Chris Baylis

“So here it is….Merry Christmas…everybody’s having fun”….actually you can catch ‘The Woodstock Snow Stars’ playing that at ‘A Night of a Thousand Candles’ on Woodstock’s lovely town square, Sat Nov 26th, 6.00pm – turn on of the town’s lights etc…
reindeer kiss by Joanna Scoones

and .. (it leads on nicely!!)…. they will also be playing at the preview party for December’s ‘art in the furniture store’ exhibition ‘Colour at Christmas’ which will then run throughout December…..

Preview Party: Fri Dec 2^nd 6.30 – 10.00.pm:   art, jewellery, gifts, log fire, mulled wine, other wines, nibbles and live music from an array of musicians culminating in a performance by ‘The Woodstock Snow Stars’! 

The exhibition introduces you to the wacky world of Joanna Scoones whose colourful fun pictures please little ones and adults alike and are guaranteed to make you smile… Christmas cards, prints that can be personalised on the spot, cute stocking fillers, perfect prezzies for under the tree…. Expect harebrained characters, naughty reindeers, cheeky elves, goofy giraffes, funny elephants, pretty ballerinas, swashbuckling pirates …..and lots more to boot!

Hotmetal jewellery, designed by Jo Mitchell and featuring brightly coloured metals, glass and silver….

Mary-Lou Crown’s collection of sterling silver fashion accessories – simple, elegant and contemporary jewellery.

Also on show, will be a dazzling array of Christmas gifts for all pockets and tastes – candlesticks, clocks, glass, figures, lighting, ceramics, mirrors, platters etc., all tastefully displayed around the room sets of stunning furniture –  the trademark of The Real Wood Furniture Company…

Some of you may remember that in previous years we have celebrated ‘A Night of Colour’ which last year became ‘A Weekend of Colour’ …and this year to help counter ‘austerity measures and cut backs’ we are pushing the boat out and celebrating for the whole month!!
or visit anytime Mon – Sat 10.30 – 5.30, Sun 11.00- 5.00

Each month we unveil a new ‘furniture piece’ and this month we present a stunning waney edged slab of polished ‘Molave’  from the Philipinnes as a coffee table and a brand new addition to our furniture range – a cheval mirror in  oak and burr oak.

Please RSVP for the party to: colour@rwfco.com / tel: 01993 813887        

Think Christmas, think a visit to The Real Wood Furniture Company…

See you soon…and all the best for the festive season!

Chris

James Wheeler private view party – Fri July 1st 6.30- 9.00pm  

Exhibition runs to Thursday Aug 4th

I cannot believe where the time flies…another month has passed and it’s time to tell you about a new exhibition and another party!!  of which, more in a bit…

This month, the stunning glass artworks of Jo Downs have been much admired and we have sold several pieces to our discerning customers!!  We opened that exhibition to coincide with the arrival of Rodney Salter’s stunning abstract figures to The Sculpture Garden.  His exhibition runs throughout July as well….

So what delight do we have for you this month?  Not a well kept secret, but still exclusive…. eminently affordable, the result of the application of oils on to cork, with an eye for flow and texture… landscapes, carefully reproduced as limited edition prints by the artist himself and sympathetically framed by ourselves….

We welcome James Wheeler who studied originally at The Glasgow School of Art and takes his inspiration from his native Scotland, the Lake District and the wilds of Yorkshire as well as from visits to warmer Mediterranean climes.

Fri July 1st, 6.30-9.00pm is the private view party and you are warmly invited to join us for Pimms, wines, juices etc…. live music from the 40’s and 50’s by Katie Humble…and a chance to wander the showrooms and see what’s new.

We will be unveiling the largest single piece of intense burr oak we have ever come across …originally the top to a pedestal table dating to the late 18th century, by the time it found its way to us, it had lost its original base, so we have made a lovely ‘cricket table’ base for it.  It’s a cracker!!  First come….blah, blah…

Hope to see you there!

Chris

Hello again…it’s been a while…too long really…but there’s always something to be getting on with, which keeps me from ‘the blog’!  Another photo shoot with Scrumpie-pup has produced some great results and although the crop has gone wrong on this photo, in uploading onto the website, I hope you enoy the image.

Scrumps is 18 months old now and a joy (when she is not tearing the contents of the waste bin to shreds, stealing customers’ gloves etc.).  We are about to take our ‘Good Citizen’ bronze test, so watch this space.

