The English Armchair Abroad

Upholstery Courses at The English Armchair Abroad

Please click on the link to the left to be taken to my page on these courses.

Upholstery Courses - More Information

As promised I have added some basic information on the upholstery courses including a descriptive of building up a chair from the bare wood to the finished piece.  My wonderful son is helping me build a website with more detailed information but in the meantime please contact me by email if you are interested in receiving more information.

The information can be found be clicking on UPHOLSTERY COURSES AT THE ENGLISH ARMCHAIR ABROAD at the top of the page on the left.

Failing all else this UPHOLSTERY COURSE link should work!

The First Upholstery Course!!!

I spent last week teaching my first ever upholstery student and it went incredibly well.  She was a lovely person - which definitely helps in a one-to-one situation! - and worked extremely hard.  As a result she finished not only the sprung seat on her chair, but also the back which I did not anticipate at the beginning of the week!

It was a learning curve for me too.  It was very tiring for one thing and although SB did all the hard work I obviously had to keep my mind on the job - it would have been extremely embarassing if I'd forgotten the next vital stage!  SB also suggested that I make up some photos with explanatory notes to put up in the workroom explaining the process from start to finish.  She's right;  I know what's coming next but if you've never upholstered a chair before it can come as a surprise how many stages there are.  You keep thinking you've come to the end and will be putting on the top fabric next when...ah, another stage pops up.  So that is my next task.

A vote of thanks to my 19 year old son, H, who produced our lunch each day.  He claims that it was better that way as he could guarantee himself a decent lunch and not "just a sandwich";  I don't really mind - it was really wonderful to just KNOW that lunch was going to magically appear and all SB and I had to do was eat it! 

What a luxury.  Roll on the next course I say!

Upholstery courses will continue here at The English Armchair Abroad.  If you are interested please contact me.    I will have some detailed information posted on here soon.

Finally, thanks and congratulations to SB - thanks for being such a wonderful "first student";  the next one will have a hard act to follow.  And congratulations for finishing your chair.  It looks fantastic.

Cushions Galore...Delivered

In an earlier post on cushions I was singing the praises of a client who has been loyal to me from the start.  Yesterday I had enormous pleasure in delivering to her most of the cushions she ordered.




These are the 12 (well, 13 actually but I'm not sure how the extra one arrived!) that will go on her table chairs:

         

Then there were two rectangular cushions made out of a fabric with Chinese pots:



These go with a large end of bed cushion which I don't have a picture of.

Then a flat cushion to go on a bench in her daughter's bedroom:



Two little wooden stools;  unfortunately I only have one photo but the other stool is of a girl from the same fabric:



All of the fabrics, apart from the Chinese pots, were old remnants that she had found in the proverbial attic.  They were a joy to work with and the fact that they were all different was lovely!


      

Just when you think you've finished the cushions...

The fabric for the next lot turns up...

I finished the bulk of the cushions this morning for Mme P and as I was putting the last stitch in my husband walked in with the fabric which had just arrived for Mme F's cushions.  But there are only eight of them!  I generally spend Friday afternoons clearing up the workshop so I won't start these until Monday.  However - and this is a tip to anyone who doesn't already know - it is essential that fabric delivered by post is measured before you even look at it with a pair of scissors! 

I once had 7 metres delivered 28cms short from a well known French fabric manufacturer.  I was not pleased and suggested that it would be cheaper all round if they sent me one piece of one metre - this would save me having to send it back (at their expense) and would mean I could get on with the work.  The postage was going to cost about twice as much as one metre.  But no, that wouldn't do as they couldn't be sure I was telling the truth.  Well ok, this day and age and all that.  However, when the fabric turned up two weeks later it was 7cms short.  I was disgusted but said nothing as I had enough.  Still, you would think that after one mistake they would err the other way and send me 10cms too much!

My cutting table has marks on it every 50cms to make measuring easier.  Then I put a pin into the fabric every metre as I measure.  This means that no matter what (telephone, husband, child) I don't start wondering if I'm at 8 metres or only 7! 

Photos of the cushions next time...

Cushions Galore!

They are rare indeed.  That client who returns again and again, is always courteous and positive and best of all has the most wonderful taste - which I realise is subjective.

