Salvofair a success for us!

Despite the rain Salvofair was a great success for us. Rain and events seem to go hand in hand for us, as we had lots of rain at our open day back in February. Salvofair set up day was testing, as there had been so much rain and transporting stock to our stand was difficult, but we got there in the end and the result was a great stand which we shared with The Old Radiator Company hence 2 flags flying!

Trade day went well, although we were still doing some set up, but it was busy and some good contacts were made. It rained on and off all day, but this didn’t deter anyone and the weather cleared nicely for Saturday. Outside of our tent we had garden items such as benches, chimney pots, quarry tiles, flagstone and an old stone window.

Andys Showmans wagon was also on display. This was filmed during the day by George Clark (The Restoration Man) & his team for his new channel 4 series. George has been following the restoration progress of the wagon.

Inside the tent we had original cast iron radiators, hardware, geometric flooring, fireplaces, reclaimed wood and various other interior items.

All sorts of people attended including garden designers, interior designers, builders and customers renovating their homes. There was a lot of interest in the original cast iron radiators which were displayed on top of the geometric floor.

Follow this link to see Salvonews site which features the Period Living article on Salvofair. http://www.salvonews.com/story/grand-day-out-at-salvo-fair-x67000x9.html

Now it’s back to normal at the yard, after we accepted a whole load of new stock in at the same time as the lorry brought the stock back from Salvofair. A couple of days of tidying up was needed to make sure chaos didn’t reign and now the yard and showroom are looking full of stock and tidy!

We also managed to host another Business Biscotti networking event in our showroom at the end of June. It was good to hear how businesses were getting on and see some now regular faces to our networking. Check out what Business Biscotti is all about and perhaps turn up to the next event on 25th July. http://www.businessbiscotti.co.uk/

Off to Salvo Fair this month!

In a previous blog we mentioned that we had a few geometric and encaustic floor tiles in stock and had made up some tessellated floor examples which are on display in our showroom.

Since then the boss has been buying up more tiles and we now have over half a million tiles on site. These are being sorted into colours, shapes and sizes, which is quite a big job! We are now in a position to match tiles to your request.

At our Cotswold showroom there is now a seperate tile area set up to display the thousands of tiles. We will also be taking an example of a made up floor to Salvo Fair later this month.  These tiles could be used to replace broken or missing tiles from existing floors or you could be designing a completely new floor to lay. One enquiry we had last week was whether we have enough tiles to lay a 4m2 floor in a new conservatory being built, to give it that element of difference. Yes of course we can lay 200m2 if you wish!

Next week we’re preparing for Salvo Fair and will be on a large exhibition stand with our sister company The Old Radiator Company. For those of you who don’t know, Salvo Fair is an annual exhibition of architectural salvage, garden antiques and reclaimed building materials. Its an outdoor event with marquees and loads of different traders selling lots of different things. 2012 is the twelfth Salvo Fair and it’s very well attended, lets hope the weather holds for us. This year there has been a change of venue from Knebworth to Stubbings Estate, Henley Road in Berkshire.

It’s a great venue in a lovely part of the country and we’re all looking forward to 3 days out of the office! A little history of Stubbings, straight from the Salvo Fair website;

Stubbings is a Georgian house in Maidenhead Thicket, site of an ancient Celtic farmstead, that became the home of Sir Guy Carleton, first Lord Dorchester, until his death in 1808, to where he retired after a military career in North America culminating as governor of Quebec. Stubbings was then home to the Skrine family, descended from a secretary of Sir Francis Bacon. From 1941-45 it was home to Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands. Stubbings was then bought by Sir Thomas Merton, where he lived until 1969. He was a scientist who helped devise aircraft radar screens during the Battle of Britain. He was also a collector of Italian Renaissance art.”

For more information on Salvo Fair, follow this link; http://www.salvo-fair.com/2012/Home.html. Photos of last years fair courtesy of Salvo Llp.

Come and meet us either at Salvo Fair on 22nd, 23rd or 24th June or at our beautiful Cotswold showroom and garden yard which is blossoming in the summer sunshine!

We’re open Monday to Friday 8:30am-5pm and our NEW Saturday opening hours are 10am-5pm.

Visit our main website www.mascosalvage.com

01285 760886 email; masco@mascosalvage.com

 

Sunshine on its way!

Despite the inclement weather, Masco Salvage is thriving. With new stock filling up the garden yard and the showroom, Masco has also introduced some new ranges. We are now selling reclaimed pine doors fitted with original stained glass panels.

