OFF TO MARKET

Date for our next pop-up shop is Sunday 26th May @ OLD BUS DEPOT MARKETS, Kingston ACT.
We'll have our usual wide variety of chairs and stools available, including: 

• a brand-new design wingchair
• a fully-restored (and how!) vintage/antique Grandfather chair called 'Salvotore'
• a new tapestry rocker called 'Carmen'
• reproduction Featherstone chairs in 2 designs, available for sale and to order in your own fabric
• deep upholstered stool/bench
• numerous ottomans
• and lots more!

Hope to see you there!

Wingy update

I was recently asked to put together a portfolio of wingchair photos. Here it is - these are most (but not all!) of the wingys made so far.  A few more are currently in production now... and will be quite different again from all of these.

Rockn' Renoir

Having recently been inspired by images of fantastic tapestry upholstery (pics on right) by people such as Suzie Stanford (Melbourne) I decided this was something I definitely needed/wanted to try.








First step:  find a suitable chair.  This was easy because I'd recently acquired an old bentwood rocker as part of the purchase of 2 fantastic retro wingchairs (THAT's another story - stay posted!).

2nd step:  find suitable tapestry.  Here stepped in a new friend (a real-life one from Facebook no less) - Ingrid - who introduced me to the wonderful world of the local auction house.  

What a day we had! Among the booty was a stash of 5 old tapestries.  At first I had ethical considerations about was it OK to cut up someone's lovingly-made work... in the case of a few of these bought that day... they are suberbly made, stitched I think in silk (it's very fine work, would love someone in the know to tell me if I'm right,) and usually extremely well-framed.  I decided that if I didn't "re-purpose" them then it was more than likely that someone else would buy them simply for the frames, and the tapestry might be thrown out.  Ethical dilemma solved.

3rd step:  decide what to use. In this case it was an easy decision that made itself for me - this particular tapestry*, in its portrait orientation (most are landscape) yelled - "PICK ME!". It would be easy to fit the important part of the image onto the chair's oval-shaped inside back.

* this is a closeup from Renoir's famous painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party".




4th step (the tricky bit): work out how to do the actual upholstery part. Because I was replacing the rattan - which fitted in the usual way with a cane spline into a groove - there actually was nowhere to attach the upholstery.  With a bit of experimenting, I worked out how to use my router to completely reshape that edge of the inside back (having removed the rattan altogether) to create a rebate for fixing the upholstery to.

5th step:  keep the timber colour or paint it?  This caused me a lot of pondering, because painting was going to add a lot of time to the project. If I left it the way it was it would be "ok"... but unfortunately the timber was actually extremely weather-beaten (maybe left out on a verandah) and had been polyurethaned over. All the daggy bits of the timber finish were encased, visibly, for ever unless I covered them.  My paint colour was also an easy decision - this lovely electric blue full-gloss enamel - was already on my paint shelf, and matched (I thought) beautifully with the gal's dress.

6th step: choosing seat and outside back fabrics... again easy... this multi-coloured stripe (Warwick Fabric/Randall/Encore/Multi) is a favourite of mine and seemed to suit.

7th step:  Do it.

8th step: Stand back, admire, post on Facebook (since doing this yesterday the post has had over 800 hits from around the world... nearly my best ever).

9th and most important step:  Does it pass Miss Harriet Snupeson's exacting Quality Control? 

Yes!  Phew.

10th and final step: Off to the Old Bus Depot Market (for sale @ $485) this Sunday 21st April.  

PRINTS CHARMING - EXHIBITION

Rapt! is currently exhibiting a collection of framed fabrics (upholstered onto stretched canvas frames) in the Minnamurra Cafe in the beautiful seaside village of Minnamurra (at the mouth of the Minnamurra River, just north of Kiama).  Here are a few pics:

The exhibition is on for the whole of the month of April. The cafe is open 8am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday. I heartily recommend the fare - a great selection of scrumptious morning and afternoon tea goodies; great coffee and tea; and delicious lunch dishes (including the best old-fashioned hamburgers I've ever had).

MARKET REPORT

Burrawang Easter Market was a rip-roaring success.  Don't know how many people came, but many, many thousands. The only thing which wasn't fantastic was the little village almost didn't cope with the unexpectedly large crowd, but the organisers had done a wonderful effort in preparation, and also on the day.

From Rapt's point of view it was a great success too - we sold out of the Robertson Potato Sack collection and took orders for more - Amazing! They liked them!!

BURRAWANG EASTER MARKET

Looking for something to do this Easter weekend?  Come to the excellent market in the beautiful village of Burrawang in the Southern Highlands (between Moss Vale and Roberston). It's an annual event that attracts top-notch stallholders from all over - most definitely a 'one-off'.

