- 9 hours ago
I Made It at Market S01E04 Blacksmithing and Woodturning
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00:00Our country is full of incredible makers
00:03dreaming of turning their talent into money-making careers.
00:07It would mean everything to be able to do this full-time.
00:10So, with a team of fantastic professional mentors...
00:14I know your talent and I know what you're capable of doing.
00:16I run a one-of-a-kind boot camp, showing them how to do just that.
00:21Perfect.
00:21My proudest moment, I'll just show that.
00:23Yes!
00:24Now I'm on my way to catch up with those who have made their dreams come true.
00:28Hello!
00:29There he is.
00:29Hello, mate.
00:31I'll be hearing about their amazing achievements.
00:34I've been able to put down a deposit on a house.
00:36This is my full-time job.
00:37And finding out how much money they're making.
00:40A little bit under £40,000.
00:42Around £50,000.
00:43£50,000?
00:44Yeah.
00:44So, join me and meet the fabulous makers
00:47who have transformed their lives and made it at market.
00:50You can kind of say I am living the dream.
00:53I think that's fair to say.
01:03Creative makers from all across the UK come to my boot camp,
01:07hoping to turn their fantastic talents into life-changing businesses.
01:12And today, we're meeting two who have done just that.
01:16Later, we'll head to Wiltshire to hear all about Woodturner-Lucinda's incredible international success.
01:23I'd have people collecting my work all over the world, and people recognised me as the brush lady, and, you
01:29know, it was quite something.
01:30But first, I'll be checking in with blacksmith Alex in Northumberland, who's had success beyond his wildest dreams.
01:37I never thought I would have ever seen that sort of money.
01:40With the best will in the world, I do work, like, six days a week and, like, ten hours a
01:44day.
01:44Don't get me wrong, you deserve every penny of it, but that is a lot of money.
01:50I first met Alex in the spring of 2022, when he came to my boot camp with big ambitions, but
01:57a bit of a confidence problem.
01:59I struggled a lot with, like, imposter syndrome.
02:02I get... I look at my work and I think... I just see the mistakes.
02:07I look at something and I've poured hours and hours and hours of work into something,
02:10and I still see little fault lines and things, and I think, oh, I could put another five hours in
02:14and fix this, fix that.
02:16And I'd go way over budget, and I own the charge and things, and I don't know, I feel like
02:20I could use a pep talk.
02:24To help Alex build his confidence and a thriving blacksmithing business,
02:28I teamed him up with Adrian Wood.
02:31Adrian's been running a successful forge in the Tees Valley for over 20 years.
02:37Coincidentally, they had met before at one of his blacksmithing workshops,
02:41where Alex first fell in love with the craft.
02:44I think eight years ago now, he came on one of our blacksmithing courses,
02:48and fantastic to see that he's still got that fire burning bright inside him,
02:52and he's still got the passion to continue doing what he's doing.
02:55To work out how best to boost Alex's sales and profits, I set him three challenges.
03:02First up, I asked him to make a volume piece, something he could make quickly and sell for an affordable
03:08price.
03:08He decided to forge a Chinese dragon's head.
03:12Priced at £100, it featured twisted horns, which could become the decorative part of a door handle or fire dog.
03:20Job one was splitting one end of a piece of steel before pulling it apart to create what would become
03:26the horns.
03:29I'm going to take a partial heat on the very, very bottom of the bar.
03:33And I'm going to take a twist here, twist it that way, twist it this way to get a nice
03:37sort of water quench twist.
03:39I think they look fantastic.
03:40They fit as well very nicely with the ethos of, like, a Chinese dragon, you know?
03:46I mean, every time I look at artwork, they've always got these lovely, long, flowing, cloud-like whiskers and horns
03:52and things.
03:53Twisting the steel was a high-risk part of the production.
03:57Clamping in the vase.
03:58If Alex allowed the metal to become too cold, it could snap.
04:12Oh dear.
04:12Yeah, that was too cold.
04:14So this is what I was worried about happening.
04:16If you can't quite see the colours of what's going on there, you can't gauge the temperature.
04:20It's just due to the ambient light of being outdoors.
04:23So I've over-twisted that ever so slightly, it's fractured off.
04:25So I'm going to cut this off, start again.
04:28Whilst Alex restarted his volume piece, I sat down with Adrian to talk about his second challenge.
04:35Before he arrived at my boot camp, I asked Alex to make a high-end piece, something carrying a heftier
04:41price tag.
04:43He brought along a replica of a Viking horse's bridle, priced at £850.
04:50It's fantastically made.
04:51He's done a really good job.
04:53The design style's great.
04:54There's a few elements within it that I had a little concern with.
04:58It's only on the inside of the bridle where it touches the horse's face.
05:03He could do with something where it's not a sharp point on the end.
05:06Do you think it's worth £850?
05:08Personally, I think it's worth more.
05:10Really?
05:10I think he said it was about five days' work.
05:13So you're looking at maybe £1,500.
05:15It's a great-looking piece.
05:17You don't want to undersell yourself.
05:20Back at the forge, Alex had created the twisted horns for his dragon's head on a new piece of steel.
