custom Archives - Atelier Ray Clarke

Non-Identical Twins..

Written by Ray Clarke on 05/10/2015. Posted in Modern, modern upholstery projects, News, Portfolio. No Comments on Non-Identical Twins..

Before:

The first of these pair of G-Plan E-Gomme chairs arrived in my studio last year from a lovely couple near Blackheath/Lewisham area, who in my past many years ago had been great employers and have grown to become good friends and loyal supporters of my work, having seen my previous projects online and personally knowing what its like to run a business they were more empathic and sympathetic to the (daily) challenges faced being a self employed artisan/craftsperson

After:

These pieces were a challenge because there not only had to be a fair few changes to the design; having prepared the show wood with the intention of developing one of these pieces to showcase a fabric textile print I had designed, using the whole process to finally bring to market some of my previous skills in textile design into my current creative manifestation. Even roping in some fantastic help from a talented illustrator (Thanks Sarah McCarthy, your efforts will not be in vain!x)I couldn’t bring the design to market as I couldn’t bring together enough resources (I was attempting produce a specific fabric in time and so my customers had little choice but to choose fabrics they had sourced.

Luckily for me these customers had great taste (as well as tremendous patience), choosing 2 fabrics from Osbourne & Little: Soumak , from their Tabriz Collection of weaves and “Dovetail” from their Abacus collection, making their use in these pieces compliant through the use of a flame retardant barrier cloth. Complimenting these fabrics, I put together a custom wood stains for each. finishing the wood with layers of shellac and rubbing beeswax to create the right lustre. My heartfelt thanks to Katy Chaytor-Hill and Anna Frisch for their assistance.

Coming to you in Glorious AWT (African Waxblock Technicolour)…

Written by Ray Clarke on 01/09/2015. Posted in Modern, modern upholstery projects, News, Portfolio. No Comments on Coming to you in Glorious AWT (African Waxblock Technicolour)…

Since producing the first of these a few years ago these custom African Waxblock technicolour patchwork Ottoman stools are becoming steadily very popular. I produced the latest one of these in July this year for a fan who saw my work on Facebook. Paying in instalments, I got little nervous and concerned when I couldn’t contact her as she had simply “Vanished” off the internet and hadn’t responded to my phone/text messages or emails!..I was delighted and surprised when one fine day in August my customer just randomly wandered into my workshop with her final deposit, explaining that she had become a victim of online fraud and hacking and had to wipe all presence of herself off the net! At that point I had almost finished the stool , needing a base cloth and custom feet attached (hence the lack thereof in the photo below)Upon finishing I delivered the stool to her parents’ address ,who were surprised and delighted that such a colourful piece had come to stay.

Afrotechicolour therapy.. A wax block print patchwork chair

Written by Ray Clarke on 17/05/2015. Posted in Modern, modern upholstery projects, News. No Comments on Afrotechicolour therapy.. A wax block print patchwork chair

Before:

 This Mid-20th century modern piece was given to me back in 2010 by super talented artist, print & textiles designer and all round lovely lady Hannah Edy.

Although it was very much the worse for wear I faithfully kept it in storage thinking “That’ll be a great chair again someday..”

The opportunity to transform this piece came just after Xmas 2014, when a lovely couple contacted me from Mill Hill, NW7 and then made a few journeys’ down to my studio to chat with me about a piece they had previously seen online of my first attempt, a tub chair, at an waxblock patchwork print from a collaboration with Chantal Koning YouMeWe .

The process of transforming and updating this piece was a totally different challenge from my first version.

..A chair can take 8 hours or, in this case 40+ . It depends on your customers budget & ultimately how much love and care you wish to put into its re-upholstery.

This chair alone involves 74 carefully selected , cut, made compliant and stitched panels.

