Anybody watching this series? It’s on the Makeful Channel several times a week, and I find it quite interesting. People bring in family heirlooms to be mended and or restored. These things range from toy UFOs and colonial cane funiture to pennyfarthing bicycles and Edison cylinder phonographs. I’m a sucker for timepieces, so I especially like it when someone brings in an antique clock or chronometer to be cleaned and repaired.
The craftspeople who work on such things must feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction when they hand the results from their efforts back to the owners, who have usually all but given up hope of having their items restored.
I’ve been enjoying the show greatly. It scratches a similar “Bob Ross” type itch for when I want to watch something engaging yet placid. In particular, I’ve enjoyed Kirsten Ramsay’s work with ceramics.
I’m amazed at how good the works of art look when they’ve been restored. I could never piece fractured ceramics back together or reattach paint to canvas they way the restorers do. I simply lack the patience.
I have a huge crush on the young woman (dark hair, glasses) who does the upholstering. I could watch her work for hours. The other day, she restored a Victorian lounge chair covered in velvet that looked brand new when she was finished with it…
I love this show. I find it therapeutic just watching them fix things. I am not sure why but I enjoy watching the lady fixing leather items the most. Sometimes I think she is a magician fixing items that look too far gone to ever be repaired. The place they work is apparently part of a living museum where (in normal times you can go to watch all sorts of old jobs being undertaken.
I think you’ll find they are. It’s a useful extra gig on top of their regular business. I would also guess the fee is somewhat reduced for the publicity value, but it is indeed the point of the programme that monetary values don’t come into it, rather the sentimental value to the owners, and the repairers’ dedication to the work is more than just doing the day job.
It may be several series later, but keep an eye out for when she has to repair a leather rhinoceros (no, really).
Another thing I like about the series is how History lessons are slipped in with the restoration/conservation work.
Last night, Kirsten was repairing a 19th century German urn decorated with scenes from the Teutoberg Forest Massacre. She explained how Arminius (“Herman the German”) halted Roman expansion into northern Europe in the first century AD.
The other day, they talked about The Blitz while conserving a music box damaged by a German bomb in 1940.
I never would have guessed that “pennyfarthing” alluded to the relative sizes of the two wheels of the bike, which were similar to those of the two Victorian coins. I had always assumed it was a reference to its cost, or maybe to its inventor.
My heroes have always included inventors, so I especially like hearing stories about Edison, Bell, Marconi, and their counterparts.
Adore the Repair Shop, was thrilled when Season 3 recently came to Netflix, but very sad that previous seasons then disappeared. Would very much like to watch post-3 seasons, but don’t know how to in the US.
(And if we’re all revealing our crushes, then Steve.)
Ooooo! Thank you thank you thank you! I didn’t know this was on there! I watched seasons one and two, but Netflix foolishly failed to let me know season three was now available. It far prefers to try to get me to rewatch things I have already watched on Netflix. Idiots!
This is favorite show to watch right now when I just want to relax and wind down. I want my very own Steve. He always gets so excited about what he’s working on. Or, how he used his grandad’s screwdriver.
Yes, it’s a job but you can still see that they have a passion for it.
We watch it on Netflix and I’m a bit put out to find there are missing seasons. We watch it as a comfort show, but I’ve more than once teared up at the beauty they restore. My favorite piece so far is the violin that got damaged in a concentration camp. The care that the repairers have for these pieces is beautiful.
I was amazed at how good the bomb-damaged music box looked even though the woodwork wasn’t completely restored. The owners wanted to keep the scars on the casing as part of the piece’s history.
We’ve been watching for the past year or so, and are close to finishing season 3 on Netflix. Like many here, we find it very soothing. Fortunately, since we’re running out of episodes, we don’t need quite as much calming as we did before Jan. 20.
Horologist Steve Fletcher is my favorite, and I like woodworker Will Kirk, too. I was amazed that he knew so much for someone so young. But I discovered he’s actually in his mid 30s, not early 20s, which is what I had guessed from his appearance. (If you Google him, you’ll find that lots of people seem to be very interested in his marital status.)
Call me a nerd, but I feel they never spend enough time showing and discussing the technical details of the work they’re doing. IMHO, unless the piece has a really interesting history, the sentimental stuff is pretty boring and repetitive. “It was granddad’s and we want to be able to pass it down to the next generation, blah, blah, blah.” Yawn. Cut that crap and show me more of Steve tinkering with the clocks. I could watch that all day.
My wife and I always joke about how great a country the UK is to have this wonderful service where talented people do great work and don’t even charge for it. A socialist paradise!
If anyone has any tips for how Americans can watch some of the other seasons, please let us know.
Like many here, we find it very soothing. Fortunately, since we’re running out of episodes, we don’t need quite as much calming as we did before Jan. 20.