By HELEN COMPSON helen.compson@hexham-courant.co.uk

Published at 09:41, Friday, 12 June 2009

THE commission was a tricky one: replicate the work of an old master who was at the peak of his profession 350 years ago.

Crafted by hand: Jason Robinson-Gray in the shop on Market Street, Hexham, with some of the pieces of furniture made by the family firm.

But it was just the sort of challenge cabinet maker Jason Robinson-Gay loves to get his teeth into.

More used to making bespoke pieces of furniture that will become part of a living, breathing household, the chairs concerned were destined for Beamish Museum.

All the curator had was a beautifully carved back panel. He asked Robinson-Gay, the family firm started by Jason’s father in 1985, to reproduce the chair it would have been a part of, and another two copies as well.

For a family that prides itself on using very traditional skills, the project was absorbing.

“The research needed to establish what the rest of the chair would have looked like was interesting,” said Jason.

“But when we started work on the panel, making copies for the other two chairs, it was fascinating.

“Because we use traditional skills, we were working in exactly the same way this guy was over 300 years ago – we could still see every cut and where his chisel had slipped.”

The Robinson-Gay business is very much a family affair. When the team of cabinet makers, led by Jason, his father Stephen and brother Andrew, had completed their part, Andrew’s wife Kerry did the staining and polishing.

The chairs now stand proudly in the Manor House at Beamish.

Jason (37) remembers loving the art of woodwork from a very young age.

Growing up in the family home, Shield Hall, a stone’s throw from Kirkharle, he was steeped in traditional rural crafts.

The very rooms of Shield Hall, a former farmhouse now home to the family’s bed and breakfast business, were an education.

There is the oak room, the elm room and the mahogany room, each one a showcase for the family’s bespoke furniture.

The oak room boasts a four-poster bed in the style of the one in Lindisfarne Castle designed by Edward Lutyens.

Robinson-Gay operates predominantly out of a workshop and gallery in the courtyard at Kirkharle.

Jason says he was brought up as a cabinet maker. “I used to come back from school and go straight into the workshop. My brother and I were given pieces of wood to turn into balls.

“We used to do a run of them, like a bobbin, and each ball had to be identical – if they weren’t right, we would start again.

“If you can turn a perfect ball or an egg shape, you can make anything.”

There was never any doubt about what Jason would do when he left Ponteland High School.

He duly headed for Thame in Oxfordshire and the prestigious Rycote Wood College.

One of just two furniture design colleges in the country at the time, they are now both closed.

The neglect of traditional skills over the past few decades is something that sparks Jason’s ire – “don’t get me started!”

The lack of Government funding when it came to training plumbers, electricians, joiners, stone masons – you name it – came back to bite it in the bum when skilled trades people were suddenly at a premium.

The tide is beginning to turn though, says Jason with approval, and the Government is no longer just pouring money into computer training.

Colleges are reintroducing courses, and national heritage organisations are actively recruiting apprentices through annual trade fairs.

The Robinson-Gays are doing their bit to train the next generation, too.

Their staff of 10 includes several who came as apprentices straight from school.

Commonly from a farming background, if the apprentices had been born into more prosperous times for the farming industry, they would probably have followed in their own father’s footsteps.

As it is, the young men are pleased to have been able to turn their hand to another type of vocational occupation.

The Robinson-Gay family has certainly found no shortage of demand for its services.

Having started out primarily restoring antiques, the cabinet making side of the business evolved from customer requests.

Jason said: “People come in and say, ‘I’ve got this space and I’d like a piece of furniture to fit in it’.

“We do sell standard pieces, but most of what we do is bespoke furniture designed for a specific setting.”

Ever keen for a challenge, he likes spaces of unusual size and shape that stimulate his imagination and ingenuity.

One piece the firm made recently, a mahogany dresser, is now snug in its concave alcove in the proud new owner’s drawing room.

Another customer, who works from home, didn’t want to see his computer when he was off duty.

He can now raise it out of the elegant proportions of a solid wood table whenever he needs it.

The benefit of using traditional techniques that have stood the test of time is that the furniture would last for generations, said Jason.

“We use mortise and tenon and dovetail joints, which have been used for centuries.

“You get chairs with mortise and tenon joints that are 200 or 300 years old and still going strong. You don’t get that with modern dovetail joints.”

Jason is fortunate in that his wife, Sarah, is interested in art gene-rally, because the pair have set up home above the shop Robinson-Gay opened in Hexham four years ago.

Indeed, Sarah manages the shop, opening it to the public each Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

In the heart of the town, on Market Street, it was opened as a provincial platform for the firm.

The couple’s own private living space is as much a showcase for the family’s skill as the public gallery on the first floor.

Wood floors, a bespoke kitchen and a stunning, modern bathroom made from a mix of oak, walnut and zebrano (an African wood) show that traditional skills don’t necessarily mean traditional furniture.

While the techniques used ensured a solid piece of furniture, the designs produced reflect individual taste, said Jason.

“It’s important that what we make isn’t just a copy of what others have made before us.

“A modern piece of furniture will fit into the most traditional of houses as long as the proportions are right.”

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk