The Back Story

My maternal grandparents were both creative people. My nan loved knitting and crochet. My grandad was a talented, drawer, oil painter and woodworker.

One of my earliest memories is of sitting in my Grandad’s wooden shed watching him making and repairing wooden items. My Grandad used a paraffin heater to warm the shed, and the air was filled with the distinctive smell of the ‘pink paraffin’. In fact, there was a cocktail of smells that lingered in the air - wood, wood glue, varnish, oil and saw-dust…

Every few weeks, a man in a van would sell paraffin door-to-door and fill containers from the back of his box-van. Another man would deliver coal, which was stored in a coal bunker that sat to the right of the shed. Oddly, I thought both deliveries were highlights of trips to my grandparent’s house!

I remember that the shed was a narrow and there wasn’t too much room to move. To save space, my Grandad had made a flip-up seat, that was fixed to one wall. I would sit on this seat and be fascinated by what he was doing.

The shed was painted ‘Forest Green, had a sloping (pent) roof, 4-5 square, glass windows along the left-hand side of the shed and the 3-4 windows along the wall opposite the door.

The shelves, over the work-bench, were stacked with containers, tins and jars, which were all full of nails, bolts, screws... There were no fancy powered tools here! This was a time before electric screwdrivers, electric drills, battery powered items. There were only well-used hand tools here. Every tool had the knocks, nicks and scars to prove it. All of the tools were as old as my grandad.

I think the shed was formerly used as an aviary. It was raised off the ground slightly, so you had to take two steps to reach the door. The doorhandle was cold to the touch, round and made of brass. Time, and frequent use, had made the handle shiny and smooth. I can still vividly picture the handle, and the shed, to this day.

As a result of these important role-models, all of my grand-parent’s children were/are practical and spent their working lives, or leisure time, making building and creating.

My Mum (the only girl of the 4 children) was a very talented seamstress and knitter. She was always making or repairing something. Our house was always full of Mum's projects – soft toys, wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, items of clothing being made or repaired, buttons, zips... the air was full of the whirring sound of her sewing machine or the clitter-clatter of knitting needles. My Dad loved to take things apart and repair things. He had a shed that was full of iems that he would 'get around to fixing one day!'

I am one of five children, and all of us, and our partners, are creative in one way or another. Some of us earn, or earned, our livings making, creating, building, repairing and improving things. All of us also enjoying making, creating, sewing, knitting, crafting, drawing… in our own time.

So, I guess that the reason I enjoy making robots from 'bits and bobs' can be ‘blamed’ on the influence of my maternal grand-parents and parents.

I hope that my robots bring a smile to people’s faces and if they were to inspire just one person to start being creative, then that would be fantastic!