Crafts Council Commission
Our amazing team of Community Makers in the Timber Workshop have finished their project for the Crafts Council, and the finished pieces look incredible.
They were commissioned to make eight tables over ten weeks, so it was all hands on deck to get the project completed. Here’s what the Crafts Council had to say.
“We’re thrilled to have commissioned The Exchange Erith (@exchangeerith), a community-led arts and crafts organisation, to make beautiful oak tables, designed by @mentsen, for our new flexible workshop space.
The Exchange hosts programmes and activities to bring people together to demonstrate the power of community craft and action.
From selecting the boards for the table tops, ensuring good grain and colour matches, to making the catches which will hold the legs in place, each step of the process has been made by hand by The Exchange’s community makers. “ - @craftscouncil
It’s been incredibly satisfying to see so many components and assemblies made to such a high standard by our community makers over the ten weeks. Every single person involved rose to the challenge with ease, and it’s been a great validation of the workshop's approach to take on a commission.
The project was led by our wonderful Timber Workshop Manager, Matt Mead, and participants include: Caroline, Colm, Matt J, Dianne, Hannah, Eoghan, Oscar, Milo and Tabitha. Who each brought their own skills and enthusiasm. Staff here at The Exchange have enjoyed seeing how well they work together and watching their skills continue to grow each week. We spent some time chatting with the makers to get their insight into the project, and here’s what they had to say:
“What was great about this project is that we were using the same skills we learned making the OL charis, so it was great to build on what we already knew while learning some new things. Matt is very deliberate in his approach to work and has a great vision that he explains well, so it’s easy for us to get on board. At the end, we were so happy with how the finished pieces turned out, and I’m glad to have worked on all aspects of the table. ” - Eoghan.
“Matt has been great at understanding and working with people's strengths. Everyone in the team has different skills, so it was good that we were all able to work on what we do best. The way I work is: show me what to do once, and I’ll remember. It was great to see the whole project through from start to finish and work on every stage. It's been a great team-building experience, and I’m pleased with the finished pieces.” - Milo.
“I really enjoyed the pressure of having a deadline, and how well organised the project has been, despite the challenges. It’s been lovely to work together as a team, and I was genuinely sad to see the tables go.” - Matt J.
“Hats off to Matt for overseeing the project. He’s taught me everything I know about working with timber, and this project has made us all so proud. I felt so much joy when we added oil to the pieces, as it really put it all together. Once everything was completed, I thought, " Wow, we did that.” It’s been great. ” - Dianne
“It’s always satisfying to make for The Exchange, but even more so knowing that others appreciate our work and want to commission us to make beautiful items for them. I can’t wait to see how the tables look in their new home!” - Caroline.
“Making things while learning as a volunteer is a great feeling. What I found fascinating was the process of making the catches and learning about what order the components have to be made in, as some stages aren’t safe to work on before others. Overall, it’s been a wonderful project to be a part of”. - Hannah.
And finally, here’s what Matt, the workshop lead, said about the project:
“I’ve been in the workshop for over two years now; long enough to know that our community-plus-craft experiment can produce unapologetically excellent furniture. That said, when we’re making furniture for our own building, there are flexibilities that don’t exist when working on a commission for a client — even a client as lovely to work with as the Crafts Council!
For one, we usually batch-produce our furniture. This means that if folks who are learning make an error, the disaster is not so great. If we’re making thirty chairs for the building, you can live with a handful of components that don’t work out. Either the timber can be used for something else, or visibly repaired to create a bespoke piece, or, if all else fails, Peter loves a bag of firewood! With the tables, though, to hit the standard and not blow the budget on extra material, we had to be more or less mistake-free.
That changes the dynamic in the workshop quite a bit. In woodworking, there are always a dozen different ways of getting any particular job done, from the “workmanship of risk” (work carried out by hand tools, that requires a great deal of experience and dexterity) to the “workmanship of certainty” (work set up with jigs, power and machine tools, that more-or-less reduces errors to zero). I always try and walk the line in the workshop between the two, so that folks are getting the opportunity to learn and improve, while not throwing so many failed components away that we don’t get any furniture out the door! With the OL Tables for the Crafts Council, I had to shift things in the direction of the workmanship of certainty, to try and create efficient processes that would give us the greatest chance of success.
Part of the skillset of a good furniture maker is knowing when to slow down and think about your approach, and when to change up through the gears and go very quickly indeed. As it turned out, all the community makers seemed to love being given permission to go fast. Don’t get me wrong; they were all incredibly careful too. A key memory for me is being at the workbench about halfway through the build, and looking up to see the other three makers in the space just approaching their work like experienced craftspeople: going quickly through the stacks of incomplete components in front of them, staying really organised, but also exercising great judgement in when to slow down a bit and look at the work carefully.
This really taught me something about where we were at as a group. Everyone in the space had really absorbed the lessons of the previous 18 months or so and was ready and extremely motivated for the challenge. They took tremendous pride in the work, and the quality of the furniture speaks for itself.”
We would like to thank the Crafts Council for choosing us for the commission, our talented makers for all their hard work, and, of course, Matt - Timber Workshop Manager for leading the team, ensuring the project stayed on track and always having patience and plenty of knowledge to share.
This is a project that won’t be forgotten and shows that wonderful things can be created when creative communities work together.