Ray Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Atelier Ray Clarke

Summer came early for these pair of Parker Knoll chairs and Footstools

Written by Ray Clarke on 07/07/2015. Posted in News. No Comments on Summer came early for these pair of Parker Knoll chairs and Footstools

Before:

Contacted last September by a customer in North London, this customer had bought a pair of these Parker Knolls through

eBay with a very specific request to cover them in a certain way using 2 complimentary fabrics

my mission was to get them completed before her family and friends came that Christmas.

Only truth to tell, I just managed to complete them, plus 2 matching footstools which the customer had found later,

delivering On Xmas Eve Just as everybody else had already packed up and left to be with their families & friends.

After:

Refurbished and covered in Bluebellgray Petite Mode with Designers Guild Varese Turquoise with In the rush to get these delivered I never really got a chance to get decent shots of all the work

So you’ll have to make do with this Phone image that I’m grateful my customer supplied earlier this year.

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Mid-20th century Modern Metamorphosis

Written by Ray Clarke on 06/07/2015. Posted in Modern, News. No Comments on Mid-20th century Modern Metamorphosis

Before:

This mid century modern armchair and footstool used a cleverly

stitched together fitted loose cover. My customer wanted to use

Flock’s Northmore Minor in Teal designed by Rachel Parker.

People don’t realise that sometimes cutting , making and fitting a loose cover can be as much work as refurbishing and producing a fitted cover.

Getting the curves right and bringing together this gorgeous textile design to “flow” throughout the shapes.

As this textile is printed on 100% Cotton, the use of a Flame retardent barrier cloth was essential for the pieces to comply with the relevant health,Safety & Fire Regs.

To make the cover more versatile and washable, I opted to make the seat cushion separate from the armchair unlike the original which was fixed.

The second piece, A Modern tub chair was tricky too: Each Pattern piece involved seams which were piped and then topstitched before

My many thanks to Jenny Wingfield For referring this lovely customer to me who sent me the following comments:

“Just mailing to say how much I love the work you have done on my three items, the chairs and the stool. They have been done beautifully and make my room a changed place. Your skills are just great and I appreciate all the work that has gone into them. Thank you so much. Many thanks Pearl Brown”

After:

After

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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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Club chair Leather Repair

Written by Ray Clarke on 07/02/2015. Posted in modern upholstery projects, News. 2 Comments on Club chair Leather Repair

Leather club chairs can be stubborn beasts. They don’t like to be confined into small spaces (like put in storage)and crushed up against other objects.
As you can see from the image below the (outside) arm’s on this Michell Gold armchair suffered internal as well as external damage.

Having serviced the outside arms (restoring the fillings, restraining the hide and then feeding it with hide food & Carnauba), a snap on Instagram ,

some viewers useful feedback from my peers and then a chat to my customer confirmed what else I had suspected needed to be sorted out to prevent any further

damage. To which end I created and fitted a new seat unit, which would help prevent the seat cushion borders from excessive wear and tear.

After:

Definitely worth doing the seat. Now this happy chappy has rejoined its family. (Many thanks for the brief visit!)

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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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Many (Ottoman) Hands make light work…Working with my Brother Rodney

Written by Ray Clarke on 12/01/2015. Posted in Creative Collaborations, News. No Comments on Many (Ottoman) Hands make light work…Working with my Brother Rodney

This is my younger brother Rodney Clarke.
Like me and our father before us, He’s not afraid of a bit of hard graft and he’s also pretty handy (check out the Pioneer Skatepark he and his mates have built and rebuilt over the years)
Over Xmas and new year he, like me, worked his nuts off, as he was commissioned to design and build 6 cabinets (like the one he’s posing with below)with drawers, along with a load of other display stands, using reclaimed wood, for the “Ottoman Hands” Jewellery exhibition which took place from the 10th -12th January .

The cabinets were designed by Rod to be completely modular, breaking down into transportable flat packs to be reassembled at the exhibition.
It was my pleasure and honour working with my brother and being involved the construction of each drawer base.

75 in all had a padded bases, covered in calico for The Ottoman Hands jewellery stand at Earls Court.
Well done bruv! Great working with you. I look forward to our next collaboration!

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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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Come On You Irons!!

Written by Ray Clarke on 26/10/2014. Posted in modern upholstery projects, News. No Comments on Come On You Irons!!

Every so often my upholstery skills can take me away from upholstering beautiful chairs to working on seating whose use adds enjoyment of “the beautiful game” for the players, manager and potentially thousands of people inside the stadium every season.

It is an privilege to play my small part. I’ve always enjoyed watching Match of The Day (and loved playing the game in my youth). Now in my career it feels good that my skills can of service to a premiership football team (if not on the pitch!)

Congratulations to West Ham on their win against Manchester City this weekend. Best wishes for the rest of this season.

Special thanks to assistants Katie and Anna for coming off the bench and helping me put these projects in the back of the net!

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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.

Tent London/ Pure design event 2014 (18-21 September)

Written by Ray Clarke on 25/09/2014. Posted in News. No Comments on Tent London/ Pure design event 2014 (18-21 September)

Being Self-employed and spending the majority of my time working by myself, trips away from the workbench to see what the best of the rest are up to, and especially to trade shows like this feel like a mini-holiday. Tent London was “Just down the road” at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane. This year’s show felt fantastic. It was wonderful to see Flock’s first appearance at the event. Congratulations on their show-stopping Cocktail chair pieces (This time created by Florrie & Bill- great work folks!)

Amongst all the great design talent on show the show that really got me all hot under the collar (It was baking hot in there!) was the Second Sitters stand which was literally like being in

Upholstery workshop-cum-laboratory where Hannah Stanton & Jude Dennis of Second Sitters presented the”20 Centimes Chair”,

which became an opportunity for visitors to get involved in a very special ongoing upholstery project…
I couldn’t help but leave a few written thoughts which by now I hope are secretly and securely stuffed (along with possibly hundreds of other contributions) into

Their memory chair .

Chatting to Hannah & Jude about the technical aspects of some of their wonderful furniture/art pieces was thoroughly inspirational!

Great stuff

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