Our wood flooring has proved to be very popular, with the new character solid oak and reclaimed pine boards moving very quickly. Encouraging customers to take away wood samples has helped them make that important design decision for their property.

When it’s pouring with rain our showroom is warm and dry and an oasis of interesting architectural pieces. Two items which have created excitable interest are the reclaimed oak church doors and the geometric floors.

 The above picture shows the back of the doors, which are about 9ft high and made of oak. As you can guess they are extremely heavy!

Masco now have half a million tessellated floor tiles in stock, after a new delivery last week. There are several examples of the assembled floors on show for viewing. Once these floors are laid and cleaned they look amazing.

Masco has made its first flurry into hosting local business network meetings on its premises. Last week we launched the first Aston Down Business Biscotti FREE networking event. It was so successful, we are now holding one on the last Wednesday of every month from 9:30am-11:30am. There’s no need to book, you just pitch up and network!

See details of this at http://www.businessbiscotti.co.uk. Its all about promoting local businesses, networking and building contacts in an informal, but slightly quirky and different environment, compared to the run of the mill hotel foyer or conference room. We did have birthday cake for the founder of Business Biscotti last week, but don’t expect this every week! However do expect coffee and biscuits. We would love to see you there and remember to bring along plenty of business cards, and guests, if you would like to promote or introduce your business to Stroud, Cirencester and surrounding areas. All types of business are welcome as this it’s about growing all businesses not just architectural salvage. The next meeting is on Weds 30th May.

We will be OPEN on Bank Holiday Monday 7th from 10am to 4pm, even if its raining, come along and visit. After the bank holiday we’re going to start preparing for our stand at Salvo Fair in June. This is held at Stubbings Estate in Maidenhead, follow this link for further info, www.salvo-fair.com. It should be a great few days and we hope to see you there.

Easter Activities!

Masco Salvage have had a busy time over the last couple of weeks which is set to continue over Easter. Four days at the National Home Build and Renovation Show at the NEC in Birmingham last week produced a fabulous looking and very interesting stand. If we’d had a pound for everyone who touched or stroked the rare original cast iron radiators at the front of the stand we could shut the business for the rest of the year!

Located opposite the food hall (!) the stand was staffed for the first 2 days by the owner of The Old Radiator Company, Andy Triplow, who has just bought Masco Salvage, along with the new business development manager, Lizzie Whyte. 

There was a wide mix of items on show and for sale  including hardware, fireplaces, radiators, seed trays, garden ornaments, a reclaimed gazebo and wood flooring.

The large polished cast iron fireplace with tiled insert that you can see in the picture at the back of the stand was sold to 2 very lucky and happy people!  With a complete pallet of wood on show, and cut examples for people to take away the wood flooring proved really popular. There were several types and finishes available from solid oak to engineered to reclaimed pine, and lots of price lists and information were taken by potential customers. If you missed out you can find the information along with a technical wood flooring guide on our website.

One other item that created a huge amount of interest was the reclaimed solid oak church door, seen below at the side of our stand.

Beautiful, amazing, heavy…, incredible, priceless and ‘I want it’ were several of the comments expressed upon seeing the door! Around the back of the stand we had a garden area which displayed our reclaimed gazebo, a beautiful stone bench and a 5 seater curved bench. It looked great and lots of people rested their weary legs after a long walk round the show.

So now to Easter and hasn’t it come round quickly! Masco will be open on Good Friday and Easter Saturday 9am-4pm and Easter Monday 10am-4pm. Debbie and Lizzie will be on site, and there may be some surprise Easter eggs available if you’re quick! Well actually that’s no longer a surprise is it!

You will be able to stroll round our newly stocked showroom, rummage in the ‘rummage’ room, and see all our garden benches, ornaments and statues to give you some great design inspiration for your garden. We have a wide selection of rustic stone troughs, and a few reclaimed chimneys now in stock which make great planters.

We have also just received this amazing original copper planter, complete with Camelia, which looks stunning and would provide instant colour and grace to your garden, be quick it won’t hang around for long!

We look forward to seeing you over the Easter weekend, do pop in and say Hello and have a good look at our website to plan your visit and what you’re going to buy!

Tessellated Floor

Tessellated floors are either paved or inlaid with a mosaic of small tiles, creating a pattern across the floor and are normally found in entrance halls and pathways to houses where they are hardwearing and can cope with a heavy traffic flow. They are often be very colourful and add a wow factor to a hallway.

Encaustic tiles are decorated with patterns formed on different coloured clay inlaid in the tile made of another colour, then fired and glazed.