I have one such.  She has been loyal to me from the start and gave me my first "proper" jobs when I first started my business.  Since then she has come back many times with pieces of fabric she has "found around the house" - not the attic but that sort of thing! - and as some of these fabrics date back to the 80's and possibly earlier they are really special. 

I am currently working on a bolster cushion for her and today she came round, I thought, to discuss this and also fabric for some sun mattresses.  Well, she turned up with a typewritten list with a zillion things on it and a huge shopping bag of fabric scraps.  I am still swooning from the work she has given me!!  They are all cushions of one sort or another but in such a variety of fabrics.  Photos when they're done later in the spring.

A while ago I was asked to reupholster a chair for someone and she chose the most awkward velvet with a huge amount of man-made fibre in it.  It was also ice blue which didn't do much for me but I tend to ignore clients' colour choice as what looks awful in the workroom more often than not looks great in their house.   No, the problem with this fabric was that it had a huge amount of static and whenever I cut it the edges frayed very badly and very quickly.  There was also a piped box cushion to go with it and the fabric was so thick the piping was a nightmare.  For a week I was convinced that I would never trust a client to choose their own fabric again and various somewhat uncharitable thoughts went through my head.

Just as I delivered this chair (delighted client I'm relieved to say!) my wonderful client bought me the most beautiful piece of raw silk and asked what could be done with it.  The feel of this silk restored my faith in clients and made me more forgiving towards the others.   

So I was thrilled when she bought back the last remaining piece of this silk today.  Just enough to make another small cushion.  I can't wait!

Last minute changes

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you expected.  Don't worry - nothing dramatic has happened in my life just today is not as predicted.

Whilst I was away last week on my caning course a client called my husband to say that she would be over with a sample of the fabric she wants me to order and when would be convenient.  I was astonished to hear this as the cushions she wants made are complicated and the quote therefore quite high.  To be honest I thought she had decided it was all too expensive and not worth it.  Not a bit of it.  She came over, changed the cushion design and subject to seeing a "prototype" she would like eight.  Before June.

Also whilst I was away another client decided she would like more throw cushions together with the already ordered sun lounger cushions - these have been in the pipeline since last summer and I suspected the fabric would arrive just in time for this summer!  Looks like they will also be required ... before June!

So I came back to the news that all of a sudden a comfortable workload had been increased.  How lovely.  But this week is Easter week and the family start arriving tonight.  Also lovely.  And Tuesday (today) I would be off delivering a chair all day.  Good.  But WHEN was I going to start on all this extra work?????  Not forgetting that there is also a certain amount of preparation required before the course I am giving in early May...and that we have two long weekends in May and any number of bank holidays (this IS France!).

When I came downstairs this morning my 14 year old was eating breakfast but lacking his usual gusto and enthusiasm.  Definitely under the weather and after further investigation a day off school.  So I too have a changed day.  I am NOT delivering the chair with my husband;  he has kindly gone to do that for me leaving me to tend to our youngest.  This in turn means that I can get some of the backlog out of the way before the family arrive.  It might also mean that I'll get to the supermarket and they can actually have something to eat.



And here is the chair in question.  A great big bully of a chair but VERY comfortable!

Language and Caning

We arrived in France when our older two sons were 7 and 5 and they went straight into the local French primary school.  They had not been to school before as we had been living on a boat and educating them ourselves.   

They very quickly learnt French - much faster than their mother! - and we noticed something which I am sure is common in many bilingual families:  although we spoke English at home they would incorporate the occasional French word in a sentence without any hesitation at all.  This never happened the other way round.  The French words inevitably were words which for them existed only in that one language.  So for example they would say "Have you seen my cartable?" (bookbag) because they simply didn't know that there was another word they could use.  "My copin did something or other" was another example.  As our third child grew up (he was born in France) it was even more pronounced as he learnt the two languages side by side.

