Making the most of the sunshine

Spring appears to have sprung here in South Wales (well, for a day anyway!) and I spent part of today out in the garden - not gardening (although it desperately needs some work doing on it) but restoring furniture.

As some those of you who know me personally may be aware, I am planning a career change in then next year or so - giving up the day job and re-training as a traditional upholsterer, and starting my own business repairing and renovating chairs - alongside the textile art. Having had something of a mid-life crisis over the past 6 months or so, I have decided to move away from the 'knowledge work' that has been my trade for the last 20+ years (and which I drifted into with a certain inevitability having been channelled into a university education because I was reasonably bright as a child) and finally do what I love - making things, repairing things, finding out how things work in order to fix them, re- and up-cycling things, and learning skills really well so that I am working to a high standard of craftspersonship. Creative job satisfaction, anyone?!

This seems to be chiming with a certain zeitgeist, where the idea of 'craftsmanship', traditional skills, making things, etc is once more a subject of interest, and I will be blogging in future about some of the leading books on the subject which are doing the rounds at the moment. But I am not doing this to be trendy - I'm doing it to be me. It's taken me till nearly 43 years of age, but I'm glad I've finally made the decision to step off the precipice and out of my comfort zones and do it! Exact timings haven't been sorted out yet, but by Spring 2013 I should have started my training.

Today's project wasn't as ambitious as a chair, though - I have a craft fair coming up (theMADEmarket at Gloucester Guildhall, 10-4 on Easter Saturday 7 April) and I needed something to give some height to the display on my table, and allow me to display some wall hangings. I'd decided that a vintage clothes rack was the answer, but hadn't found anything that was the right size and shape, until a recent trawl on eBay. I am now the proud owner of a folding, 3-panel rack, which I think could be oak, and which I have a feeling dates from pre-1930s. The rusty hinges have been removed (I will be replacing them with leather ones), and today I sanded away the various layers of gunge and varnish, and filled the screw holes with a filler made from sawdust and wood glue. Once the filler has dried (tomorrow) I will be sanding those bits, and then painting with Farrow & Ball eggshell - first a dark red, then cream, and then sand back to the red in places to give a distressed finish. With all those stages to go through (and leaving it to dry between coats!) I just hope I can get it finished by the 7th! But working outside in gorgeous sunny weather, being buzzed by bumblebees and serenaded by the blackbird, was just wonderful.

New wheel!

Pics to follow, but I just had to share the fact that my new wheel has arrived! Well, when I say new - 1977-79 vintage Ashford Traveller. The condition is excellent, no dry wood or loose joints and in better overall condition than the seller had given me to understand - she definitely under-sold it in the description! Superbly well packed by its previous owner, it came out of the box requiring only a couple of adjustments and some parcel string for a drive belt, and I have spun my first 'test' yarn on it - it runs amazingly well, very smooth and 'alive' (something I haven't always found with the new, high-tech wheels I have tried out). I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

At last - a wheel of my own!

Today there has been much excitement chez Tregenza, as I was successful in bidding on a spinning wheel on eBay - fellow-members of the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers will be aware that I have been watching this wheel, and asking for their advice as to whether I should bid on it, and how much I should be prepared to pay. The vast consensus was that I should go for it, indeed many people said this had been their first wheel which they now bitterly regretted selling when they 'upgraded'! It is an Ashford Traveller, but a very early one - I believe it to have been made between 1977 and 1979. It is generally in good condition, needing only maintenance - the one issue, which is a bit of delamination of one of the joints on the flywheel, can apparently be easily fixed (if indeed it needs attention at all - if it doesn't affect the smooth running of the wheel it can safely be left) - I took advice from Joan at Woodland Turnery, who are leaders in the field of spinning wheel refurbishment and who (conveniently) are only 10 miles away from me should I need their services!

The picture is the one which was on the eBay listing - the wheel is currently living with its (sheepfarming!) owner in Dorset, but should hopefully be with me next week some time. I am sooooooooo excited!

As regular readers of this blog will be aware, I had been researching spinning wheels for some time and had come to the conclusion that symmetry was vital for ergonomically safe spinning, given my height/back/shoulder problems. This wheel does not have a dual treadle, but the treadle is wide and, crucially, central. This means I can use either foot, or both feet. And the orifice is central above the wheel, at a good height for me, which is also all good. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will all work for me...In the end, I couldn't NOT try to buy a lovely vintage wheel, rather than a modern one - given my passion for upcycling and vintage, it just felt like the right thing to do.