Why is it a mad, mad world???  Read on to find out… although I am sure you all have your own, entirely relevant answer, probably better than mine….ah yes…and to find out about the ‘gate leg coffee table’…business is business, after all….

(small intermission for opening red wine)

“As we enter a new decade in a world where values have literally been turned on their head, we believe more and more in the importance of surrounding yourself with things that have longevity and simply make you feel good!  We believe our furniture is special and will do just that, for you…”

The paragraph above is taken from our new brochure supplement, about to be published…please e mail if you would like a copy!  The world does seem to ‘have been turned on its head’!!!  There are so many strange ‘goings on’ and we now seem to be in the thrall of the ‘big election’…..is it really possible that Gordon will get to stay at No 10 after all the events of the past two years??? …are the ‘team in waiting’ really ‘up to the mark’???  Will Vince get to be Chancellor somehow???
All these and more questions will be answered soon…but in the meantime, lets spare a thought for the people of Haiti…..Iraq…..Afghanistan……our troops…..our children……a woman whose car can be pushed down a Motorway infront of a speeding truck for over a minute without the driver of the truck noticing anything untoward (check out Youtube – Clio driver)….
£1,000 fines for putting out the wrong bin on the right day, or the right bin on the wrong day….£££ spent at Cheltenham races….£££ given for Sport Relief when everyone is feeling the pinch (amazing!!)….the news that the recession is ‘over’ ???…. the news that we are going to have a ‘double dip’???…that house prices are going to fall again???…that the housing market has firmed up and is looking positive???…that global warming is entirely unconnected to current practices???…that we all have to change our ways, otherwise we are doomed???…
It’s all a bit confusing and a lot ‘mad’….so , before I take ‘the Scrumpie-pup’ out for a late evening stroll, I shall try and concentrate on ‘the here and now’ which is to tell you about our lovely gate leg coffee table…..
in fact I will simply copy the lovely Rachel’s press release:
“The double Gate Leg Coffee Table from The Real Wood Furniture Company provides a striking focal point for any room. In a design inspired by a grand gate leg dinning table dating back to the 1700’s, this 21^st Century version offers classic elegance as well as the practicalities needed for modern living. It is versatile in size, folding out from 48” by 14” to a grand 48” by 40”, as well as being resilient for every day use thanks to its highly polished burr oak surface. The multitude of legs that are integral to a gate leg design, whilst sometimes a hindrance for diners around a dinning table, are celebrated here in this scaled down version, where the intricately turned legs act as the perfect platform for the solid piece of figurred burr oak they support.

As with the entire collection, each piece is hand made in this country, using English timber from sustainable sources. Every table is completely unique due to the hand planning, finishing and the specific selection of the oak timbers at the beginning of the making process. This table can also be made to any size, in a variety of finishes.”

There you have it…available to view in our showrooms, obviously… where you are always welcome to browse and enjoy and where you will always be made welcome by ourselves and Scrumpie.

More news soon, about our planned ‘on line’ shop for some of our lovely accessories (www.scrumpie.co.uk) -opening June 2010- and about our 10th anniversary celebration, later in 2010, of being on our current site.  …..where do the years go??
In the meantime….take a deep breath, hold hard and smile…..it might be ‘mad’ out there, but…. the future is bright…the future is real…the future is wood…..and some…..

Until next time..

Chris

It’s August Bank Holiday Monday and I am recovering from ‘Woodstock Live’… a festival of music which I organise in the town that gave its name to the greatest festival of all time…… (I refer of course to Woodstock, New York State 1969!)  We put on two days of an eclectic mix of open air music on the town square, for free and it seems like we do it every year now at the same time.

When not ‘working with wood’ I am very involved in music.  If you have been in our showrooms, some of you may have wondered about the various CD albums dotted around our showrooms.
The first ‘Guitar Orchestra’ CD cover combined my two passions, with a photo taken on a beach in Wales of my guitar collection leaning on a selection of antique rush seated ladder back and spindle back chairs with a few Windsor chairs thrown in for good measure.  The tide came in quite a lot quicker than we imagined and the whole experience was slightly fraught!
The albums represent past and present musical journeys of which the current phase is ‘tp & woodman’ (www.myspace.com/tpandwoodman )……..

‘Tp’ refers to Tony Poole, founder member of ‘Starry Eyed and Laughing’ who were kind of like Britain’s answer to The Byrds, who despite much touring, both at home and abroad and  receiving much critical acclaim in the mid seventies, never really ‘made it’ to the big time.  He recently contributed a track to a Byrds tribute album.  He is simply the hottest 12 string guitarist around.

