Back from the Finders Keepers market!

What a great week for Curb Collective! After the graduation night last Tuesday, we attended the prestigious Finders Keepers market, which happens twice a year in Sydney at Carriageworks, on Friday night and Saturday.

Maaike and Claire went early to the shed to prepare everything. A big THANKS to John Bartholomew who transported the furniture from Redfern to Carriageworks on Friday afternoon and the unsold furniture to The Bower on Saturday evening after the market! 

We had one of the biggest stalls there, which allowed us to display all our furniture, and we were situated just in front of the fashion room, so we were highly visible. 

A lot of people were interested both in our work and in joining the class, and the enthusiasm was palpable. We had a lot of questions about how the class had been set up, how we had found the furniture and the fabric, and a lot of customers asked if we we interested in restoring/repairing/reupholstering their furniture. By the way, we are! Send a mail to Maaike at gm@bower.org.au with pictures of your furniture and explanations of what you want to be done to them, and we'll keep in touch!

If you saw a piece of furniture during the market but hesitated to buy it, come and have a look here at The Bower! Some furniture were not sold, and they are in our consignment area!

Don't forget to follow the activity of Curb Collective on facebook too by liking the page: http://www.facebook.com/Thebowercoop

Graduation Night at Shed 107

Tuesday was a long day for Curb Collective! We rushed faster than ever to finish all our chairs in time for the graduation night on Tuesday evening and for the Finders Keepers market this weekend.

Sam and I sanded and painted two dining chairs on which we will put the butterfly cushions the group made last semester. You could feel our stress of not finishing on time, but we made it! Stuart and Mick finished another dining chair with the help of Maaike and Jeanette - one of the brightest of our collection: it's orange and red!

Miki and Dominique tried as hard as they could to finish the pair of yellow and pink chairs started at the Newtown festival, but unfortunately they would have needed more time as they refused to sacrifice quality to rapidity... You'll therefore be able to see them next term! They will be great as first pieces of the new collection!

Some students stayed after the class to set up everything for the Graduation Night. We were hugely proud and excited: our furniture looks so different when they are on platforms!

A big BRAVO to Maaike and Richard who created an amazing screen out of wooden doors found at The Bower, where they displayed pictures of the transformation of the furniture. This new way to raise awareness about reuse impressed everybody, and our only problem with it will be to prevent people from buying it at the market!

The Graduation Night was a great success. 5 different courses from TAFE Outreach graduated, among them our Shed neighbours WEAVE's construction and repair students who did an amazing job patching, fixing, organising and painting the shed and Hobo Gro who create vertical gardens in reused palettes, and, of course, Curb Collective!

And guess what? We already sold 5 pieces of furniture!!! So come as soon as you can to the Finders Keepers market on Friday and Saturday if you want to admire/buy our work, the furniture won't stay there for a long time!

 - Claire M -

The Home Stretch

With only 3 more classes before Curb collective graduate and show off their debut collection at Finders Keepers, there was no messing around this week!

Pete got stuck into a second coat of choc-walnut stain on the dining suite. Mark elected to start a brand new project, taking on the challenge of the 'mummy chairs' it took 4 hours for Mark, Sam and Sam to strip just one of these uglies back to basics. They won't be recogniseable when the group are finished with them though!

Jeanette and Jane chose a lovely red jaquard for an occasional chair - all Jeanette's research on upholstery is obviously paying off!

Fiona got a lesson in measuring and mitring timber from Cathy, using a length of old skirting board that provided just the right channel for her latest project - a perspex topped coffee table.

 Speaking of tables, This table was donated to The Bower with the top raw and unfinished. We took it to Curb Collective to see what they could do.

In between classes, Lesley tightened the legs and applied widths of walnut laminate to the top, she added a few coats of diluted timber stain to make the top match the legs and now it's ready for resale!

Finished with the table, Lesley joined Min and our newest collectee Tanh; applying the patchwork of fabric swatches to the plantation chair. The group learned how to cut templates on the fly, to fold, roll, niggle and tweak until the edges can be tidily tacked into place.

Next week we'll put the back on and our two big upholstery projects will be complete!

Miki and Claire were determined to finish their duck egg blue timber arm chair - but not at the expense of perfection! The pair worked very hard to match their stripes and make their final stitches invisible.

We stayed back for 20 minutes in the end, so determined were we to finish the chair!And voila!

 You can't appreciate the delicate blue/lemon stripe on the back of this chair from a photo - you'll have to come and see us at finders keepers. Here's a peek at other things you'll see if you stop by the Curb Collective stall on the 2nd or 3rd of December;

 

All proceeds from the sale of restored items will restock our shelves with paint, glue, laquer, needles and thread so we can keep flying the reuse flag in the city of Sydney.

