Yet another curtain pole for a round bay window but this one is in 25mm diameter tube and a pewter finish. Here’s a picture of the bay window it’s going in to… (what a nice window!)

and here’s the pole that has been made to fit the bay…

The ends of the pole (the last foot or so) are straight and had to be precisely angled off the curve as the walls splayed by 7mm in the mouth of the bay. The pole will use Passing rings as it is around 4m in length; there was only an inch available height for the brackets too!

Solutions for unusual bay windows

Today I made a pole for a 7 sided bay with a couple of very short angled walls between the two non parallel parts of the bay which made for a slightly awkward shape. The other challenge was that there was only an inch or so of window frame to fix the brackets to, and these needed to be Passing brackets.

The best solution was to treat the bay as if it were a 5 sided bay window and to use horizontal bracket plates that would sit above the pole. That way the pole could fit to the very limited space at the top of the window frame while keeping nice converging lines from the room to the window.

The photos below show the bay, the design scheme drawing, the finished curtain pole (apart from the waxing) and a close up of the centre joining bracket.

It’s been ages since I last wrote anything for the blog so I thought I better get something down to try to get the habit back. The truth is I’ve just had such an unbelievable amount of work recently that I just haven’t had any time to do it. Order lead-times are now stretched to six weeks even working flat out 7 days a week!

Today I’ve been making bay window poles as part of a big order for a house in Cirencester using my new bending machine. I’ve invested in  new machinery for bending bay poles more efficiently but it’s been a bit of a trial by fire to be honest. With having to work out new bending offsets, springback and bending plane settings it’s taken me twice as long as normal. I know I’ll speed up when I’ve had a bit of practise; it does produce incredibly accurate work though.

Today I’ve also had a large order that’s been specified by The National Trust through a building developer although this one is for straight,  Ball & Collar poles and hold-backs in Tradtional black finish.

Yesterday I sent off a large 16mm curved and angled bay pole which is to fit within a Seven Bend Bay window with wall fixings. This means the centre bracket has to be shaped to the wall angles and in this case it had to have a 120mm projection to clear a window sill.

Here’s the photos below…

Today’s ramblings…

I’ve almost got all the tooling done for the 25mm steel poles which I’ve been working on. I have such a full schedule at the moment that I can only fit this sort of thing in when the pole orders for the day have been finished. There’s quite a lot involved in adding a new diameter to the curtain pole range. All the rings, brackets and some of the finials have to be resized which means making new formers and calibrations for this that and the other. After all of that the poles themselves then need to be properly photographed which I think I’ll get someone else to do rather than doing it myself. There’s a lady in the village who’s a superb photographer who could really bring these things to life, as it were. Then hopefully I can get them properly displayed on the website. I’ve already had a lot of interest and a few orders for the new poles though, so I know they’ll be a success. I think they’ll make a nice compliment to the 16mm solid poles.

Today I’ve been making some 16mm curtain poles for the home of one of the world’s leading bronze sculptors, David Williams-Ellis, which will be on their way to him tomorrow. I’ve included a picture below of some of his work as the interest for today!

I’ll probably add a bit more to this post later on but sign off for the moment.

This is just another short post. To be honest, I’ve just been so incredibly busy I’ve had no time at all to write up much. I do like writing the blog (and hopefully people actually read it!) so I must try to organise my time better.

Anyway, I’ve decided to add 25mm diameter curtain poles to the range as sometimes I’m asked if I make curtain poles in larger diameters. I’m just interested to see what sort of demand there’ll be for these; plus, a change is as good as a rest! These poles will be made from thick wall steel tubing as anything above 16mm in solid bar can get extremely heavy for wall fixings, especially when carrying heavy curtains. So they’ll be made in tube in all the colours of the wrought iron finishes; Beeswax, Tradtional Black or Pewter. Being made from tubing, they’ll have a smooth surface and texture so will appeal to those who are looking for a different look to the rustic charm of  wrought iron. Of course they’ll be extremely competively priced and very high quality.

