Doer Uppers

This summer I thought I’d have a go at doing up some tatty chairs and cabinets we have but the weather has been so good I just thought sitting in the garden with a bottle of wine was a far better choice.

Anyway, I did get out and about and on a walk the other month, my attention was drawn to a wet and rotting block of wood in the soil

My artistic curiosity aroused , I took it back to the workshop to allow it to dry out.

It took a month or so but eventually it dried, the mud dropped off and the bugs and creepy crawlies left, the last few looking at me as though I am some sort of a cruel landlord evicting them from their homes. Still they’re probably happily munching away at the workshop support timbers in an act of revenge by now.

So what did I do with this log then?

A sculpture perhaps, no, I chose a table lamp. It took a while but the creation was unique. To use a modernism, a one of a kind.

There was no artistic flair required, nature did the work for me, all I needed was a bit of sandpaper and some finishing wax. Here’s the finished job and all for less than a tenner!

There are some very talented people out there who can do up old furniture, stripping back, repairing and painting in the seasons colours. It seems a great way of changing the home decor and it’s supposed to be cheap. There’s lots of info on the web of how to go about it, but there are some pieces of furniture it would be sacrilege to repaint for example this wonderful 17th/18th century Wainscot chair in solid English Oak

Now available in the shop