“He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist.”
St. Francis of Assissi (1181-1226),
(patron saint of animals and the environment)
Derek-the recycler
By now you have probably seen the pictures of what I make. Simply put, lots of different items made from wood.
What you may not know is that all of these items are made from recycled timber.
I hate to see the type of society that we have become nowadays. If something breaks we just throw it away and buy a new one. Sometimes this is unnecessary and we replace it because we can afford to buy new. What we don't think about at the time is, that this all has an impact on our environment.
As I have said, all of my products are made from timber that has been previously used for other purposes. Alot of which comes from old pallet wood or packing cases. These would normally be burned as a way to dispose of them.
How silly it seems to saw down trees, cut it into the right shape and size to make a pallet, use it a couple of times and then dispose of it. This is the timber that I use to make my products.
Yes it can be time consuming to strip the pallets, remove all the nails. Then to plane down and sand to get a smooth finish, before you can even start to think of making anything out of it.
But some of the pallets that I use have hidden potential.
They come to me as a rough and dirty piece of wood and when I start to plane and sand, the beauty of the woodgrain starts to show through. Of course not all of these woodgrained finishes get to be varnished and shown off, but using them brings a little bit of pleasure to my heart.
I have been operating locally for around the last 12 months, selling on farmers markets and from a permanent stall with Trinity Indoor Market in the Old Town Sector of Kingston-Upon-Hull.
I started by making a novelty bird house for someone and of course someone else saw it and wanted one.
Things have moved on a little bit since then, but I still operate from my small workshop making the items, while my Dear Lady Wife watches over my market stall from her Soap stall next door.
I don't think that any 2 of my products are the same. Being handmade and handpainted they become a unique product.
I do not mass produce so if you do order something from me it will only be similar and not exactly the same as in the photograph.