to take logs out of peoples log burner baskets to turn onto lamps!
history.

I also constantly look for old planks, beams and posts where ever I go.
A saw is always to hand!


Having sourced the wood a decision is then made as to how to get the best form it. 
Sometimes I know what I am going to turn it into as soon as I pick it up;
other pieces are picked up, turned over and thought about many times before a use is decided upon.


Everything is unique, be it a standard lamp from a reclaimed beam, a set of coat hooks (my neighbour forges the hooks) or even a plant label, there will never be another that is the same.
Even if two table lamps are made from the same piece of wood the colouring and grain will be different.


Where ever possible the known history of the piece wood is passed on, where it comes from 
and what it previously was.


If you have a stock enquiry or have a piece of wood you would like me to make into something,
please send an email or use the contact form
and I will answer you as soon as I can. 

Simon

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