Our rustic workshop

The Rustic Simplicity Workshop

We do not have a posh workshop with everything in its place…far from it! Our workshop is probably as rustic as our campervans and a whole lot more untidy!

James knows where everything is, and I refuse to have a hand in anything except basic sweeping up….it’s more than my life is worth!

The physical workshop is a side issue though..here is where the real magic happens!

There is no substitute for the hands of a master craftsman. They know the wood, shaping it, coaxing it, paying attention to what it tells them it wants to be. They understand it’s amazing capacity for change and also its limitations. All of this only comes with experience.

James learned basic joinery at his fathers side, but his working life has been first as a sheet metal worker, and then, incredibly, he did nothing more creative than clean windows…..for 25 years! (Some might argue that cleaning windows is an art!). The wonderful work with recycled oak came later in life, and sometimes we are absolutely astonished when we step back to consider what it has led to.

A perfect day in the life of us over at Rustic Simplicity goes a bit like this:

Smoke rises lazily from a smoky sawdust fire just outside. The heady aroma of the finest malt whisky permeates the workshop and the raspy tones of a Bob Dylan ballad can be heard above the sound of hammers and saws. There is laughter and good humour….after 43 years this does not diminish which is a bit of a miracle in itself! We will both be busy, yet not pushed or stressed…..this is the absolute ideal state of affairs….it happens…sometimes!

Any of you who have been here when we are working to deadline will see a completely different scenario! We will be rushing around, each absorbed in their own ‘important’ task, which we will require help with and which we know should be done ahead of the other one’s insignificant one! There will be a small argument brewing under the surface, which we both know is only down to the stress of the moment, and will blow over the moment we are finished.

Every busy working day is rewarded with the feeling of satisfaction at a job well done…..we will relax with a meal and a couple of glasses of ‘not wine’, which is our favourite tipple these days, watch trash on the tv, or maybe I will write up a blog post….we count ourselves lucky that after a life of working hard serving the public, this is where we are now. Being able to design and create rustic campervans as we do is a wonderful way to spend our time, and if we can temper it with the odd bit of travel, so much the better!

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