“All of our customers love something about wood. That’s Cath – she’s retired, lives in Edinburgh, and saves up to buy nice things, infrequently. She lives in a small house where space utilisation is really important to her, so she likes to get involved in the design work with me, to the most intricate level!
Some years ago she came in just wanting a small job done, and her enquiry came into the Real Wood Studios “work pool”. When new customers approach Real Wood Studios, we share them out between the makers, and this is how I acquired Cath’s first project,” explains Ross.
“I’ve made a few things for her since then. One of these was a trio of bespoke cabinets, including a set of drawers for her maps – she collects Ordnance Survey maps – so the drawers were designed around the exact size of OS maps. Not a millimetre of space wasted!
Later, while I was doing another piece of work for Cath, she came into the studios and said, ‘I’ve got something in the boot of the car, it’s got a bit of sentimental value’. I looked at this Yew log and she looked at me apologetically and said, ‘You can’t do anything with it, can you?’.
It was no more than a small branch, but I assured her we’d think of something to make, it just might not be very big’. So, I milled it into small planks and dried it, and we both agreed to get our thinking caps on for the design!
“Then Covid happened, and by the time I got back to the studio, Cath had had an idea – she wanted a box to store shoes in, that you could sit on and lift the lid on, with ventilation. She wanted to incorporate this log somehow.”
“The nice thing about this project is that I have designed and made for Cath before, so I understood a lot of her preferences. So she was happy for me to take design references from other items I had made for her previously and create a design.”
“She told me the precise dimensions required for its specific placement in her hallway. I even had her bring some of her shoes in so we could design around them, maximising the storage space, and anything else she wanted in there, including hats and gloves.
It coincided with me having a batch of rippled sycamore which I’d previously bought speculatively for some unknown future project. This beautiful pale timber turned out to be a superb combination with the vibrant yew from Cath’s log.”
For a small project, it took longer than usual from conception to finished product, but it was worth the wait – Cath loved the box, and so did I!”