Snow, Bay window poles, Couriers

Made a couple of Bay poles today, a multi-angle Pewter one (Pictured) and a curved Beeswax (well, not quite finished actually).  The reflection in the Plain Ball finials is from the green awning overhead, stopping the trees dropping snow on the pole.

Everything was slower today due to the thick snow. It was a good 9″ deep in parts in Blockley and had to dig the car out several times to get home.

A package was due for delivery at the workshop so I had to be there in case it arrived. It didn’t arrive and thought they’d have obvious problems delivering but was surprised to get an email from DPD saying they’d attempted delivery and left a card but as no one was there they’d try again tomorrow.  I was there, they didn’t attempt delivery, they didn’t leave a card and there were no extra deliveryman footprints in the snow. Why didn’t they just say they couldn’t deliver today due to the weather conditions instead of gambling that probably I wouldn’t have made it in and making stuff up? This is why we use UPS for deliveries (or TNT occasionally), as they’re much more professional. Things do go wrong sometimes with deliveries, even with the best couriers, but most people are reasonable if you’re honest about it, so why try to hoodwink them?

laser measure for bay windows

Bought a laser measure months ago with the intention of using it to measure up for local bay windows but never got round to advertising the service or using it. Today I had an appointment to measure up and thought I’d try it out on a bay window in a house in Honeybourne.  It was pretty useless! It measures incredibly accurately if you can hold it steady enough but it’s so difficult to keep it from moving around when measuring from corner to corner over a 3 – 4m distance.  I persisted far too long with the damned thing before finally admiting it was no silver bullet. Anyway, the moral of the story… the very quickest and best way to measure a multi-angled bay window is with a decent tape steel tape measure and an angle finder, especially if you’re measuring a large bay without help.

Had some more nice emailed feedback from customers today:

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the poles, lovely job, nice finish, fitted perfectly, great to (see) someone making something well nowadays.

Cheers

Pete”


“Hi Stephen

I just wanted to thank you so much for the curtain poles. They are all up and look wonderful in the room.

Have a great Christmas

Lucy”

Thank you too, Pete Ketchen and Lucy Bishop, much appreciated.

 

Not long to go and loads to get through!

Worked out that I need to make at least one and a half bay window poles and four straight poles a day, every day, up to the 21st which will be the last despatch day before Christmas! Everything else will have to go on the back-burner until the pole orders are done.

I had a nice email from one of my Danish orders saying all had arrived safely and how pleased they were with the “Stopper in Beeswax pole”. It’s to go above this door…

Might add a dedicated testimonials page to the website as I must get several a week… I’m just not sure whether anybody believes testimonials these days!

We went out for a meal last night and there were those Edison type lights eveywhere, hanging on wrought iron hooks from the ceiling in the restaurant. It made me think again about doing a range of lighting,  although this particular type seem to be more decorative than functional. Most designs seem to be  have the bulb itself as the main feature which is simply framed; very easy to make! I’ll post some design ideas or photos  when I get a chance to make some prototypes, although I also have  an oversized, 4ft wrought iron clock to make first thing after Christmas as well as the usual poles.

 

 

Boot rack

Made a boot rack today as a bespoke item, to a customer’s own design. The top is designed so that it can be sat on while you’re pulling you boots on or off. The top is made from heavy gauge sheet steel and the rack is 20 x 5mm strap. The feet are all adjustable (stopper design) for uneven floors. It weighs a ton! It’s still in a “raw” state and needs the finish applied to it. Need to find out whether it should be Black or Beeswax.

Made to measure hand-rail

Hand rail
Pewter hand-rail

A handrail made yesterday along with a Bay and a Recess pole.

Today we’ve been making four bay window poles that are destined for a house in the lake district. Tomorrow it’ll be five French poles that are going to Ireland.

Today at work

This is the start of a blog which is just going to be about daily goings-on at work making curtain poles and such, at least to start with. It’ll probably just be stuff like questions customers have asked on that particular day and any general news.

Just to get the ball rolling, today I was asked  whether the width of a French Style pole includes the Return bends (i.e. not just the straight before the pole turns). The answer is that the width does include the bends. I’ll add a drawing to the website to show this soon.

Another question today was whether my curtain poles are on display in any National trust properties around the Colchester area. I don’t know the answer to that as I tend to deal with the developers who The National Trust have specified my curtain poles to and I don’t always know where they end up! I remember doing some Trust work for somewhere near Cambridge not so long ago but that’s probably a bit of a hike.

I’ve been dealing with several orders and enquiries from Denmark which are on the go at the moment; usually most interest is from France, Italy and Switzerland but Denmark is top of the continental list at the moment.

Today I completed an order for several long Stopper poles in Beeswax. I also started a couple of Bay poles destined for a lady in the Scottish Highlands who I’ve made many poles for over the years. These will be the 8th and 9th bay window poles she’s ordered!