Shetland style diningroom table and benches

We have recently finished a dining room table and benches which were inspired from the traditional Shetland creepies. The size of the benches worked well for the creepie design and looked right visually. The table legs are designed to look traditional but incorporating the key hole shaped form from the end of the creepie into it, so that the table and creepies become a set in it's design. We are really please to have this beautiful dining set as part of our portfoilo.

Traditional Creepie

In many a Shetland croft house in days gone by you would have found a "creepie" or small wooden stool. Light and easily portable it would have been moved around to provide a seat when doing a variety of tasks, anything from milking the cow to making a kishie (straw basket). They would have been made from whatever wood was available at the time, often driftwood.

We have designed a creepie as shown in the picture which is now available for sale. It's design is in keeping with the traditional creepies both in shape and simplicity. This particular creepie was made from Yellow Pine and stained to give an antique effect.

Creepies are available in either Oak or Pine.

Shetland Timber

We started to use local Shetland timber in some of our pieces. Last month we bought some timber from the plantation at Kergord. The largest log has been planked and stacked to air dry before we can use it for furniture. This is our first experiment with planking and drying local timber for furniture making. The timber will have to air dry for up to 2 years before being kiln dried for several months. Anybody interested in furniture made from Shetland Timber?

Up to date!

For the first time since i started my business we have finished all the jobs before the holidays, the workshop is tidy and the tools are all sharp. We also have work to come back to in the new year. It's a strange feeling not being in a rush to get everything finished. Hopefully that means we will have a relaxing holiday. First job in the new year is to fix our leaking roof so we're praying for some calm dry weather!

Boardroom table installed at last!

Last year we were commissioned to made a boardroom table and 20 chairs for a client in Shetland. It was going in the office which were due to be finished last year. We were really excited about the design and couldn't wait to get some pictures of the project once it was finished. Because of a lots of different reasons the build was delayed, but this week we got "The phone call" to go and help move the furniture into the boardroom. More pictures will be up of the boardroom soon, but this one will have to do to wet you appetite.

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!