I have found the easiest way to do this is by seeking out fabric designers. I\u2019ll see a pattern<\/a> that captures my attention and I\u2019ll know instantly that it belongs on a particular chair that I have waiting in my workshop. There are some fabrics that I have come across, which I haven\u2019t yet identified the perfect chair for.<\/p>\n With this in mind, I feel the natural next step for me would be to bring out a range of furniture<\/a>. I would love to design an item from the ground up. I do have some designs in my head, but it\u2019s about finding the right person to collaborate with. For example, I\u2019d need to find someone who makes things using sustainable timber.<\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> why we should make do and mend as much as possible<\/a><\/p>\n When looking for someone to team up with, I would always want to ask them: \u2018How much waste do you generate?\u2019 Because everybody produces waste and it\u2019s what you do with it that determines whether you\u2019re thinking about the future of the planet.<\/p>\n Every time I work on an upholstery project, I always make sure I cut the fabric in a particular way so that I have the least amount of it left over. It\u2019s then my duty to figure out how I can use those scraps \u2013 so it might mean that I put a small piece on a stool or sew two bits together to do the back of a chair. Almost every piece of leftover material is used on another job.<\/p>\n When you look at my chairs, you\u2019ll sometimes see I\u2019ve put a little bit of fabric on the back or the piping doesn\u2019t go all the way round. The inspiration for this originated with a chair I upholstered a few years ago \u2013 it\u2019s not because I had initially designed it that way on purpose but because I had run out of material. Now, this is a feature design of mine that is sustainable at the same time.<\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> meet the dealers championing salvage and reclamation yards<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m also not what you\u2019d call a \u2018commercial manufacturer\u2019, I am more in tune with the slow movement. It once took me two years to re-cover a chair, simply because I had to wait for the right leftover pieces of fabric to come along. So the challenge would be to find someone who is happy to work this way too.<\/p>\n More from Jay Blades:<\/strong><\/p>\n Get to know Jay Blades<\/a><\/p>\n How I got in to furniture restoration<\/a><\/p>\n My favourite small-scale artists<\/a><\/p>\n How I found fame on Money for Nothing<\/a><\/p>\n The joy of Ernest Race furniture<\/a><\/p>\n![\""Jay\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/02\/Jay-Blades-chair-398b211.jpeg?quality=90&resize=1024%2C1024"\" "\\"\"Jay\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""Jay\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/02\/Jay-Blades-chairs-6e99a54.jpeg?quality=90&resize=1024%2C1365"\" "\\"\"Jay\\"")
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