05:29And put a cut in the steel bar so that he could fold it over to create a face.
05:35I've got my cut in place, and I'm now about to do the fold over.
05:39But before I do that, I need to make sure that there's nothing that's going to get trapped inside where
05:43the weld's going to lie.
05:44So I'm going to give it a good scrubbing, then fold it over.
05:51Alex worked quickly, and his next step was to weld the folded pieces together.
05:57I've done this a hundred times before, Alex.
06:00So you know what you're doing.
06:02Just breathe.
06:03Take it easy.
06:05You've got it.
06:17Now, whilst the heat's in the top there, I'm going to start by bellying it out down like that.
06:24And now there, I've given him a little bit of an eye socket as well.
06:28So in doing that, just putting those two little sets in and a little bit of drag on the nose,
06:33his nose has came down a bit more, and he's got some nice little areas where I can start working
06:38the eyes into it as well.
06:40Well done, Alex.
06:40Nailed it.
06:41Nice one.
06:45Once he finished the eyes, Alex made his dragon a beard, then focused on the finer details of the eyes
06:54and eyebrows.
06:59It was precise work, with little room for error.
07:05I've got his eyebrows in, and I'm more or less happy with them.
07:08They're okay.
07:10So I want them to get a heat right there, so I can just yark his head down a little
07:14bit and give him a little bit of character.
07:17With the bar at just the right temperature, Alex bent the neck.
07:27Alex's decorative dragon's head had a make time of around four hours.
07:32He priced it at £100, but that was before he'd fashioned it into a sellable item, like a door handle
07:38or knocker.
07:41The level of fine detail is really quite impressive, and the patience that you've got to do that is incredible.
07:47The concern I have is how much time you've spent doing all that detail.
07:51Does that equate to being able to make a profit?
07:56What do you think of the price point?
07:57For the work involved, I think it's cheaper than it probably should be.
08:00I think it should be as a concept piece, absolutely great.
08:04But you've got to, if you want to make that into something else, you've got to bring that time down.
08:10Alex had to work on both his speed of production and the pricing of his first two items.
08:16For his final task, I asked him to make his favourite piece,
08:20to discover if what he enjoyed making most could also bring in big sales.
08:25He chose to make a Viking-style pattern-welded knife, priced at £480,
08:31which he'd made before for members of re-enactment societies.
08:36He began by creating a billet, a metal block made from layers of different strength steel alloys welded together.
08:44Having cleaned it, he added flux, a powder that helped protect the weld from being contaminated by oxygen in the
08:51air.
08:51Just trying to be extra careful, keep as much flux on there as I can, and keep as much air
08:57out.
08:58Because if air gets in, then the scale will form in between the layers,
09:02which will cause the laminations in the welds, where it all falls apart.
09:06And that's where I'd just sit there and debate my life choices.
09:12After making sure the block of steel alloys was properly welded together,
09:21Alex hammered it into one long piece, cut it into four bits,
09:26then twisted two of them to create part of the knife's final pattern,
09:29before finally hammering them flat and welding them all back together again.
09:35Alex, how we doing? What stage are we at?
09:37Pretty much ready to go into the oil quench and then tamper.
09:40You're very confident with your processes.
09:42How would you feel about going out to a market and selling these things,
09:46and more importantly, selling yourself?
09:48I feel very uncomfortable talking about money, if I'm honest with you.
09:51All you've got to do is just sell the brand.
09:53People go to these markets, Alex, because they want to see beautiful things,
09:56and if you can provide that for them, just be chill with it.
10:00So you're confident you can get this done and dusted?
10:04Oh, it'll be done, it'll be done.
10:05Fantastic. I'll let you get on with it.
10:09I'm cultivating a gentle heat along the blade,
10:12and we're going to quench it in some oil,
10:15and that will harden the blade right up.
10:18Okay.
10:20Okay.
10:25And that's gone very well.
10:29With the knife shape created, Alex applied the finishing touches.
10:34It'll be under the grinder, and getting it all nice and smoothed out,
10:39and then sanding it up, polishing and polishing and polishing and polishing,
10:43and then it gets cleaned once I've got it really, really mirror shiny,
10:49with acetone, just to get any grease and grit off,
10:52and then it's into the acid tank to pull the pattern out.
10:56The acid reacted with the twisted metal and different-strength steel alloys in the knife
11:01to create the pattern.
11:04With a make time of around 13 hours, Alex gave it a price tag of £480.
11:10Absolutely brilliant.
11:11You've done a cracking job.
11:13Really, really good job.
11:14I'm really pleased.
11:15You've blown me away with the patterning on that.
11:17What do you think of the price point?
11:18It sounds a big figure, but the amount of work that goes into it,
11:21the people that will probably get that, those are probably more like collectors.
11:26It was a real pleasure sharing Alex's passion for his craft,
11:30and as he set off back to Northumberland,
11:33we gave him an action plan to help him build a successful, sustainable business.
11:39First, he needed to speed up the pace at which he produced his work,
11:43particularly his volume pieces.