AFTER:

With new fillings of new rubberised hair and foams replaced the hopelessly deteriorated & crumbly foams. A brand new serpentine spring suspension system, all lashed together(so the springs move in unison)upgraded and replaced the broken dried out Pirelli webbing which was originally stapled to the frame . The buttons are Nobilis Velvet, along with the fabrics, were chosen specifically and carefully between myself and the customer with all fabrics made compliant to the Health,Safety & Fire Regs (1988) through the use of a flame retardant barriercloth.

The Ottoman stools were built from scratch, along with a pair of duck,n,down feather-filled Scatter cushions

My deep thanks go out to Anna who assisted in the rip-down and was a great help for me to bounce off fabric selection ideas, Chantal Koning of YouMeWe for fabric inspiration and sourcing

and to Rick Holland & Katie Pomklova for their patience and input while I put together this work for them.

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Getting off the Bench: Reworking a B&B Italia piece…

Written by Ray Clarke on 26/01/2015. Posted in News. No Comments on Getting off the Bench: Reworking a B&B Italia piece…

Before:

I was asked by my customer to take this B&B Italia Italia “Charles” Bench , reduce it’s height by 1″and then deep-button (or “tuft” if you are reading this in the US) in a Sanderson Taormina velvet replacing the tired,

cat scratched and shrunk-in the-wash look of its original cover.

“Looks simple enough a task to me” you might say, until you realise upon removing the cover what is going on underneath; that the whole frame is made from

steel tubing and the high density foam sits directly on a bed of super strength jumbo elastic 3″ webbing.

Of the various ways that could secure the buttoning (sorry, saying “tufting” just doesn’t work for me!), I wanted to use a system that I felt would have the most inflexibility, by which I mean that over time, the pleats wouldn’t be tempted to move around over the foam and elasticated base, while still retaining the look and finish that would still respect the overall original design for Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia by Antonio Citterio

Processes I employed involved getting the whole foam cut down on a giant foam cutting bandsaw, removing the foam entirely from the frame, applying 120z hessian to the base of the foams, removing rubber strips from the tubular steel frame and introducing cut hardwood patterns to provide a tackable surface to secure the buttoning cord and cutting, and fitting extra wood strips as well as applying 1″ extra foam and sundries around the base of the bench which helped to “fill” the gap left between the legs and the base of the bench left from fitting the new cover.

As well as successfully “Van-Dyking” the Velvet as the overall bench width was wider then then width of the roll when taking into consideration the direction of the pile

After

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Stoke Newington Xmas indoor market..The Gift that just keeps on giving!

Written by Ray Clarke on 22/12/2014. Posted in News. No Comments on Stoke Newington Xmas indoor market..The Gift that just keeps on giving!

Having successfully debuted last year it was difficult to not come to this event without expectations, you never know with markets at Christmas.

To be honest, 2014’s event certainly wasn’t as busy as the first time around. There simply wasn’t as much footfall as the year before. Whether that was due to a number of simultaneous events happening around Stoke Newington Town Hall that weekend, the weather, or the public mood (preferring to shop online in advance rather than brave the wind, cold & rain), or our pitch positioning inside the hall, I “just” made my sales targets (Despite some stiff competition for the first time I wasn’t the only upholsterer in the village displaying upholstered furniture items) with the help of my mobile and through it ever-present social media, I was able to reach people from the event who were unable to make it down, or were simply unaware that the event was happening in the first place!

What this event always does for me is it gives me an opportunity to engage with the public at large as well as get feedback, chat about my work and upholstery in general as well as give out loads of business cards and flyers which resulted in a fair few follow-up enquiries which turned into customer sales

and the children that did turn up loved playing on the furniture!

(they’ve also really got to sort out that mulled wine though;)

My heartfelt thanks go out to Katy & Anna for helping me produce the stock during the runnup to what was a particularly busy xmas period, as well as all the great friends who bothered to come over and lend their support.

Will I take part next year if I’m offered a pitch again considering the potential setbacks? …Of course! An indoor xmas market can be the gift that just keeps on giving!

