Introduction

The ramblings of a former electronics engineer who, later in life, set up a technical public relations company and, on retirement, finally got to do what he really enjoys : making things.   hall table3 I've actually been making things in wood since I was around 10yrs old, but work got in the way. At last I have the time and space to learn to do it well.

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  3 leg table

 

 

 

 


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Here is my trusty ancient 4x4 loaded with materials ready to start building the new workshop in summer 2013.

 

 

At my former home the workshop was somewhat of a compromise, sqeezed into a small, rather damp space in the barn with no natural light.  The damp was not good for the tools and the lack of light hid a multitude of finishing sins that should have been dealt with at the time. 

This time I have the space, so the story begins with the construction of the new workshop.  Workshop build

 

Why Rue-Darnet ?

Mainly because it is our address, but in fact most towns in this area have a rue Darnet.

Jean-Baptiste Darnet was a surgeon living in St Yrieix la Perche (87500) in the mid 1700's and it was he who discovered deposits of Kaolin, the key ingredient of porcelaine, in and around St Yrieix in 1767. This was the start of the world-famous Limoges porcelaine industry.

Initially claimed by the crown as a royal monopoly, the mines and porcelaine manufacture restarted after the revolution and, by 1807, there were 5 factories and some 200 employees. By the mid 1800's this had grown to 30 factories with world-wide exports.

 

porcelaine factory