Student blog
Richard's 'Smorgasboard' £50 Project!
During the course of our student's 40 weeks with us they are often given small side projects to fill the little gaps of time between larger more complex projects. This also gives them the opportunity to get their creative juices flowing!
The brief for one popular project we run is to design an attractive item that could be batch produced with limited time, with a market value of £50. It is also a great accompaniment for those larger pieces at exhibitions. A prospective client gets to walk away with a great product at a good piece, as well as a acting as a reminder of your work if they ever decide to have a bigger piece commissioned!
Richard came up with this particularly successful idea for a sharing platter board, which he has named ‘Smorgasboard’. The design has great attention to detail with the gain being at a slight angle to add interest to the top and the underside has a rather stylish handle detail!
Mar 6, 2013
Fine crafted Wood Exhibition at the New Forest Show
Since 2006 the New Forest Trust has organised an exhibition of furniture made by trainee Designer/Craftsmen at the New Forest Show (30 - 31 July, & 1st August 2013). We are encouraging our students, as well as other budding furniture designer/makers to enter.
Check out the 'The New Forest Trust' website to see full details of the competition, as well as download application forms.
We are also pleased to announce that Jane Cleal, alongside Martin Grierson and Richard Williams will be this year’s judges.
Feb 18, 2013
Knuckle down to work!
Student Jason is coming to the end of his course with us and decided to make two lacewood bread boxes with his last few weeks. He wanted to learn some batch production techniques for this project, so he made jigs for most of the major processes. See the finished pieces in our 'Student Gallery'
Jason created this jig to cut his knuckle joints to final length on the dimension saw. The jig allowed him to get nice consistent knuckles with minimal wastage. The jig also enabled him to get the maximum amount of knuckles from his turned sections of wood.
Feb 18, 2013
Coming soon.........New W&C Bespoke website launch!
We are currently working on the 'Williams and Cleal Bespoke Furniture' site. We will let you know when it has all been updated, watch this space!
Feb 15, 2013
21st Century Furniture IV @ The Millinery Works Gallery
We are pleased to announce that we are going to be exhibiting at this year’s ‘21st Century Furniture IV' at 'The Millinery Works Gallery’, in Islington, from the 10th February - 10th March 2013.
The exhibition is rapidly becoming the major London showcase for bespoke designer-makers. This is a rare opportunity to see, buy, collect or commission a piece of sublime craftsmanship, produced by the most talented designer makers who practice the hand skills of the Arts & Crafts era and combine them with the design sensibilities of today. This year is showcasing around 30 of the countries best contemporary furniture makers.
Williams and Cleal are exhibiting a walnut dining table and four matching chairs.
The closest tube station is Angel, on the Northern Line, so if you happen to be in London, it would be well worth a visit. For more details on directions and opening hours visit the 'Millinery Work Gallery' website.
Jan 30, 2013
Art in Action!
2013 brings a new series of art sessions to our ‘Creative Hub’. The classes are run by renowned local artist Sara Fairfax. The sessions are intended to bring out the student’s creative side, experimenting with different materials and medias, teaching them drawing techniques and encouraging them to explore and develop their own unique design style! We will keep you posted with their progress!
This first session involved the students whittling their own pens for various timbers, before experimenting with pen & ink techniques to achieve a range different effects.
Jan 29, 2013
Racing into the New Year!
Tom is about half way through his course with us, and he has just recently finished his piece entitled 'Honister Vitrine'. This display table is made from Brown & American oak, glass and slate from the Honister slate mine in the Lake District. Finished photos of the piece can be seen in the 'Student Gallery'.
The vitrine was specifically designed to showcase his dad's precious classic racing car collection. Tom learnt a number of new techniques working on this piece, including curved shoulder lines on the motice and tenon joints and scribing for and fitting the slate panels.
Jan 10, 2013