11:44Next, Adrian wanted him to fix his prices and charge what his work was worth.
11:50Finally, he needed to sell himself and his pieces with confidence.
11:57For the next eight weeks, Alex was guided by Adrian as he set to work on his action plan,
12:03and he began by focusing on speeding up the production of some potential new volume pieces.
12:08This one here, I think I wanted to try out.
12:10It's very, very rough at the minute because it was like a 30-minute job.
12:14But I will figure out how to do it faster and neater as well.
12:19Got a little leaf coming on one end, and there's a little tulip bud coming up on the other.
12:23I'd quite like to make the tulip bud much wider at the tip there.
12:26He also worked hard, trying to turn his dragon's head into a completed sellable piece.
12:31I have been doing dragons and dragons and dragons and dragons and dragons,
12:37trying to get them right, trying to speed the process up,
12:40playing around with a few different patterns.
12:42They've come out quite nicely. I'm really quite pleased with several of them.
12:46They seem to be looking nice.
12:48My idea is that they would want to be riveted onto a door instead of screwed in.
12:54I've gotten faster at making them, which is what I wanted.
12:58Alex embraced our suggestions and gave them his all.
13:02And after two months of hard work, he had some great news to share with us.
13:06Alex's most income over the past month or so has been about $2,800.
13:12It's such a short amount of time.
13:14That'll improve your confidence, yeah.
13:17Fantastic. Well done.
13:20Alex had to take off his costs from his terrific sales,
13:24but he'd made some big strides forwards with his business.
13:28It's now over three and a half years since I first met him.
13:32Time really does fly.
13:33And I've come to Northumberland to hear about how he's been building a successful business.
13:40Alex.
13:40Oh, how are you doing?
13:42There you are. How are you doing?
13:43Good to see you.
13:44Oh, lovely to see you, mate. Do you want to come on in?
13:46I'd love to.
13:46Come on in, then.
13:48As a metal worker myself, I know you need a proper workspace
13:51and the right equipment to run a business.
13:54And Alex's setup looks fantastic.
13:57I'm blown away.
13:58What an amazing space.
14:00I mean, the equipment is very impressive.
14:02I'm very jealous of some of the things in here.
14:05But it's not just that.
14:06This just feels like a proper setup now.
14:09Yes.
14:09Even down to the mezzanine, the little show.
14:11It looks like a shop up there.
14:12I can see display cases.
14:14I wanted to make a workshop that when people walked in, they went,
14:16ah, this is the business.
14:18I'm in the right place.
14:19Yeah.
14:20Yeah.
14:21I'll admit, I'm pretty envious of Alex's layout and kit.
14:24And it's time to find out exactly how well things are going.
14:28This is all looking great, but how's the business working out?
14:31It's going really well.
14:33Is it?
14:33I started teaching a few years ago.
14:36I've been running blacksmithing workshops and things for people.
14:39I do them in two different ways.
14:41I do public courses.
14:42I do beginner's kitchen knife-making ones.
14:45I do axe-making, hammer-making, forging your own tools like tongs and chisels.
14:51The other aspect is private experiences.
14:54And that could be for a team-building exercise, for a stag do or a hen do, birthday parties.
14:59They must be really fun days.
15:00Oh, they're brilliant.
15:02Fantastic banter, fantastic jokes.
15:04Everybody's having a grand time.
15:05Courses are a great way of bringing money into a business.
15:09And Alex's prices range from £165 per person for a one-day beginner's workshop to £395 per person for a
15:18two-day Damascus knife one.
15:20The teaching and the courses that you do here sounds brilliant, but do you still have time to work on
15:26your own projects?
15:27Through the summer period, teaching tends to slack off.
15:31I do commissions constantly throughout the year as well.
15:33That sort of helps top up my wage.
15:35Over the past few years, I've done work for Beamish Museum, helping them restore iron components to go on to
15:42various buildings, most recently the 1950s cinema.
15:46I've done a fair bit of work for Bambera Castle, restoring bits of iron work and making new pieces of
15:51iron work to match in with the collection.
15:53Brilliant.
15:53This sounds like win-win.
15:55You're doing something that you love, that you've wanted to do.
15:58And I think the courses and the commissions sounds like they are keeping things afloat financially, paying the rent, paying
16:06the gas bill.
16:07This is a dream come true for you.
16:09I'm so happy for you.
16:11Yeah.
16:12Big commissions and busy courses.
16:14It's a winning combination.
16:16And as they're such an important part of his business, I'm going to try out one of Alex's workshops for
16:22myself.
16:22We're going to start off making our little birds.
16:25You can see I've roughed out a cut through them.
16:28We're going to make a decorative bird, and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in.
16:33We start by cutting two vertical slits into a steel bar.
16:40I'm happy with that.
16:42Next, we heat the bar so we can open it up along the two cups.
16:47I'm already emotionally attached to this.
16:49It's not got a name yet, but we'll get there.
16:52What's a good name for a little bird?
16:54You could call it, I don't know.
16:55It's not a little bird.
16:56It's big.
16:56It's an eagle.
16:57Okay.
16:57It's an eagle.