I’ll be making Bay window curtain poles in 25mm diameter too, both Angled and Curved types and I’ll have some images on the website very soon.

I should have posted an image here to add a bit of interest, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow when I can photo a curtain pole sample. As an aside, I’ve got a photo of Laurence Llewellyn Bowen showing my curtain poles in his own house somewhere so I’ll see if I can find it and if I can that’ll do for the time being…

…Can’t find the one I was looking for (which was the top one showing the curtain pole too) but I’ll update if I can find it. I had to download these from the curtain maker’s website whom I’d supplied. Apparently he chose mine over loads of others as they were just what he was looking for.

I’ve been really busy this week; loads and loads of orders coming in which is great as January is usually a bit slow. One is for one of the largest private residences in Wales, as well as a couple of 30+ pole orders, to orders for a few extra rings and everything in between. I definitely have my work cut out now!

I’m still a bit behind with a few pre-christmas’s which I need to get done so I’ll be working over the weekend again to try and catch up. I’ve also got a backlog of quotes again, mostly the technically challenging ones which can take ages to do. I never charge enough for them!

I’ve been making French poles and bays mainly this week. I’ve included a couple of photos of the poles that were finished yesterday; a Flared Ball Bay and Round Cage Bay in Pewter which will be sent out on Monday.

I’m also launching a new range of poles which will be on the website in the next couple of weeks.

Haven’t really got a great deal to say at the moment but don’t want to lose momentum writing the blog so I thought I better say something. I think I’m just a bit tired after another busy week. I’m still trying to catch up with a backlog of work… slow suppliers don’t help either. Loads of interesting work is coming in at the moment though. I think I’ve done 8 quotes so far this evening, and a few nice orders, so another reason why I’m not writing much as I still have more to do (sorry to anyone still waiting but I should be caught up tonight) . Some interesting stuff is coming in, such as a couple of double curved bays with Passing brackets and rings (I like a challenge!). I’ve had  a few overseas enquiries from Australia, Denmark (again), Sweden, USA and quite a few orders for Curtain poles with Flared Ball finials all of a sudden. It’s really weird how a particular design  is suddenly in demand as though it’s the result of a collective decision made somewhere.  I had a rush on Arrowhead curtain poles a few months ago but they seem to have gone off the boil a bit now.

Well,  I better get back to the quotes!

I spent today catching up on all the admin, answering emails, quotes, etc. It’s amazing how long all that takes so I’m back in the workshop tomorrow; I’m quite looking forward to it after the break. I’ve got some new ideas for products to add to the range which is as much about “a change is as good as a rest” as anything!

I’ve added a testimonials page to the website too, starting from today,  so I’ll keep that updated from time to time. I’m half thinking of getting a marketing person in to do all the social media thing as personally, I can’t stand Facebook, etc. but it seems a necessary evil to some degree. Also, maybe get a professional photographer to take some decent photos for the website which is something I should really get sorted out. I just hope I find the time…

Curved Bay Window Curtain Pole

This curved bay window curtain pole has Stopper finials and a Beeswax finish. It was made yesterday but I didn’t get a chance to photograph it until today. It’s just been loosely assembled and balanced on stands to give a better impression of how it will look. There’s also a picture of the room it’s going in to…

This pole could have also been made in 25mm diameter with Ball &Collar finials. See the options  here
Today I made a five-bend bay window pole with Button finials in Pewter and a couple of straight poles to match.

I’ve been making  loads of bay window poles lately and I thought I’d just show some of the process. The photos aren’t that brilliant as these things are quite difficult to photograph in the workshop and can only really be appreciated once they’re up above a window. Also, I’m not much good at photography!

In this example the customer has supplied a photo of the bay as well as the measurements when emailing for quote.

We write back with the quote and send a drawing to show how the pole will look in relation to the bay.

After the customer accepted the quote and ordered the design drawings are created…

…from which the pole is formed continuously with no welded sections

Here’s another muti-angled bay window curtain pole that’s going out tomorrow along with yet another curved bay pole (which I’ll photograph tomorrow).