Fabric Fantasies - Week 12

Time is a funny thing. It feels like we're only just getting started, but we're already on the home stretch to exhibition. By the end of next week we should have most of our chairs finished.

Miki and Fiona are working on a 50's timber arm chair. Last week Miki found a lovely blue and lemon stripe she wanted to use, but there wasn't enough to cover the whole chair. We were fortunate to find some new duck egg blue linen to help our reuse fabric stretch the distance. It's hard to believe but this will be finished next week, Timber arms and all!

Speaking of timber, Sam and Jeanette got stuck into the choc-walnut stain, giving our ever-growing dining suite a brand new look. 5 of these chairs have Street banner seats ready to go, and a very similar looking pair have elegant neutral seats. We're waiting till that stain is totally dry before we put the seats in place though!

Min & Leslie started a sample swatch patchwork for the timber plantation chair. In their absence, Emmanuel chipped in, completing a third section of patchwork for the outer back of the chair. Next week this will all suddenly be finished too!

And finally, we attached and covered the backs of some chairs, an d learned about using hot-glue-guns (scary stuff around fine silks!) to apply decorative trim so the backs of our parisian triplets could be completed.

There are other projects in the pipe line - a small table that Leslie is going to laminate, a pair of steel table legs sprayed up and attached to a new (recycled) timber top, and a bedside unit or two - proving we can break the chair mold!!

Can't wait for next week?! Stop by The Newtown Festival and say hi to Curb Collective and The Bower This Sunday 10-4

-Maaike

Reuse Fabric Upholstery

107 : the place where the sun shines even when it’s raining outside!

Yesterday, Maaike started the course with a lesson: Phil had brought seats from home, and Maaike took this opportunity to teach us how to cover a seat cushion with some striped fabric, to show us how to watch out for pattern distortion. The secret? To smooth the cloth carefully, without pulling too much on it, and to take one's time, not hesitating to reposition staples.

To finish the cushion properly, we learnt how to put a dust cover under it to avoid the dirt from going in the chair. 

It was then time to take care of a chair we've all had a hand on to finalise it. The fabric chosen was some black velvet, and the tricky part was to fix it getting around its legs on the corners. It was not easy as we had to cover all the Dacron, but to leave the wood apparent. After having cut the excess of fabric, we put tackles on it so that it doesn’t move, and then we sew the two pieces of fabric with a curved needle. 

After that, each of us went on to other projects. Look at the armchair I filled with Glen: we first put coconut fibre until we cannot feel the springs anymore, then some flock to smooth it, and finally we covered everything with some Dacron to suppress the last bumps.

It was about time for the final test: sitting on it!

 
After the habitual feast, Miki and Peter went on with the gorgeous sunny yellow chairs we had started last week, using the curved needle tips Maaike had just taught us.

HURRAY! One of them is almost finished! 

With the black velvet one and the red stalls painted last week, our efforts start to bear fruits and we are prouder than ever of our projects!

 

- Claire M 

And Then Came Colour

Another industrious week with TAFE Outreach in Redfern! A quick round up revealed no less than 45 chairs in various stages of repair. While there are plenty waiting for some attention, I'm amazed to note that the group is tackling 3 arm chairs, 2 occasional chairs 6 cafe stools and 7 dining chairs all at once!

We're trying to work in stages - getting through the sanding on selected projects before applying finishes, so that we don't ruin great paint jobs with fine dust from sanding.

We can't help ourselves though - slowly the colour and the final fabrics are sneaking into the work pile and onto the furniture. And Oh! What a difference it makes!

The red stools got another light sand between coats of paint. A pair of scandinavian dining chairs that were stripped of one cover last week were stripped again in a game of Reuse Pass the Parcel. Miki, Claire and Lesley used steel wool to rub in a 50/50 solution of mineral turps and linseed oil - finessing the timber finish to a smooth dark caramel.

Our lunch break was suitably gourmet - We're becoming far too accustomed to baked treats and vegetarian delights. Cashew nut rice, apple crisps, home made hommous, dolmades, orange and avocado salad and guacamole! Why would you eat anywhere else?

After lunch we gave in to the fabric temptation.

Fabric donations have been rolling in, from upholstery designers and Bower Donors. Miki spied a deliciously happy yellow bedspread that provided just the antidote to the somber black vinyl that had once sat on these frames.

Bedspreads are a great option for reuse upholstery, usually thick and durable, they are often beautifully patterned and textured as well. Just remember to avoid fade marks and any wear and tear in the fabric when selecting a section to use!

The result is disarmingly charming -  I can't decide if it's 50's madmen or 70's kitsch in style, but it's like no other pair of danish chairs in town, and definitely brings a smile!

I'm ecstatic to see so much enthusiasm and productivity in the Redfern  Bower Reuse & Repair Centre and can't wait to see what everyone acheives next week.


- Maaike