A PASSIONATE furniture refinisher has taken over at the Hand Crafter’s Hub in Barnard Castle and hopes to inspire more people to release their inner-crafter.
For the past ten years Barbara Lynch-Matthews, from Rokeby, has been saving antique and vintage furniture from landfill, carefully transforming them with a modern twist selling mainly to customers in London through her website, Betty Jacks.
Keen to sell her pieces locally, she was delighted when Michelle Grancourt set up the Hand Crafter’s Hub, on The Bank, a year ago and has been selling her work there ever since.
And now after a chance conversation about workshops, Ms Lynch-Matthews has taken over the business.
She said: “When Michelle set the shop up, I was really excited and I thought it was something that Barnard Castle needed because the area has so many talented crafters and artisans.”
She added: “I got chatting to Michelle and she said she could be moving on to a new project and it went from there.”
Since taking over the business in April, Mrs Lynch-Matthews has been busy putting plans together for ideas she hopes to implements, speaking with crafters and artisans as well as finishing furniture commissions.
“I love it and I have lots of ideas,” she added.
“I’ve met loads of people since I took over and with the workshop in the back, I can do finishing work while at the shop.”
She has already introduced mineral paint range – Cornish Milk – to the shop and has plans to stock craft kits alongside the eclectic hand-crafted items to encourage more people to release their inner creative.
She added: “I’m also trying to organise and host skills workshops here and I’ve been speaking to some of the artisans about this and a lot were interested.
“They’ll be quite intimate affairs as we only have room for about four or five [people].”
The Hand Crafter’s Hub will be open five days a week, between Tuesday to Saturday, from 11am until 4pm.
