"More than us" at Inverness

I was at a conference called 'more than us' a couple of week ago in Inverness. That included global warming, the need for more localised economies, discovering wildness and being much more in tune with the natural world. I am interested in making my business more environmentally friendly. At the moment we are able to recycle all our timber waste as either fire wood or the saw dust is used for composting in a tree nursery or animal bedding. We have also started to use local timber for furniture manufacture. The problem in Shetland is the lack of trees to use in furniture production. I have been working with the local Amenity trust to locate suitable trees from there small woodlands

Art display table

We have just finished a small coffee table which will be used to display the clients favour textile art pieces. She was inspired from the museum tables which displayed 30 pieces made by 27 different textile artists. This table was different because she wanted the top to be all glass so that larger piece of textile could be display. The legs have a beautiful twisting shape which was hand carved.

At the moment we are working on quite a few small jobs. we are preparing for the ideal homes exhibition in september. we decided for the exhibition, we would make a few tables to display. We re making four small tables, each with a differently shaped legs. We have also started making carved house signs and have made two to exhibit at the show.

Faerdie maet boxes

We were recently commisioned to come up with a product for the new museum shop. We wanted to make something that was traditional but contempory. After some research in the museum we decided to make these boxes. originally norwegian, we imported them here as lunch boxes/storage containers. We had some trouble figuring out how they were made. we tried steaming the veneer in order for it to bend around the mould, with no success,it just split! luckily a norwegian exchange student arrived the week we were developing them. He had been taught how to make them on his university course. He then proceeded to show us the best technique, which involves soaking the veneer. We made twelve boxes, and they are now on sale in the museum shop.
there is a blog about Gjermund Birkeland's visit at the bottom of the blog page.
Thanks Gjermund!

Latest project-just completed

Recently completed - we have just finished and delivered this table and chairs today. We were a bit stressed out today as delivering clients finished work is always a bit scary, trying to fit a big table through doorways etc. without it getting scratched! We actually had to put this one through a window! luckily it went well and there were no hiccups. It was all made of oak, we only realised when we arrived that the clients had a beautiful oak floor which went perfectly with the table! a bit of a coincidence!

This reception desk which was made for the Tourist information centre in Lerwick is a good example of ash which has be ingrained with peat.

Peat ingrained Ash

In our last blog we spoke about Peat ingraining. Most people won't have a clue what we are talking about so I shall explain. I was experimenting with textures which could be applied to timber and discovered that peat was a great way to stain the timber. It works well with ash because the light timber gives a good contrast with the dark peat. The ash has an open grain which the peat can cling to. In the picture Andrew is appling the peat to the timber. It is then rubbed with a cloth. When it has dried we sand the timber to take of the dirt and re-expose the ash but the peat is left in the grain.

Museum project

New museum cafe tables - we recently finished this project for the cafe in the new museum in lerwick. We made 30 tables. Each had a textile design by various local textile artists inserted into the centre. They were all peat engrained.

We also made the museum 4 hooded shetland chairs, our first commision for hooded chairs! the work must be our best yet, prince charles, camila and the queen of norway all travelled over to see it!

Tree planting

For the last few weeks we have be involved in planting 500 trees on a small site on my Parent's croft. Myself and Anthony Skelding had the crazy idea that God was asking us to plant trees and get the church in Shetland involved in this. It was to symbolise God's heart for his followers to be rooted in his plans for their lives and to grow into the people he is calling them to be. It was a mixed plantation with every type of tree you can think of and them some friut bushes as well, this symbolises the mixture of people now living in Shetland and how we need to grow together to make Shetland a fab place to live in. We needed to raise over 1000 pounds. The day I went to pay for the trees we had only received 610 pounds. When Angus told me the cost for the trees was 610 pounds i was amazed. There's always enough!

Celtic carving

We have currently been working on a 10ft long table in walnut. The clients wanted a Celtic knot work design on the table edges. I designed a carving which is on each corner where the rope design looks as if it continuously weaves along the edge, over the top and down on the the other edge. Our biggest problem was how to carve the two ends. The easiest way to carve it is to take away the some of the waste with a router. The only way to safely do this is to used the router in a horizontal position. In the picture you can see how we solved the problem. Thankfully my workshop is an old garage with a 5ft deep pit. With the help of my Dad and his ropes and pulleys we hosted the table top in the roof, swung in over the pit and lowered it into the abbess. We were then able to stand on a step ladder and carve the end grain quite easily. It worked perfectly and the table top didn't even get a scratch.

Norwegian Student

Here is Gjermund Birkeland our first exchange student from Norway. As part of his college course they have to do a two week placement in industry.

Gjermund has been helping to develop boxes made from timber veneer which all Norwegian seem to be able to make with their eyes shut. Watch this space for our new range of timber boxes which should be ready by Easter.

Countdown to new web site

From February 2007 Paparwark is providing cliens with their own unique catalogue on-line to show their work being deisgned and made.