16:57It's big.
16:59Eddie.
17:00Eddie the eagle.
17:04With the metal at the correct temperature, it's over to the anvil.
17:08Once you start driving it down, flip him over.
17:10There again, I guess.
17:11Yep.
17:15There you go.
17:16You'll feel it start to bite.
17:17Yeah, got it.
17:18Now, I reckon you probably hit about as far as you can on that heat.
17:21I chuck him in.
17:22Okay.
17:22And then maybe he's on your neck, Teej.
17:24A little bit of vice.
17:25Get it in the vice.
17:26Okay, back in the fire.
17:28Once the metal has been reheated, the vice holds the bird, or should I say Eddie, steady.
17:33Oh, yes.
17:35While I peel back what will be the wings.
17:37Nice.
17:38That's starting to open out nicely.
17:42Then I heat it again and start shaping them.
17:45I'll just grab them by the end of one of those little tails.
17:47And we'll start giving them a little tap in the middle.
17:50And you'll see it starts to flatten out.
17:53And then if you grab them by the next bit there.
17:57That's the trick.
18:01And remember, we don't need to get it super, super flat.
18:04No.
18:04Because a little bit of the...
18:05No, these wings are flapping already.
18:07Exactly.
18:07Exactly.
18:15That's not bad at all.
18:16I'll take that.
18:17I'm quite pleased, actually.
18:18Yeah.
18:18To make the wings the right size and shape, I hammer the metal at an angle to give it a
18:23curve.
18:25Once I've added some feathers, it's over to the fly press to create its neck.
18:30There you go.
18:31And then big slam, big pull.
18:34There you go.
18:36And then take a little look.
18:38Yeah, you can see it's biting in.
18:40Another heat allows me to pull out the shape of the head.
18:46Then it's time to add the details to Eddie's face.
18:49In my head, he's got a hooked kind of beak.
18:51Yeah.
18:52How can we get that?
18:52If we just come in, keep the file moving, so we can round this over a fair bit.
18:58Keep it to as few strokes as you possibly can, but just gently rounding that over.
19:03Oh, here we go.
19:05My eagle's taking shape now.
19:09The next step is putting in the eyes.
19:12Right, there, I'm done.
19:13I'm committing.
19:14Ready?
19:15Nice.
19:18He looks a little bit like a parrot.
19:20I think that's looking good.
19:22He's looking over that way.
19:24He's seen somebody over there.
19:25He's seen something over there.
19:26It's like, wait, hang on.
19:27To finish, I shape the ends of the wings and polish the whole piece with a wire brush.
19:32I'm quite chuffed with that, actually.
19:34Yeah, I would be as well.
19:36I've absolutely loved making Eddie, and the courses are a great way of providing a steady
19:41income for Alex, alongside his commissioned work.
19:45I can see all around his workshop that he's created tools and jigs to help speed up
19:49production time on his smaller and larger pieces, but I want to know if any of the
19:54other advice Adrian and I gave him has played a part in boosting his business over the past
19:59few years.
20:01Alex, when you were last at my boot camp, myself and Adrian sent you away with some
20:06homework, a bit of an action plan to try and help you to build your business.
20:10One of the pointers that we wanted you to work on was to try and fix your pricing.
20:14I used to work for nothing.
20:19I hope things have improved.
20:20I've upped my hourly rate.
20:22I used to work for £20 an hour, which I'm sure you can imagine the overheads of running
20:26a place like this was nothing.
20:28Now my hourly rate is £45 an hour.
20:31Some people don't like that, and they go, oh, I'll go somewhere cheaper.
20:34That's OK.
20:35I have enough work to see me happy.
20:38Would you have thought, three and a half years ago, saying, well, I've got enough work,
20:42I'm very grateful for it, but I can now pick and choose and I can pick my clients and select
20:47what I want to work on.
20:48It's a wonderful position to be in.
20:50It's absolutely fantastic.
20:51Now, another point that we wanted you to look into was trying to build some confidence and
20:55a bit of self-belief to sell your work and yourself.
20:59And from spending the day here with you today, I'd say you've smashed that.
21:04I've really tried.
21:05But one of the biggest things that's really helped me has been helping other people.
21:09You know, if somebody comes in and they're really nervous and they calm into it and then
21:12they're having a really good time and they're relaxed, it's such a rewarding feeling for me.
21:16That's really helped me become, I guess, a more confident person.
21:23I'm so pleased to hear just how far Alex has come in the past three and a half years.
21:28He's really leaned into all the advice Adrian and I gave him and I can't wait to hear what
21:33it's meant for his bank balance.
21:35Do you mind if we talk figures?
21:37This is a business after all.
21:39So how much are you earning these days?
21:42This year has been probably my best year.
21:45I'm on track to pay myself around about $40,000 this year, which is like, oh my God.
21:52$40,000?
21:53Yeah.
21:54I'm not out.
21:55I never thought I would have ever seen that sort of money.
21:59With the best will in the world, I do work like six days a week and like 10 hours a
22:03day.
22:03Don't get me wrong, you deserve every penny of it, but that is a lot of money.
