3-D

..... brings creativity into the day-to-day ......

This has periodically come to the fore, partly from enjoying being active and making things, partly from my own creativity, and partly from force of necessity. Working in various media and styles to construct, adapt, renovate and decorate, brings creativity into the day-to-day (and also helps pay the bills). It also perpetuates the tradition of the maker, the one who prizes the stimulus of new creativity over the stability of the nine to five. It's a noble line stretching through centuries of men and women who have kept the inner life aflame by adapting their skills to the needs of the immediate. Unfortunately no evidence now exists of the four years I worked as a harness maker, culminating in an award for innovation from the SPOGA Trade Fair in Holland, but here are some other examples of 'the making.'

Contact intouch@brianboothby.co.uk if you have plans to discuss or questions to ask.

Sycamore Farm - shelving and hanging space, bat boxes, bird boxes, shed doors and gently curving brick paths, all part of an ecological barn conversion next to an organic flower nursery (see Nessie's sandbeds, below). The conversions now provide Sycamore Farm's beautiful, tastefully appointed and ecologically sound self-catering holiday cottages. www.sycamorefarm.co.uk

Maggie's Studio - the biggest and most adventurous piece to date - an artspace for artist Maggie Norman. Using nearly all reclaimed and recycled material, and with a distinct railway connection. Designed with Maggie, and built using occasional lending hands from Maggie and Bob, other friends and tradesmen.

Jamie's bed - a solution to how to fit a growing teenager into a seemingly shrinking room - designed and built in, using new timber, but also recycling existing reclaimed shelving.

Attic conversion - part of our house renovation, and a new bedroom for successive teenage offspring. Insulated to high spec and surprisingly sound proof due to a new steelframed floor separate from the ceiling of the rooms underneath. Lots of help along the way from Steve Mellors, who did the plastering and patiently answered a million questions, David Erskine who drew up the plans, John Hodgkinson who built the fine set of alternating stairs and Rob Gill who did the wiring.

Nessie's sandbeds - a cunning plan on Vanessa Stevenson's organic flower nursery, to ease pressure of watering in the summer, and drain excess damp in the winter. Also involved some archaeology and civil engineering.

Bookshelf - a lovely piece of slightly warped chestnut which came from a firewood pile at a Big Green Gathering.

Shelves - if you don't actually need shelves to be flat, ................ it helps break up the boxiness of a square room.

Decor - again, picture rail colour boundaries are so ........ non-graffitti!

Stairs-cupboard - the hole under the 60s stairs, covered over and given a country twist with a burr cupboard handle.

Renovation - a 1920s semi given a complete facelift after maybe 30 years of gradual deterioration. New roof, new windows, new guttering, new bathroom, new kitchen, dry-lining, attic conversion, insulation, drain repairs, rewiring, not to mention a gallon or three of paint and plaster. Most big work funded by our council, bless'em, and carried out by Steve Mellors, masterminded 'in-house.' And, of course, still not finished.

Masks - two masks made for special occasions, one for being 33 on the 22 of the 11th, the other for playing Pluto in a mens' group play.

Unusual decking - in the interests of using reclaimed lengths and to compliment the angles of the studio

Sleeper bench - using up the last of the sleepers and releasing the amazing red of Australian Jarra

Prospect Farm - a continuing process of improvement, tinkering and repair, involving plenty of paint, screws, timber, mortar, curtainrails, hinges, the odd beer and that kind of thing.

Marion and Pete's stairs - the transformation and repair of a well-used and somewhat battered staircase to a stairwell of light. Using exclusively Green Paints from the Green Shop, (in white!)

Bird boxes - having spent many enjoyable years as a birdwatcher, advising folk on how best to attract birds and provide the right homes for them, is another of my little side lines.

Crooked man shoe rack, tapered to allow a door to open and passage through an adjacent doorway.