Author: martyngthompson

Edinburgh College of Art Alumni

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Friday the 8th of February saw a reunion of ex students spanning 30/40 years from the furniture design department at Edinburgh College of Art http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art

I got there at 9am to be greeted by Leslie Mitchell (who was head of Design and applied arts and who heroically organised the event) we had a brief catch up as people started arriving. The thing that struck me the most, as everyone arrived he remembered all names. After having our ID checked in the office we were invited to the boardroom for tea and coffee. The board room was very nice which had a lovely view of Edinburgh Castle.

After an hour we started the second part of the day, current students presented their projects giving us the opportunity to encourage or advise on a way forward. The ideas were diverse from Augmented reality dental products, health care products, personal working spaces, street furniture, responsibility in design and time pieces. it was an interesting few hours and you could tell how the current students are being pushed to develop products for the future.

This bought us up to lunch and after which were presentations from ex students on what they have been up to since.

Presentations by alumni

Andrew Glidden Glidden Design and Brand Communication. http://www.weareglidden.com/

Ewan McCarthy Bright 3D Environments. http://www.bright3d.com/full/team.php

Roddy White TP Vision, Philips

Jamie McCall – PLB Projects http://www.plbltd.com/index.php

Luke Carrington and Philip Stewart – ink Associates http://www.inkassociates.co.uk/

Trent Jennings and Tom Marsh – Blue Marmalade http://www.bluemarmalade.co.uk/

All the talks lasted about 20 minutes and gave a good history of what each person or in some cases partnerships had done since graduating. It was very inspiring to see what people had developed and the different routes people had taken.

Afterwards there was plenty of networking going on up in the boardroom with some red wine! From here we moved onto Henricks for some food and drinks. http://www.henricksbar.com/

It was great to meet up with old friends and forge some new friendships. Im looking forward to the next one. It must have been a good weekend as I’m currently nursing a lost voice and had to cancel a client meeting :

All the best

Martin

Timber delivery

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Just taken delivery of a lot of wood for the run in to the Christmas rush.

Which led me to write a blog about how to store it properly.

I am fortunate enough to be able to store my timber in a water tight and warm workshop. But this means that I must not be complacent.

With solid boards I store them flat and make sure they have sticks spaced at Approx 600mm between them. It also helps if the sticks are made out of the same wood to avoid any colour bleed. As the stack get higher keep the sticks in line with one another.

With boards, keep them flat and on bearers of the floor. If you can sweet talk the driver then ask for the cover board to keep the day light of the top board.

Keep an eye on where the sun shines through the workshop.

Woodworks online store

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Recently I bought some 38mm solid maple dowel from Woodworks. Spoke to them on the phone before placing my order. Really good customer service and a great product arrived the following day with well priced next day delivery.

 

Check out their website

http://www.woodworkscraftsupplies.co.uk/index.php?osCsid=e88cb8e69eea1ab2ab4601449c254761

Cutting stations

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This is a recent project which I carried out for The Cutting Room Hove 96 Goldstone Villas Town Centre, Hove BN3 3RU, 01273 747 900

I was approached directly by the barber Mark Davies who had them designed by Takara Belmont in London http://www.takara.co.uk/hairdressing/.

Mark and myself made a few changes which will make his day to day work far more pleasurable.

I will let the pictures do the talking, apart from they are made of walnut and have solid 40mm thick worktops.

Barber shop in Hove - Sussex. Made from American Walnut and sprayed with clear PU lacquer
Barber shop in Hove – Sussex. Made from American Walnut and sprayed with clear PU lacquer

 

 

 

All photography by Paul Fletcher http://www.paulfletcherphotography.co.uk/

The South of England Show

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It is that time of year again and the South of England show will be taking place soon 7-9th June 2012.

The Young Crafsman of the Year competition is a competition for young person and is a flag shop competition to win. This year I will be helping out with the judging and stewarding the stand.

Come along and support some young crafs people are extremely skilled.