22:08Yeah.
22:08How has that changed things in your life?
22:10I've been able to put down a deposit on a house and move out of my parents' place.
22:15Congratulations.
22:16Which is incredible.
22:17It just goes to show, doesn't it?
22:18If you've got the hard work, the dedication and the love and the passion for something,
22:22you can make it happen.
22:24Just a few years ago, Alex wasn't really making any money from his craft.
22:29Now he's earning £40,000 a year after costs and has managed to get onto the property ladder.
22:35It's an outstanding achievement and I couldn't be happier for him.
22:39I'm really proud of what I've been able to achieve.
22:42I have gotten to work not only on some absolutely incredible jobs, but in some fantastic places
22:48and met some incredible people.
22:50I'm able to not only do a job that I love, but I'm able to help people through doing what
22:57I love and that is something that I genuinely never thought I would have been able to achieve
23:03before.
23:03It's incredible.
23:10Time now to catch up with our second maker, mum of two, Lucinda from Wiltshire.
23:15When I first met her just over three and a half years ago, she was hoping to turn her love
23:20of woodturning into a reliable money spinner.
23:23In the day, I'm a stay-at-home parent to two young girls and so most of my woodturning
23:28work is done at night time or sometimes on the weekends.
23:31To help Lucinda make money from the pieces she made, she was guided by Drew Plum and Barnaby
23:37Ash.
23:39Barnaby turns beautiful pieces from locally sourced British timbers.
23:43Drew is the marketing mastermind of their business.
23:47We're really excited to work with Lucinda.
23:49She seems like a very talented maker already.
23:52There's a lot of elements there that I think could be turned into a successful business
23:55with the right advice and care.
23:59For her volume piece, Lucinda made a pair of make-up brushes from She Oak and Curly Maple,
24:05both filled with natural goat's hair and priced at £65 each.
24:10As this wood's quite a small piece, I'm just going to jump straight in with a spindle gouge,
24:14so I don't want to take too much off.
24:17I'm just making it circular in shape and this is what I do at the beginning of all my spindle
24:21turnings and so just doing a few cuts with a spindle gouge just to chew it up.
24:28As Lucinda turned her two make-up brushes, Barnaby and Drew were keen to find out more about
24:34the idea behind them.
24:35What gave you the idea to make this particular piece?
24:37I've just been wanting to make my own brushes and I wanted to make something
24:40that had that sort of ergonomic sort of feel to it.
24:43It's a lot of like make-up brushes have these sort of long handles
24:45and then they've got to go into a bag or they've got to go somewhere else.
24:48Yeah.
24:49Well, I like how this can, you know, stand up right and it can look nice as well,
24:53just wherever you put it.
24:55As Lucinda was making good progress with her make-up brushes,
24:58I grabbed her and Drew and Barnaby for a chat in my marquee
25:02to get their thoughts on her second item, her high-end piece.
25:08Lucinda brought along a polished decorative tray turned from ziricote,
25:12a dark exotic hardwood inlaid at the back with a sterling silver maker's mark.
25:17It had a price tag of £260.
25:21It's absolutely spectacular and I know how much effort goes into getting
25:24such a polished finish.
25:25There's a lot more time and effort than people may realise
25:27and, yeah, it's very, very well made.
25:30How about the price point?
25:31If I was to make a point about the silver coin in the base,
25:35it's a beautiful touch but if it's going to add a lot to the price point
25:40and it's hidden...
25:41It doesn't add, like, a massive thing to it
25:43but it's the fact that a lot of other metals will get a patina
25:46or they don't last as long and when you put this on there,
25:48this, it does make it last.
25:50That price point for the type of item that you're making,
25:53you know, you've got to look at it from that first perception.
25:58Back at the woodshed, Lucinda got straight back to work
26:01on the handles of her pair of make-up brushes.
26:04I'm going to drill into the handle.
26:07I'm going to core out the middle, ready for the hair to go in.
26:11Kind of got to get to a certain depth just for the hair
26:14to sort of fit securely in there.
26:18I've made a little mark and I sort of know when I get to that mark,
26:22that's when I just sort of pull out.
26:25The next step was to sand them and prep the goat's hair.
26:29There's definitely ways I could be doing things quicker
26:31but I do take a lot of time on the small details.
26:33I look always out for perfectionist.
26:36It's something I'm actually trying to work on
26:37because I realise now that a lot of the time
26:40it's what you see isn't what everyone else sees
26:42and so sometimes I need to take less time, I think, on some aspects of it.
26:49To finish, Lucinda cut the brush's hair to the right shape
26:52and glued it into place.
26:55Her two she-oak and curly maple make-up brushes
26:58topped with natural goat's hair
26:59took just over three hours to make
27:01and with material costs of £25 per brush
27:05were priced at £65 each.
27:07I think they're really, really interesting, original, unique pieces.
27:11I haven't seen anything quite like it.
27:13I think there's a lot of potential there
27:14to find a unique selling point for you in the marketplace.
27:17And what about the price point?
27:18I've seen pieces kind of up to that price point
27:20that weren't as original as yours.
