Our Story
Passion for Craftsmanship
Hi, there - welcome to our new blog!
We thought it would be a good idea to take some time off from our busy work & family schedule and have a go writing our first ever blog. The idea is to briefly introduce ourselves – who we are, what we do, and what you can expect from our blog posts.
We are Carl & Gerli, a husband - and wife team that is passionate about creating beautiful functional high-quality carpentry and joinery products. In short, we (well, mostly Carl!) have a “love affair” with wood! Gerli is passionate about all-natural, especially getting her hands dirty to grow fruit and vegetables. Well, this makes us the right pair! Perhaps there is something primal about being surrounded by nature and its offerings that makes us feel alive. Wood is a wonderful material. It smells great and natural. It is not much you can`t build with wood and best of all it is renewable (keep your eyes peeled for our next blog post on Steps to reducing our Carbon Footprint). The fragrant smell and texture of wood take us both back to our earliest memories as children. Carl has fond memories of watching and learning wood crafts in his grandfather`s small allotment workshop nestled in the beautiful Welsh countryside. Carl vividly remembers feeling fascinated by his grandfather`s secluded allotment that was surrounded by tall hedges and a `secret` looking doorway with a footpath to a small workshop. It felt like an extraordinary gateway to another world (I guess he had watched too much of Narnia in his childhood 😊) surrounded by woodcraft, curious-looking tools, and textures of natural wood. Carl spent most of his evenings after school learning traditional woodcraft from his grandfather which led him to study towards City & Guilds qualification in Carpentry & Joinery.
Gerli spent much time in her childhood taking care of family forests in Estonia with her dad and grandfather and watching her uncles handcrafting traditional Nordic log cabins. Her fondest memories are hiking in the deepest snow through the winter woods to pick her own Christmas trees. Any logged tree either for firewood, odd Christmas tree, or for general forest maintenance has always been replaced with new tree seedlings in springtime to keep the forest healthy. Protecting the forest has always been the goal of Gerli`s grandfather, long before climate change issues became topical.
Our carpentry story really kickstarted during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Having been furloughed forced Carl to focus on his long-term goals. He quit his 80 plus hour job in glass manufacturing and a second job in the hospitality sector and began his long-held dream in carpentry. Did you know that Carl is an expert in making high-quality wooden and uPVC windows!
Working with wood, however, is not new to Carl. He achieved a City and Guilds qualification in Carpentry and Joinery in 1994 where is specialised in hand-made furniture. Carl then went on working in furniture manufacture, making chairs and tables wardrobes, doors, beds, and much more. Carl took a break from the industry after receiving a life-changing injury whilst working in the workshop. In short, he had his thumb chopped off due to the failure of machinery. Carl spent years contemplating whether to go back to carpentry or not. It was not his physical ability that was wounded but mostly the confidence in working with machinery and tools. For some time, carpentry remained more like a hobby of the weekends, where Carl spent most of his free time creating custom handmade pieces for the house. Hence, it’s no surprise that Carl`s `golden hands` have remained popular within the family. If you need something fixed, Carl will fix it and make it even better or create something completely new. His creative mind and passion for craftmanship along with an expert “supertasker” wife Gerli is what has kept our diary filled with exciting bespoke projects, including general maintenance work. Check out our social media [insert links/icons) for all the existing carpentry projects to date.
We are updating our blog page frequently for quality advice & tips, case studies of previous projects and so much more, so join our newsletter and check us out often! If you have any questions, or if you have suggestions for a subject you would like to see covered in our future blog posts, please get in touch! We won`t bite, honestly! Thanks!!