Which has got me thinking , 2015 would be great if I could find the time, energy and opportunity to take part in a few more weekend markets or even a trade fair?

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Double trouble ..

Written by Ray Clarke on 08/10/2014. Posted in Modern, modern upholstery projects, News. No Comments on Double trouble ..

I cannot deny that finishing these pieces of mid-century british furniture from G-plan was a tremendous relief for me (as well as the customer) It represented overcoming a real mental hurdle as for some reason I had got myself mentally “stuck”: I had previously upholstered a type 6250 in fabric for a friend before however this time I was asked to refurbish and recover these in a beautiful “Cowboy Burnt Tan” hide from Wildman & Bugby. So converting the fabric meterage to “hides” was a new lesson. I was recommended to the owners of these chairs, who are a lovely family living up In Chalfont St. Giles. They also gave me a matching footstool, a bent plywood G.A. Jenkins /Tecta chair and a children’s toy to re-upholster, recover and repair respectively) of these pieces by Photographer and friend Roulla Giorgio. They showed me great patience during the process of producing these I went for an “advanced buttoning tutorial from my old tutor through which I gained more confidence to tackle both pieces.

I didn’t do myself any favours by going for full deep buttoning whereas the “original” cover only had “floating” buttons through sewn seams and also choosing to create a custom suspension system; re-enforcing the base of each seat first to accommodate carefully positioned Serpentine (zig-zag) springs, lashed together between the original rocking mechanisms so that they provided optimum support without interfering with the rockers. This replaced the elastic green webbing which the seats bases had been previously fitted with.

..before

and after

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Presenting the final of the two chairs gave me an opportunity to invite Roulla to accompany me to the family home to finally shoot the chairs and that evening we were both treated to a Sushi dinner made by the family

My sincere thanks to Emilios & Julia , Roulla Giorgio and Wendy Shorter Interiors for the training.

A Sherbourne Satire?: Refurbished and recovered

Written by Ray Clarke on 10/09/2014. Posted in Modern, News. No Comments on A Sherbourne Satire?: Refurbished and recovered

I don’t know..sometimes my customers come up with strange and wonderful requests!

After discussing at length this Fabrics “suitability” (I.e; This “Tea-towel” Linen had to be backed with an F/R barrier cloth)

Adding my own touch of a “Lemonade” Piping from Todays Interiors Palermo range and delivering it back to the customer, we both found this refurbished and recovered Sherbourne footstool rather amusing.

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Twin Ercol “Mirakels”…

Written by Ray Clarke on 22/03/2014. Posted in News. No Comments on Twin Ercol “Mirakels”…

Earlier this March as spring was beginning to show flashes of a little colour, I had the great pleasure in refurbishing and recovering a pair of Ercol’s in a lovely Svenskt Tenn Josef Frank original print from 1930’s called “Mirakel”for a wonderful customer in Walthamstow.. These took alittle longer than necessary as I added my own personal touch of stitching the seat and back cushions with a twin-needle effect in 6 colours. The final finish brought some much needed colour to the studio after the grey sky’s and torrential rain of the previous weeks.

They certainly brightened my customer’s faces upon delivery too!

before…

and after!

“Sweets for my Suite”…An Art Deco-style 3-piece in Designers Guild Richelieu Dusk & Aubergine

Written by Ray Clarke on 21/03/2014. Posted in News. No Comments on “Sweets for my Suite”…An Art Deco-style 3-piece in Designers Guild Richelieu Dusk & Aubergine

My sincerest thanks to Aine Sheehan for her french polishing, and finishing(hand-sewing)skills, Anna F for her pattern-forming & cutting and Ola (of Global Chauffeurs ), as well as Addison Lee vans for assisting me in the refurbishment,recover ,production and delivery of a 3-piece art-deco-style suite and complete set of 16 bespoke banquette seat cushions for a very patient high-profile client in Clapham, South London. A lot of stitching (particularly double-piping)went into this. Many lessons in time, human resourcing and project management learned.

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Tag: custom