Well this week I began to understand how they felt.  As you know I've been caning.  It was a really good week and great fun despite the hotel being something out of my worst nightmare.  (I wouldn't give the supper I was presented with to the pigs but that's another story.)  I was down near La Rochelle learning with Denis Guerin who is a Maitre Artisan and has been in the business for 20 years or so.  There were five of us on the course and during the week we learnt to cane a chair seat and also how to take apart and reglue a chair, clean up the wood and so on.  I speak good French and wasn't worried about any language problems but I did buy a book on the subject in English which I took with me and that enabled me to read up different techniques in my own language which did help.  However, despite my "good French" I have NEVER been able to hear the difference between "dessous" and "dessus".  Over and under.  When you are caning a chair you are basically weaving the canes so there was an awful lot of dessous and dessus.  By Tuesday afternoon I was going mad with frustration;  there comes a point when it really matters that you get it right.  Finally I drew a line on a piece of paper and wrote "over" and "under" in their respective places.  From then on it was fine.  Denis rattled off his explanations in French but would use these two English words for my benefit.  If it sounds pathetic please be kind;  the sort of thing he was saying was along the lines of "Ici, dessous, dessus, dessous, dessus, voila et la, dessus, dessous, dessus, dessous."  It never stopped!

By the time the week came to an end I had caned two chair seats and they looked ok.  I came home full of enthusiasm and described my new skill to my husband only to find myself using French words for all the new vocabulary involved.  It was truly bizarre.  I had to really stop and search for the word for "brin" (a long piece of cane) and various others and felt a right pillock. Just for once my youngest son was correcting my English instead of my French.   And that was when I remembered our children at a tender age and their ability to just talk using whatever words came along.  It takes you back!

Enough of the reminiscences.  I will be going back to Denis for part two of the course in November.  In the meantime, if anyone wants a chair re-caned get in touch!

Upholstery Course

I am running my very first Grand Gennetay Upholstery Course here in Anjou from 5 - 9 May.  There is still one place left so if you are interested please leave me a comment and I will contact you when I return next week.

This is a five day course running from 9.30am to 5pm with an hour for lunch (light lunch will be provided each day).  All upholstery materials and tools will be provided during the week but you will need to provide the final top fabric.  Ideally you will provide your own chair to work on - much more satisfying! - but I can provide a chair if you don't have anything suitable.

An ideal project for a beginner would be, for example, a Louis style chair (sprung or unsprung seat, simple back and losenge arms), a Prie Dieu (simple unsprung seat) or a dining chair. 



Louis style without arms

If you have already done some upholstery you might want to tackle something more ambitious or bring along something to finish.

Upholstery is very physical and you do spend most of your day in a dusty workroom standing up - apart from the dust it's better than any aerobics programme!  But the point is it is tiring and this should be borne in mind.

However, I don't want to put you off (obviously!) so contact me if you have any questions or would like further information.

Here are a couple of examples of suitable chairs - how much you complete during the week obviously depends on how fast you are able to work.  But upholstery should never be rushed and you will learn enough to be able to finish your project later if you don't have time during the course!



Louis style chairs with arms



Simple sprung seat


 

My magic mix - revitalising grubby wood

I have just started another two of the dining room chairs (will they NEVER end?) and once again the polished wood was covered in black grime.  Have a look at some of your chairs and you might see what I mean.  It's a build up of dirt, grease, polish and who knows what else over the years.  It's not easy to get it off - unless, that is, you have my magic mix.  I was told about this by someone in England and as long as you do it GENTLY it works a treat.

PRE-WARNING:  Please wear gloves and use the mixture in a well ventilated area.
It is flammable (or inflammable - which ever ones means it will burn easily) so don't have an open flame around
Treat the wood with the respect it deserves - you are not trying to scrub it away.  Just gently run.  If in doubt do a small hidden area first.

OK, that's the warning here's the recipe:

1/3 white spirit
1/3 methylated spirit
1/3 linseed oil

Mix all these together in a well sealed container.
You will also need a small piece of green washing up pad - the rough bit on the back of a washing up sponge.  And something to buff it up with - I use cotton wadding leftovers.

Wearing your GLOVES take your piece of green pad and soak it, then squeeze it out thoroughly.  Gently rub this onto the wood.  Work on a small piece at a time - say the top rail of the chair.  You will see after a few seconds the mix starts to sort of bubble.  If you continue to gently rub it will feel a little tacky.  Keep rubbing (gently) until the tackiness has gone.  Then rub it over with the cotton wadding.  That's it. 

Basically you have cleaned the wood, broken up the polish and moved it around.

This also works for water splashes which I'm always finding on the legs of chairs.

SECOND WARNING:  I have only ever done this on chairs.  I have NEVER tried it on highly polished pieces like a mahogany dining table and I really don't know what the outcome would be.
YOU ARE WARNED!!