27:23I personally would double down on the high-end aspect
27:25and focus on the range of unique timbers.
27:28But I think there's definitely a potential to go to kind of 65 and up
27:31and definitely the top end is probably what I would focus on.
27:34Thank you so much.
27:37Lucinda's make-up brushes were a big hit with Barnaby and Drew
27:40and for her third challenge, I asked her to make her favourite piece
27:44to find out if the creations she loved making the most
27:47could bring in big bucks.
27:49She decided to make a dressing table platter
27:51out of fiddleback sycamore
27:53with a brass coin inlay, this time on the front of the piece.
27:57It had an asking price of £120.
28:03I have to get the shavings.
28:05It's going to be a bit bumpy to start with.
28:12So I'm just transferring my weight from my left to my right foot,
28:15just doing a few passes.
28:23So now that's round, I will cut the back
28:26and then I'll come back to this later
28:28to get the shape by doing a little bit of a tapered cut.
28:32It was clear that Lucinda was in her element making her pieces,
28:36but Drew wanted to get her thinking more about selling them,
28:39starting with some tips about how to photograph her work.
28:42What we did when we first began our business
28:44is we knew that photography was incredibly important,
28:47so we invested in a really decent camera
28:49and then what would allow us to do
28:51is to take something simple like that.
28:55So what do you think about a shot like that?
28:58Yeah, I really love the composition
28:59and how it's quite simple, but it gets everything in there.
29:02I need to definitely get a camera now.
29:06After getting Drew's photography advice,
29:08Lucinda went back to work
29:09and having shaped and inserted the brass inlay into her platter,
29:13she gave the piece a polish.
29:16Ready to put on the final finish, which will be a bit of wax.
29:19I'm going to apply it, just keeping a little bit of distance
29:21from the brass between the wood
29:23and I'm just going to slowly buff it in
29:24and then finish off with a buffing wheel.
29:28So I'm just sort of covering the piece
29:30and then I'm going to remove the excess.
29:34Bit of power.
29:39So I get a clean piece of cloth
29:41and I just...
29:44and this just helps remove any excess.
29:50Lucinda's dressing table platter, made from fiddleback sycamore
29:53and inlaid with a polished brass maker's mark,
29:56had a make time of around a day
29:58and was priced at £120.
30:02What do you think?
30:03I think it's a really, really beautiful piece
30:04and I do like the fact that the coin's a bit more visible
30:07on this one as well.
30:08Yeah.
30:08It really adds to the charm.
30:10The finish is very, very high
30:11and the quality of the work is really, really good.
30:14How about the price point?
30:15It's a really beautiful form.
30:17The finish is lovely.
30:18You know, it's got quite a wide appeal for that type of design.
30:23Yeah, I can really see this piece
30:24and the brushes playing really well
30:26as a kind of group shot stylised together.
30:28Rituals of beauty and self-care.
30:30And that is a market where people are willing to spend a bit more.
30:34We were all incredibly impressed with Lucinda's work
30:37and she headed back to Wiltshire with an action plan
30:40to help make her dream of having a successful woodturning business come true.
30:45First, she needed to speed up production to make her pieces more profitable.
30:50Next, we wanted her to increase the price of her fantastic makeup brushes.
30:55And finally, she needed to improve her branding and marketing
30:59to help sell her work.
31:02For the next eight weeks, Lucinda worked on her plan,
31:05supported by Barnaby and Drew.
31:08She started with speeding up the creation of her brushes,
31:11which included a newly designed one.
31:13This is my sort of like a contouring type brush.
31:16Oh, wow.
31:18I'm really excited about this.
31:20Yeah.
31:22I like the form as well, the tapered form.
31:25Yeah, and they stand up as well.
31:27So they sort of go in style with the other ones.
31:29Sounds like some amazing progress.
31:31We're really excited for you and seeing how much you've done.
31:34Yeah, I really like the new brushes.
31:36See you later.
31:37Bye, Lucinda.
31:38Bye.
31:39Lucinda also took part in her first craft fair.
31:43Over four days, she had the chance to sell her work to customers
31:46looking for the very best handmade pieces.
31:49I'm in my tent, so I've just had a couple of days here so far
31:52and it's going really well.
31:53What I've sold so far, it's more than I've sold in like
31:57the time I have been online for like social media and stuff.
32:00The brushes went down really well, so I've almost sold out all my brushes.
32:03So that was amazing.
32:05And I'm just, yeah, I'm just really enjoying myself.
32:08In the two months after my boot camp, Lucinda did everything she could
32:12to get her business up and running.
32:14And when she returned to report back on her progress,
32:18she'd absolutely nailed it.
32:20I've made £2,065.
32:23And I'm really impressed with what I've done.
32:25Well, you should be.
32:26You should be.
32:27In a short amount of time.
32:29Yeah.
32:29So I've just been like, wow, okay, this could be something.
32:32And you really need to understand how much progress you have made
32:34in a short period of time.
32:37Going from it being a nighttime hobby where she was hardly selling anything
32:41to making over £2,000 in just a few weeks was a fantastic achievement for Lucinda.
