Emma Bridgewater Wooden Gifts
All about the creation of the Emma Bridgewater’s wooden gift range.
All about the creation of the Emma Bridgewater’s wooden gift range.
Here at Make Me Something Special we have made some seriously stunning wooden gifts and furniture. However, bespoke products is where we can really show off and get quite creative. So, you can believe me when I say… this is a good one!
This truly stunning carved school crest was carved inside one of our handmade solid oak tables. It was made completely from scratch, by hand, in our Surrey Hills workshop.
The table was commissioned by a local private school Barrow Hills School in Witley, Surrey, and is to be their focus entrance centre piece in the main school visitor entrance hall.
The table itself is constructed from solid English Oak and measured 1.3meters long and 75cm wide.
The top, like our handmade chopping boards, is made from full length super stave piece jointed together to form a huge 4.5cm thick hard wearing counter top, very similar to a good quality hand-crafted oak worktop you would find in a beautifully hand-crafted kitchen.
We then set to work routing away the massive central area. The crest is actually part of the wood making up the table top – not a separate piece of timber. You take away all the wood or waste around the crest, we went down 3.5cm leaving a mound in the centre ready to be carved into the crest and banner.
As you can clearly see, the grain flows right across the entire crest area making the end result very striking indeed. Even thought the table top is 4.5cm thick, what is left below the crest is only 1cm. All the rest of the timber has been removed. The crest, at its highest point measures around 2.5cm which would be the largest bump of the tree blossom.
The whole thing took roughly 3 days to carve.
The idea was to then have this wooden masterpiece set behind toughened safety glass, so you could actually sit down on top of it, keep it dust free and well protected. Personally, I think it also enhances the want to touch it or just stand and stare at it, like an ornament in a display cabinet.
We cut a very small recess of 5mm around the crest area and 6mm deep to take a 6mm piece of glass precisely so it would be perfectly flat across the table top.
The fit was perfect and only had a 2mm tolerance around the whole area. You could’t put a credit card between the glass and oak tabletop.
The table frame was made in exactly the same way as our new and beautiful hand-crafted solid oak coffee tables. The legs are 10cm thick, square in shape and feature fix-less bracing bars that run between the legs making up the frame. You can see no joints, no fixings, no screw heads anywhere. It is just stunning joinery at its best.
The shelf beneath the tabletop, for magazines and other such items, was again made from super stave solid oak pieces and joined together to make a large sheet 20mm thick. Again, as with the frame, there are no fixings or screws at all. The shelf is set into the legs and held there under tension and fits perfectly.
Last was the engraved text, which fits into the banner. Anyone who has seen our personalised wooden gift range knows we are very good at this.
“AD MAJORA PARAMUR” follows the shape of the banner and looks just fantastic. By the way, ‘ad majora paramur’ is Latin for ‘to provide greater’.
Though, as fantastic as it is, the tree and its roots, back and foreground is just breathtaking. You just want to touch it, it is so nice to do just that and the natural beauty of the timber gives it such depth and character.
You have to agree – it is something very special!
This has to be one of the very best bespoke wooden projects we have created and definitely tested our craftsmanship to the limit. As with all these things – just getting stuck into something like this and standing back once it is complete – looking at what you have created – especially the look on the customers faces – it is an awesome feeling. Pride, I guess!
It does make me laugh! A small group of craftsmen in a small workshop in the Surrey Hills creating something this good from a few pieces of sawn timber… and some sand.
If you would like to order one of our bespoke oak tables or would like us to bespoke make something for you, get in touch with us today. We would love to hear from you!
WEBSITE: www.makemesomethingspecial.co.uk
TEL: 01252 703 196
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