News from the Workshop
July 2019
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Welcome to this summer newsletter from Mary's Chairs. It has been a while since our last newsletter as things in the workshop and life in general have been rather eventful. As ever Artweeks required a lot of focus to make it a success and preparations for that were slightly hindered when Mary decided to launch herself off a climbing wall and soon discovered that, despite appearances, she actually isn't superwoman and can't fly! The resulting broken ankle did make life difficult for a while but also yet again proved what a fabulous group of people are associated with Mary's Chairs as students, friends and Wood Centre residents alike rallied around to help where they could. Luckily for Mary the accident happened after she and some other Wood Centre residents had successfully scaled Snowdon. Christine meanwhile has been enjoying some more relaxing activities outside of the workshop including helping a friend build a small show garden at BBC Garden's World Life and trying to progress her patchwork quilt (although Ginge the cat had other ideas!).
P.S We are pleased to report that Mary now has full use of all her limbs back and is in training for a half marathon!
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The students have been busy!
While Mary has been putting her feet up (!) the students have been cracking on and have completed lots of projects.
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Cesca, Lisa, Cherrilyn, Caroline and Janet have all completed footstools. Everyone, except for Caroline, has used frames made specially for them and they have used a mixture of techniques from fully traditional to modern.
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The students have also been very busy on a variety of dining chairs and a child's chair. The finished projects from Heather, Janet, Katharine, Helen, Leona, Angela, Caroline and Sue are pictured. Most are traditional pin stuffed drop-in seats using a hog/horse hair mix, but Caroline's has a stitched edge, Janet's child's chair used rubberised hair and Angela's set of 6 dining chairs use a modern foam stuffing. A special mention goes to Heather (before and after photos top row) who completely repainted her frame, from its original vibrant yellow, to match the fabric, and to Sue (before and after photos bottom row) who spent a long time at home carefully stripping off the old dark brown lacquer and sanding and waxing the beautiful oak which was revealed below. She was given a gift voucher by her daughter to attend upholstery classes, has done a fabulous job in this chair and got the upholstery bug.
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We promised to show you how Hester was getting on with her ironback chair. This massive undertaking has reached a milestone and the top fabric has come out! The fabric is a patterned velvet from Romo, chosen by her son to give the chair a new modern look.
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Find out more about upholstery tuition here and don't forget to follow us on Facebook for updates.
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Variety is the spice of life
We have had a real mix of commission pieces coming through the workshop in the last few months.
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The oldest was this little child's rush chair. This family heirloom had been sat in a corner collecting dust as the rushed seat had disintegrated and the frame was rather rickety. We have striped it back, reglued the frame, given the wood a good clean and feed, and rewoven the seat with a rush effect papercord.
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These 1940s utility chairs where much loved for their style and comfort but were beginning to look and feel rather worn. We used rubberised hair to create a new firm but comfortable back and added new shaped, piped and zipped foam cushion in this warm red and purple wool weave fabric. The old cushions sat directly on the tension springs underneath which was causing excessive wear on the cushions and a rather saggy seat. We made a new quilted platform cloth to sit between the springs and the cushions to stop these issues.
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This 1960's Parker Knoll was a commission for a friend of Christine's who had previously had an egg chair upholstered with the same bold fabric combination. Possibly not to every bodies tastes but the colour combination works beautifully in her sitting room as it picks up the colours in the large painting on the wall.
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We have also worked on a completely new piece of furniture. This bench stool was made by Pete Burns, a former graduate of Rycotewood and past resident of the Sylva Wood Centre.
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Don't forget our Made to Measure range. It provides the opportunity to have a bespoke upholstered footstool, screen or lampshades created especially for your home. Full details are available on the website or drop us an email to discuss.
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A massive thank you!
As ever Artweeks was a huge amount of work but also hugely enjoyable, and we couldn't have done it without the help of so many of you! The Hardwood Cafe was a roaring success but it wouldn't have happened without the amazingly generous amount of baking which was undertaken and volunteers running the cafe. A special thank you has to go to Beth for being in charge the cafe both weekends.
The workshop looked lovely with a small display of finished student pieces and the work in progress pieces outside where an interesting talking point allowing people to see some of the processes, materials and techniques involved in traditional upholstery. The event was very well attended and we were delighted to have so many friends and family come to visit.
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Furniture Trivia
This newsletter we thought we'd share some fun facts* about furniture and upholstery.......
- The average life-span of a modern sofa is 2,958 days (that’s roughly 8 years).
- Throughout a sofa‘s life, it will host roughly 782 visitors.
- The oldest known chairs were ceremonial furniture from Ancient Egypt 5,000 years ago.
- Chairs didn’t come into common use until the 16th century. Before then people sat on stones or wooden benches.
- After a house and a car, upholstery is usually the third most expensive item a person will buy during their lifetime.
- The office chair was actually invented by Charles Darwin who added wheels to his chair in order to move freely and have access to his tools and papers easier.
- ‘Couch’ originated in Middle English from the Old French noun “couche” meaning to lie down.
- The word ‘sofa’ dates back to 2000BC Egypt and derives from the Arabic word ‘suffah’ (which loosely translates as ‘bench’).
- Sitting straight upright in your chair is bad for your back. You should instead slouch at an angle of 135.
*We take no responsibility for the accuracy of these facts! Blame Google for any inaccuracies.
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Coming Soon...
- This weekend is (6th/7th July) is an Anglo-Saxon Open Weekend at the Sylva Wood centre. Watch the House of Wessex being constructed, plus have a go at Anglo-Saxon thatching, play traditional games, and see other traditional crafts on display. Free parking, and free entry.
- There are lots of courses being run at the Sylva Wood Centre over the next few months including day courses such as spoon carving and wooden jewellery making, and longer courses in thatching, table making and dovetail jointing. Find all the details here: https://sylva.org.uk/courses
- Full details and booking information for Mary's Chairs courses can be found on our website.
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Get in Touch
mary@maryschairs.co.uk
07809 730040
Don't forget to like us on Facebook!
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With love from Mary, Christine and Pip
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