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oldsofas
264 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Apr 2005 : 14:05:41
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I'm determined not to use this forum into a Trojan horse for oldsofas products, and I hope at all times to give impartial advice and steer all enquiries to the right solution whether it's to us or one of our competitors.
However, if you want to learn traditional upholstery you really have to get a copy of 'Complete Step by Step Upholstery'. There are lots of upholstery books on the market, some are good, most aren't, and we probably have a copy and have read most of them. With hand on heart you won't find a better book on traditional upholstery than ours.
The road to us running an upholstery business - and having the brass neck to write books on how to do it - started with Ruth, who had spent the previous 9 years working in a wine bar, deciding that she wanted to do something with her hands - upholstery appealed. We begged some throw away chairs from a friend who had an antiques shop and turned a corner of the front room of our rented flat into a workshop. I sold my video collection to buy Ruth her first pair of decent scissors, and that's not because they were expensive scissors, it was because we were broke and the videos were all I had to sell. Ruth learnt how to put things back together by taking them apart. She had a copy of The Complete Upholsterer by Carole Thomerson and Desmond Gaston's book that is no longer in print - both helped a great deal and should be part of every upholsterer's library, but great holes of knowledge had to be gleaned by Ruth just getting stuck in and upholstering anything and everything she could get her hands on. Our friend with the antiques shop was wonderful - he sold everything Ruth did, split the money with us and actively shopped at antiques auctions for pieces that he could give Ruth to do.
Right from the start Ruth has had upholstery nerves of steel and never, and I mean never, turned down an upholstery challenge. The first buttoning and close pinning she did was on a very beautiful Louis XVI suite - I still don't know whether it was an original or good copy, but the thought of it's value frightened the life out of me so I told myself it must be a copy - it was offered to Ruth to do and she said "yes I'll do that"- my jaw dropped. I've still got a photo of it outside the customer's huge house when we delivered it back - it looked fantastic. The first deep buttoning she did was on a three seater Victorian chesterfield - in leather! She took so long over it, but when finished it still stands up as some of the best buttoning she's ever done. Confidence really is half the battle.
Over the years Ruth has upholstered thousands of pieces, all styles, shapes and sizes. She's still learning, still makes mistakes and still has to apply her upholstery computer of a brain to work out how to upholster things she's never come across before.
Anyway, what I waffling on about is that we started up the knowing nothing end of the upholstery ladder. All the knowledge that we have gleaned over the years of trial and error have been put into Complete Step by Step Upholstery and within the constraints of 160 pages and 350 photographs it contains a huge amount of information we didn't have, and couldn't find, back then.
It costs £13.99 on Amazon so buy it - it won't tell you everything, but it will tell you more than any other upholstery book.
Please accept my apologies for being so self indulgent, but our book will explain much that I can't here because every picture is worth a thousand words and it's got over 350 - it will also help Ruth and I to explain things if we can refer to sections and examples in the book.
David
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n/a
118 Posts |
Posted - 11 Apr 2005 : 16:24:34
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| Mine's being despatched by Amazon as we speak - can't wait for it to arrive! |
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Lorre
USA
107 Posts |
Posted - 11 Apr 2005 : 19:17:42
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David . . . I ordered mine as well, and cannot wait until it arrives on this side of the Atlantic!!
Best,
Lorre |
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Lorre
USA
107 Posts |
Posted - 11 Apr 2005 : 19:20:34
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| The CDs are also EXCELLENT!! |
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jbjcreations
United Kingdom
16 Posts |
Posted - 11 Apr 2005 : 21:17:12
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I have both the CDs and the book and have recently purchased two more books for a friend and sister-in-law and my friend who now has the book off me, is more than over the moon! Highly recommended!!
jackie |
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n/a
118 Posts |
Posted - 12 Apr 2005 : 13:42:38
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Mine arrived today - it is 'SUMPTUOUS!!" The sheer number of lovely colour photos makes it so much better than many books I have seen. Congratulations on an excellent product - and very good price too.
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oldsofas
264 Posts |
Posted - 12 Apr 2005 : 18:42:14
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I assure you I wasn't fishing - just letting you know that you'll get a lot of knowledge for £13.99 if you buy mine and Ruth's book - You're all very kind. The book was a substantial part of our 2003 (if you look closely at the chesterfield section you'll see that we must have photographed it in summer as our workshop has no heating and Ruth is wearing a pair of flip-flops!) It's been a long, frustrating wait to see it in print so be in no doubt - it really does give us a huge thrill to get such positive comments - we really appreciate every one. That doesn't mean to say we won't also embrace criticism, but lets face it, we'd rather recieve praise.
You're all on our Christmas card list. D & R. |
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n/a
153 Posts |
Posted - 13 Apr 2005 : 18:12:51
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awaiting my copy with baited breath!
At the moment I always reccommend Carole thomersons book and always have some available for my students to buy, also anything by desmond Gaston, old copies of his are always coming up on either ebay or amazon. Keep an eye open at boot/garage sales for old upholstery/soft furnishing books, generally the older they are the more information they have on the more traditional type of upholstery and loose covers etc. Old WI books are fab! Sue |
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Lorre
USA
107 Posts |
Posted - 04 May 2005 : 13:56:22
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David and Ruth . . . I LOVE MY BOOK!!!!! It's great . . . amazing . . . and I imagine it will be quite tattered, once I get through with it . . . unless, of course, I memorize it!!!
Thanks for a great book to my library!
Best,
Lorre |
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geoff balmforth
United Kingdom
2 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2005 : 14:42:02
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| you convinced me, sounds like a good place to start. Thanks |
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upholstery books