‘Woodman’ is a moniker given to myself by ‘Big Vern’ (aka Mark Vernon, former manager of PJ Harvey and now looking after B J Cole and QueenAdreena amongst others) during the recording of the album ‘Lullabies for Lager Louts’ at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in Box, with the legendary John Cale producing.  It was a fun two weeks, albeit, some years ago now.  The name has stuck in certain quarters.

We describe the music of tp and woodman as ‘raga inspired sound and light’…. According to punters it’s ‘kind of like Pink Floyd heads East… Hank Marvin on acid… wicked guitars’….

More of this and the largest collection of fender strats (at least this side of Oxford St)…. another time………

The Wychwood Comb Back Windsor Chair

In the land of wood, there are some exciting things happening too.  We have recently added a new Windsor chair to our collection.  It is based on the design of a late 18th century Thames Valley comb back chair, but as ever we have altered the design to suit the frame of 21^st century man and woman and in this case, we have designed a fretted splat for the back that speaks of both tradition and the contemporary.  At just under 50” to the top of the comb this is a chair that makes an impression.  We are using elm from a limited stock to make the seats and the top comb.  The splats can also be made of elm or from beautiful burr oak (as photographed).  The other parts are made in ash.  The chair can be finished in many different ways, but we really like the ‘light antique’ finish on the chairs in the photograph. It allows the beauty of the various grains to show through and can complement both lighter and darker pieces.  We call this chair ‘The Wychwood Comb Back Windsor Chair’.  The Wychwood Forest used to cover many thousands of acres of what is now West Oxfordshire, including the area around Woodstock, where this chair has been designed and ‘brought to life’.  The Real Wood Furniture Company is a friend and supporter of ‘The Wychwood Project’, established in 1997 to raise awareness of the history and identity of the area, and to work with local communities to restore its rich patchwork of landscapes and habitats within the Forest boundaries.  It’s a good synergy and reason enough to name an exciting new Windsor chair.   We are also founder members of ‘Woodland Heritage’ a charity dedicated to increasing the woodland area in the UK. ….’The Heritage Windsor????’ hmmm food for thought, but for another day.

Hope you enjoyed a relaxing Bank Holiday and that we see you soon.

Chris

PS For those of you seeking an update on the life and times of ‘Scrumpie-pup’…all is well in Scrumpie land.  She is just over 11 months old now and becoming a firm favorite with customers old and new.  I will post another pic soon.

It’s a very hot Monday and time to write my very first ‘blog’ for The Real Wood site…quite exciting…ok, so I am 2 or 3 years behind the times and should probably be ‘twittering’ or fiddling with Face Book, but I am not!

Well, for my first blog, I am going to take you back in time……. And then tell you about something new….

If you have ever visited our lovely showrooms in Woodstock, it will be odds on that you have been greeted (as well as by ourselves, I hope) by a friendly canine.

You will see from our website and brochure that ‘Billie-dog’ features ‘large’….and what a lovely and faithful dog she was! I use the past tense and regretfully have to report, for those of you who don’t know, that Billie passed on to the great furniture shop in the sky, in April 2007. After much grieving and a respectful period without the patter of furry feet, 8 week old ‘Scrumpie-pup’ was collected from a nice family in Abingdon at the end of September 2008 and installed in her new domain. (‘The king is dead, long live the king’…or I suppose in this instance…‘the queen is dead, long live the queen’ is more apt.)

I will update with more photos of our new ‘boss’ as the weeks go by. She is, I hope, almost fully grown now, but it seems appropriate to start the ball rolling with a ‘ball of fluff’ photo, surely guaranteed to melt all but the hardest of hearts!

‘And what of the furniture business??’ …you might ask. We have some exciting new additions to our furniture collection, (photos to follow shortly), a completely new lay out to the showrooms and the opening of ‘The Sculpture Garden’ on Saturday July 4^th. We are starting with pieces by some talented emerging artists, including :

Michael Harris, Sophie Thompson, Richard Fox and Linzi Evans. Their work incorporates the use of many recycled and new materials, including, steel, stone, wire, wood etc., providing us with an eclectic mix of visual and tactile delights.

You are welcome to join us on the 4^th (for a glass of something) or at any time thereafter to wander ‘The Sculpture Garden’ which sits directly at the back of our showrooms. Sit a while, relax, look…listen and enjoy.

See you soon!

Chris