32:47She had to take off her costs, but it was the beginning of something big for her.
32:53It's now been over three and a half years since she arrived at my boot camp.
32:57And to find out how much her profits have grown since then,
33:00Drew and Barnaby have headed to Wiltshire to catch up with her.
33:06Hiya, come on in. How are you guys doing?
33:08Hi, Lucinda. It's lovely to see you.
33:10Yeah, you too.
33:10Hi, Lucinda.
33:11Lucinda's recently moved house and has built her own brand new workshop,
33:15which is actually a bit smaller than her last one.
33:19It's interesting, you seem to have downsized and specialised a little bit.
33:22Yeah, at boot camp I was doing, you know, the platters,
33:25I was doing all these homewares and then the brushes.
33:27And as, you know, the business has developed,
33:29I've decided to sort of drop the platters and focus on the brushes.
33:32That's what's been the sort of big seller.
33:34And by able to do that, I can kind of use less equipment,
33:38be more efficient with my time.
33:40I've had clients that have bought over 20 makeup brushes now
33:42and I've realised that they've got quite collectibles.
33:45Where do you sell your work now?
33:47Most of my brushes are sold via my website.
33:49I also do commissions.
33:50I did use to dabble in craft fairs,
33:52but I sort of focus more on just doing my collections and drops
33:56as that's worked really well.
33:58And I have lots of people who collect makeup brushes from America
34:01buying big orders, which has been amazing.
34:03It's really special to see you doubling down
34:06on sort of the more high-end and more creative aspects
34:09of what you do and really zeroing in on the brushes.
34:12You've really made it your own
34:13and developed some really interesting, really special techniques
34:15that sort of set you apart as sort of not competing with others
34:19or like they're only doing this specific thing you're doing.
34:22Oh, thank you.
34:23Yeah, it's been amazing.
34:24I've started to introduce butterflies
34:26and I've started to add sapphires to makeup brushes
34:29because why not?
34:30It's been very exciting.
34:33Specialising in one type of product has helped Lucinda
34:36to broaden her materials and incorporate special objects
34:39into her unique makeup brushes,
34:41which are now priced between £95 and £300 each.
34:47Her latest creation is made from pink ivory wood,
34:51a beautiful Southern African hardwood
34:53and includes the wing of a butterfly that died naturally
34:56sourced from a butterfly farm.
34:58It has material costs of £45 and a make time of half a day.
35:03It's priced at £220
35:05and Lucinda's going to show Barnaby and Drew how it's made.
35:09What we're doing at the moment is we're just taking those edges off,
35:12those corners and making the piece round.
35:28It's a very hard, dense wood,
35:30so I'm sort of taking slow cuts of it.
35:33I've got it near enough to where I want it
35:35and where I will start to section the pieces off.
35:38The naturally pink African wood is very rare,
35:42making Lucinda's makeup brush even more desirable.
35:45To create the handle's curve, Lucinda uses a spindle gouge,
35:50checking its height as she goes to make sure it fits
35:52with the rest of her 60mm tall brush range.
36:05I'm just going to take all the side there.
36:16Just like that and then you've got yourself a nice smoother cut now.
36:20When she's happy with the handle's shape,
36:22Lucinda uses a large drill bit called a forstner bit
36:26to create a wide hole for her brush's bristles.
36:30I'm not going to brush this part as the tool and the wood can overheat
36:34and then you can get cracks and things like that.
36:38So I will take it with a few passes, then I'll come back out
36:41and then I'll go back in just to make sure that I'm not damaging the wood.
36:49Because these woods are just so dense.
36:51So say if I was turning sycamore, something like that,
36:54it would just go straight through and it would cut through like butter.
36:57But these ones are just a bit more,
36:59just need to be a bit more careful with them.
37:02With the hole for the goat's hair created,
37:05Lucinda sands the wood to get rid of any ridges.
37:09Next, she saws off the end.
37:13Here we go.
37:14Creates a shallow hole for a recycled silver maker's mark
37:18and finishes it with an oil to give the wood a bit more colour.
37:22Then it's time to add a laminated butterfly wing
37:25with a strong, fast-setting adhesive.
37:28This is a bit of the fiddly stage.
37:31You have to be really careful.
37:32The wings are very fragile.
37:35This is a blue morpho butterfly.
37:38So these come from the Amazon.
37:40It was really popular to work with blue morpho butterflies
37:43in the Victorian era.
37:45What they would do is they'd place glass over the wing
37:48and they'd turn them into like serving trays and all sorts.
37:53What do you know?
37:54I'm going to spray it with some activator.
38:01And that just helps the glue dry a lot faster.
38:04Once the glue has set, Lucinda sands the handle down.
38:10What I'm going for is that glass finish,
38:12like it looks like glass when it's done.
38:13Yeah, yeah.
38:14So you've got to have real attention to this detail.
38:16Yeah.
38:16It's looking really, really beautiful, Lucinda.
38:20It's great to see Lucinda making a new product
38:23and Barnaby and Drew are keen to find out
38:25what else she's been up to since we last saw her over three and a half years ago.