Rapt! will be there for the first time - in the School o' Farts building. Please come and say g'day!
We're 'launching' our Robertson Potato Sack collection there - another one-off!

New collection

Rapt! is participating for the first time in the annual Burrawang Easter Market (Saturday 30th March) in the beautiful tiny village of Burrawang in the Southern Highlands of NSW.
In honour of this momentous occasion I've designed a whole new range of furniture (Potato Couches ?) inspired by the area's rich-red potato fields.
While most of these pieces are ottomans, (made from scratch, from solid timber frames), there are also some upcycled interesting old stools.
The unifying theme is jute - from the woven upholstery webbing (usually this is hidden inside furniture, rather than on display), to the potato sacks I've used as part of the covers.
Here are a few images - this is just the beginning, so there'll be more to come.

arriving at the farm

In order to source the potato sacks I went to the farm of the Donovan brothers (Trevor and Barry), in the stunningly beautiful area called Wildes Meadow, near Robertson.  Naturally Miss Snupeson accompanied me (well, she IS the Quality Control Officer, so we weren't going to accept any shoddy old sacks, were we?).  Here are a few pics of the journey:

harvest was underway

Gene, the friendly potato man, spared us a few (new) sacks 

heading for home with Miss Snupeson guarding our booty

Funky Town

We're very excited to announce a new range of funky retro furniture specially commissioned for Rapt!

This is a reproduction* of the famous Featherstone R160 chair from 1951. 
Grant Featherstone was an Australian designer who, in collaboration with his wife Mary, became world-famous in the middle of last century for their innovative plywood-form furniture. (Click here to read more about the Featherstone brand).

While original Featherstone pieces are highly collectable and well out of the price range of mere mortals, this fully hand-crafted reproduction, which pays homage to the original through its use of high quality materials and excellent craftsmanship, is far more affordable.

The frame is a solid plywood shell, the legs are hand-finished Victorian Ash, and the two covering fabrics are both commercial-grade, making them hard-wearing and easily maintainable. 

The inside back (plain) is pure wool, and comes in an array of 68 vibrant colours, while the outside (this patterned fabric is all one piece with no seams) comes in 12 colours.

The chair is 100% Australian-made and vastly superior to the mass-produced, fibreglass-shell imports (replicas*) elsewhere on the market.  
Most importantly, the chair's curvy contour not only looks sensational, it also is sensationally comfortable.  Combined with the footstool I doubt you will ever find a more comfy chair to relax in.




The chair is fully recoverable, and is available to order in fabric, leather of vinyl of your choice. (Prices vary according to cover material chosen). 

                                                                                                                                                












Turnaround time is fast (approximately 2 weeks from placement of order).

This particular chair and its matching footstool will be at the Old Bus Depot Market in Canberra this coming weekend (Sunday 10th March).
We will also have fabric sample books available to help you design your very own bespoke version.

If you can't make it to the Old Bus Depot market, subsequent versions of the chair will be available at Rapt! HQ (in Jamberoo,) by appointment.

Price: 

Purchased separately 

chair $1,590.00 / stool $690.00

Purchased as pair 

$2,230.00 (saving of $50.00)

* reproduction = reproduced in the style of the original, bringing its own modern take
* replica = a copy of the original, e.g.: photocopy

Atelier de France - Bruno Lopez

This short video shows a master upholstery artiste at work ---  this guy is not only in a different league to me --- I think he's on his own planet!

New Appointment

I'm pleased to announce the creation of a new position in the company, and successful appointment of its first appointee. 
His name is Toot, and the position is Country Store Manager.

As some of you may be aware, there's been a long search for a new home for the Rapt! Orphans (chairs waiting for their turn on the beauty-bench). Finally the search is over, and the new orphanage is on a property in the beautiful countryside of Lyndhurst, in Central West NSW (between Bathurst and Cowra).

here's Toot employing his ear-licking skill, with Carmen looking on in admiration

The move from coastal Jamberoo out to Lyndhurst went well (the orphans were all over the moon with excitement!) and Toot's aptitude for the role was immediately apparent. Only one other candidate was interviewed (his sister, Carmen), but there was no real competition, such was Toot's impressive interview performance. (If any aspiring applicants for future positions are reading this, then all I can say is to brush up on your licking skill - it's a sure winner).

Note: the new position has no impact on Miss Snupeson's role of Quality Control Officer. She has expressed interest in taking Toot on as an assistant at some future time, if he continues to show the promise demonstrated so far.