It finally feels like winter has left the building. The building in question is the New Red furniture making workshop, off Queens Rd, which could really do with a bit of roof insulation. However, priority always goes to building our bespoke hand-crafted furniture, so if the work continues i’ll gladly make do with my thermals for another year. 

Sadly no tax breaks for woodworkers in the budget this time and it looks like i’ll have to close our Swiss subsidiary. Otherwise, it’s been a good month. I’ve just finished a lovely painted oak dresser which is sitting here awaiting delivery. We’ve just had some professional images taken, so I’ll try and tempt MT readers next month. Everything we do is built to the highest standard but we always work within the client’s budget which sometimes means we have to revise our designs accordingly. For this piece however, we had a carte blanche to build the dresser with all the attention to detail that it deserved and it was a real pleasure to make.

This brings me to the great MDF debate, which I find myself having with clients from time to time. 

Some clients are very averse to the idea, whilst others will rightly consider it a more economical alternative. 

MDF does have it’s place in a furniture workshop (not the bin). It’s main advantage is stability and is used by furniture makers as a substrate for veneers in even the most expensive of furniture. It also has constructional integrity when used appropriately. However, it is not very durable and doesn’t compare with natural wood as a finished surface. 

Therefore, we choose not to offer painted MDF furniture, however we do use it, particularly in conjunction with veneers, though you would never know it unless you were told.

A brief update on the New Red social media bandwagon. We have amazingly doubled our twitter following in the space of just a month. Sounds impressive, but given we now have 8 (eight) followers, maybe less so. I’m setting my sights on 10 and considering posting a video on sharpening chisels set to music #gangnamstyle.

If this sparks your interest or you would like to see examples of our work, please view our website: www.newredfurniture.co.uk and follow the link to our twitter page.

Dan

Before setting up business designing and making furniture in our Mumbles workshop in The Grove, off Queens Road, I had a salaried desk job with pension plan and private health insurance.

It's been a few years now since I ironed my last shirt and headed naively into the realms of the self employed, from the well paid world of spreadsheets to the humble life of the artisan cabinetmaker, but what price job satisfaction...

It's not often I have cause to regret my career change, but I write this sat at home with a “severe” dose of man-flu, ruing the fact that I don't get paid to have a day off sick unlike my salaried wife who was able to enjoy her day in bed even though she was not nearly so ill as me!

I described in last month's edition my foray into social media marketing which has since been gathering pace like an unstoppable force of nature #goingviral #lookoutstephenfry

At the time of writing New Red Furniture and Interiors has 4 (four) followers on Twitter and one of those is my wife who followed out of duty whilst in bed with a cold. We also have 7 (seven) followers on Instagram and 12 (double figures) followers on Pinterest. Apparently I'm supposed to post insightful comments on Twitter to generate a following but I prefer talking to my wife face to face and she doesn't find my comments insightful anymore.

On a more positive note, my old favourite Facebook is doing a little better with 201 “likes” due to the enticing offer of a handcrafted Welsh oak memory box which we will be giving away to one of our “likers” at random when we reach 250. You can find a link to our Facebook page through our website if you want to be in with a chance of winning.

Thank goodness for the tried and tested printed word #mumblestimes #isthatanoxymoron?

I've come to realise during my time in business that marketing and promotion is important but it's no good promising something unless you back it up with the quality of your work, particularly if your work is high-end handcrafted furniture. Much of our business over recent years has come by way of referrals and repeat work and I'm proud and grateful for that. This is just as well given my poor efforts at social media marketing. However, not wanting to rest on my laurels please view our website for further examples of our work or feel free to call to discuss an idea or arrange a visit.

@Dan #smashtag

To cut a long story short, one of our past clients is an engineer who was recently working on the refurbishment of a bridge, not just any bridge but the Hayle Viaduct near St Ives built by Brunel 
around 1850. Some of the original timbers needed to be replaced and just before Christmas, 7no. 8"x 8" square lengths of grubby timber were delivered to the New Red workshop, Mumbles.
"Can you make me a coffee table out of these, like a big jenga table" he said? 
"Yes" says I. I always seem to say yes to jobs then work out how to do it later, it usually goes ok....
Anyway, it took 2 of us just to lift each piece, plane it square and cut to length.
It turned out the grubby lumps were a beautifully charactered oak, and wouldn't we just love to know where it was cut and who installed it....needless to say it still has a pretty unique story attached.
The table itself required zero joinery, relying on the weight of each piece to hold it together.
But kind of like the best food, if you've got the best ingredients the finished dish doesn't need to hide behind loads of culinary jiggery pokery.

About time too.....
The old one was long overdue a retirement
We've tried to be a little more selective with our content to give an overview of our work without overcomplicating things