The past ten weeks have taken us back to the beginning, when we first moved down to Devon and had the space and time to experiment with materials and make anything we needed. We joked initially to people who asked how we were doing with lockdown that we’d been practising for this since moving here - we live over a mile from our nearest neighbours, and before we set up the workshop Jeremy could go for long stretches not leaving home (I prefer having a coffee and a chat with someone other than the dog…). We can walk for an hour and not see another soul, bar the cows and sheep and deer. And it was into this self-imposed self-isolation that we started Feldspar in the first place.
So we've been busy, making things we've wanted to attempt for ages but haven't had the time. We’ve set up a makeshift wood workshop, cleared and fenced a veg patch, and Jeremy’s halfway through building a chicken coop/palace. The treehouse we’d been meaning to finish for ages is almost there too. This life-on-pause has allowed us to get back to why we started making things in the first place: to make things we need and want, to make them properly, and have some fun in the process.
We've now reopened the workshop and are gradually getting the band back together, beginning production again and working on new designs - platters, dog bowls and those ever essential fine bone china baby rattles among others... We'll release our new objects as soon as we're happy with them (when they've been road-tested and no doubt gone through many, many iterations). First up, our local Dartmoor Beeswax Candles. Hand-dipped by Robert the beekeeper, they have a deep mustard colour and a wonderful honey-scent.
So, here's to a new world as we (tentatively, somewhat unwillingly) emerge from lockdown. Hopefully it's a brave one.
