2008 so far.....

With our blog back on line here are some of the highlights of 2008.....

On a sunny day in April we had a photo shoot at St. Ninian's Isle, some of the pictures feature on our homepage.

Later in April Andrew went to Norway to take part in a stofa building project. Stofas are a traditional Norwegian style log cabin. The project was to partly rebuild a Stofa which is now on Papa Stour. The logs were shaped in Bergen then later in the summer transported to Papa Stour to a site where archeologists had found the remains of a Stofa dating from Viking times.

In June Paparwark exhibited at the "Flavour of Shetland" showcase held on Victoria Pier in Lerwick. The weather was mixed but still a good opportunity to exhibit to locals and tourists.

Also in June we had several pieces of work photographed by Mark Sinclair of phatsheep. You can see more of his work at www.phatsheep.co.uk. Each year Shetland Arts and crafts pays for members to have professional photography of some of their work.

August included a well deserved holiday with the workshop closing down.

Elm dining table

We have recently made 4 tables for a boardroom in Shetland. We had this lovely piece of elm in stock which we desided to use for the top of an extra table in a similar style as the other four. The wanny edge of the timber was left on the outside edges to give a natural look. We will exhibit the table at shows at hopefully sell. Any takers!

"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!