38:29What do you say is your biggest success that you've had since boot camp?
38:32I'd say just the overall development of the brushes itself,
38:36but also the Queen Elizabeth scholarship.
38:38That was amazing.
38:39I got to really develop my designs and my products
38:41and the way they make and the materials I work with.
38:44I started to turn stone as well in my scholarship.
38:46So I have plans to do more stone handle brushes, which would be quite exciting.
38:51Yeah, I've been really impressed to see actually with some of your processes,
38:54I can see there are certain ways of doing things you've developed that are unique to you.
38:57Yeah.
38:58And that's very, very exciting.
38:59The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust is a charity that funds training and education for makers across the UK,
39:06and it's helped Lucinda develop her skills.
39:09To finish her new butterfly handle makeup brush, she creates a glassy shine on the wood
39:15by using a finishing polish traditionally used for wooden musical instruments.
39:19A nice sort of even tone across the wing.
39:22Yeah.
39:23Wow.
39:24And I would say that's it now.
39:26She then combs high-grade goat fibres, creates a knot and glues them into the handle.
39:36Lucinda's new pink ivory wood makeup brush with butterfly wing inlay is an exquisite high-end product
39:43and comes with a price tag of £220.
39:48Focusing on luxury makeup sponges and brushes like this is a great business plan,
39:53and I'm keen to find out if any of the advice we gave her back at the bootcamp
39:57has also helped drive her business forward and how it's paying off financially.
40:03When you came to bootcamp, you really spoke about getting those prices up a little bit,
40:07especially on your more luxurious vincers.
40:09Yeah.
40:10How's that gone for you?
40:11That's gone quite well.
40:11I think it's kind of long overdue for me to maybe do that again with just the techniques
40:15that I'm using, the materials that I'm using, you know, the silver, the gemstones,
40:20the exotic woods, butterflies.
40:22So I think, you know, it's probably the time for me to consider doing that again,
40:25and maybe I just need to have a bit more confidence to just go and go for it.
40:28Yeah, there's definitely potential to sort of continue on,
40:31but what you've done so far is really, really amazing.
40:33Absolutely.
40:34Something else we wanted you to focus on was your branding and marketing.
40:37Is that something that you've managed to do?
40:39Yes.
40:40I think the branding is a massive part of what I'm doing is I'm also selling kind of like a
40:44concept.
40:45It's not just a, you know, a makeup brush.
40:46It's a bit more than that.
40:47And I've really implemented the advice I got when I last saw you guys.
40:51I invested in a really good camera, learning those photography skills,
40:54and it's really excelled my branding to the point where I got featured in the New York Times,
40:58where they used my images.
41:00And I'm like, that was just such a moment for me to realise how far my skills have come
41:05and just the business itself.
41:07Yeah, having your brand image and brand recognition is really important.
41:10You've really curated and cultivated something that's very uniquely yours,
41:14especially when it reflects in the materials and everything that you've chosen to use.
41:18And getting in something like the New York Times is a really wonderful,
41:22wonderful thing to achieve.
41:23So that's fantastic, especially with your imagery.
41:26Lucinda spent the last three and a half years honing her skills and business,
41:31and I'm looking forward to hearing what that's meant for her earnings.
41:34How much have you made through your work?
41:37What have you made for the business?
41:38So on average, I make around 24,000 a year.
41:41Wow, that's incredible. Congratulations.
41:44Huge improvement.
41:46I think it could be higher, but at the moment, you know,
41:48I'm a single parent with two kids, and it's like what works for me,
41:51and I think we're sort of making higher end,
41:54but less is what's kind of what I'm comfortable with
41:56without feeling like I'm going to burn out.
41:58But, you know, I hope it will continue to grow.
42:00I'm excited for what's come.
42:01If I hadn't gone through this experience,
42:03I don't know if I would have a business today.
42:04It may have just remained a hobby.
42:06So I'm really grateful.
42:08Lucinda works around 20 to 25 hours a week to suit her family lifestyle,
42:14making 24,000 pounds a year after costs.
42:17It's a brilliant achievement,
42:19and I've no doubt that the only way is up for her now.
42:23Three and a half years ago, I was just turning things in my garage,
42:26posting things online.
42:27I never thought anything like this was going to happen.
42:30I didn't think I'd have a business, you know,
42:33have people collecting my work all over the world,
42:35and people recognised me as the brush lady,
42:37and, you know, it was quite something,
42:39and I'm quite proud of myself,
42:40and I can't wait to see what's to come.
42:45Lucinda and Alex have spent the last few years working hard
42:49on all the advice we gave them,
42:50and they've now got fantastic, sustainable businesses
42:54that I'm sure will continue to grow.
42:57Want some help building a business that lasts?
43:00Visit the Open University's interactive guide
43:03for practical help to sustain and grow your business.
43:07Scan the QR code on screen,
43:09or visit connect.open.ac.uk
43:13forward slash I made it at market.
43:27www.microsoft.com
43:28planner in hospitalDu
43:28exceeds Please. It's
43:40convenient for people three years, and every
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