In the late 1800′s hard wearing tessellated floors became popular for paths, along with tiles for the walls of porches, patterned brickwork on houses, and panels of patterned tiles used on exterior walls.

The tiles used were made of dense baked clay in natural colours of dull red, brown, ochre and black.  As well as being durable , their warm natural clay colours made them quite welcoming. They are a valuable feature in many homes and look great once restored.

MASCo Walcot has three reclaimed tessellated floors currently in stock and we have assembled them all for viewing.

 

A tessellation is created when various shapes are repeated over and over again covering an area without any gaps or overlaps. The word “tessellate” is derived from the Ionic version of the Greek word “tesseres,” which in English means “four.”

When restoring, if your tiled floor is in good condition, it may only need to be cleaned and resealed.  However never use bleaching agents to clean with as these can permanently damage the tiles and avoid floor waxes as they tend to trap dirt and discolour the tiles. Floor wax can also make the tiles dangerously slippery. Use a proper tile restorer product which is alkali- based and solvent free. Then seal your floor after cleaning to prolong the life of the tiles.

Please feel free to pop into our Cotswold showroom and have a look at the tessellated floors we have assembled.

Masco Open Day

Despite the weather, Masco Walcot had a very successful open day on 18th February. Customers poured through the door, some being brave enough to stop outside and browse the renovated shepherds hut on display! Those that headed straight for the warmth of the showroom, were welcomed by hot soup and crusty bread, a glass of wine, talks by David Howard and entertainment by Patsy Gamble on her saxophone.

The showroom has been completely restocked and all of this was on display, including architectural features, fireplaces, furniture, hardware, original cast iron radiators, bathware, garden troughs and staddle stones.

David Howard, former head gardener at Highgrove, did two talks on using reclaimed items from Masco in his garden design, illustrating with slides showing large and small projects. The talks were well received and added a different dimension to the day.

One completely new product now available is the reclaimed pine doors with hand crafted reclaimed glass fitted into the top panels. Working with Jude of Lucian glass,  we have produced 6 examples of patterns that can be ordered, see our website for details and prices.

There was a huge amount of interest in our oak flooring section. With engineered and solid oak boards on display of various widths and finishes, lots of questions were asked, answered and details and price lists taken away.

Another favourite were the garden benches. Available in various sizes and styles from a rocking chair, to curved 4 seater, to 2 seater bench, these proved very popular. Made of galvanised steel with a verdigris finish they would look beautiful in any garden size.

A good day was had by staff and customers alike. The tills were ringing, the atmosphere was relaxed and the showroom full. The staff would like to take this opportunity to say thanks for any help received, thanks to their customers for turning up and we look forward to seeing you at our showroom and garden yard in the future.

Stained glass

Stained glass comes in various forms, as a single item, like a coloured vase, or fitted into more complicated works like a stained glass window, often found in churches.

Stained glass has metallic salts added to it during its time of manufacture. Once it is coloured it can then be crafted into stained glass windows by arranging small pieces of glass to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Stained glass can also be applied to windows where the colours have been painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln.

Masco currently has some beautiful stained glass reclaimed from a church in France, in the style of Mondrian.

Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Pieter Mondrian’s earlier neo-plasticism works are compositionally quite simple, with carefully arranged rectangles, but with very few details. His time in New York saw him use innovative techniques: double and balanced black horizontal and vertical  lines, colored lines, unbounded color blocks and the “lozenge”,or diamond-shaped format . All this represented to Mondrian eternity, because they have no end, forming a simple grid with thoughtful placement of sparse color blocks.

 

The glass panels are ideal sizes to be fitted into doors or into a frame to make a splendid hanging feature, which could catch and reflect light.

They are on display in our showroom and you will be able to see how they could fit into doors on our open day on 18th February when Jude Goss of  Lucian Glass will be talking about stained glass, how it can be used and demonstrating Masco’s new stained glass product range.

 

 

Stained glass is most commonly found in churches. The windows of Gloucester Cathedral contain stained glass from the 14th century to the late 20th century and some of it is among the most important of its period in England.

 

 

 

The example above left ‘Creation’ is the first in a series of windows made by Hardman of Birmingham in 1868, showing scenes from the Bible associated with waterand and it depicts the separation of the sea from the land.

Above right is St Patrick  (1881) holding a shamrock and at his feet two serpents, in one of the six windows by C E Kempe in the quire ambulatories.

For more Mondrian style follow this link http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=MONDRIAN&qpvt=MONDRIAN&FORM=IGRE#x0y0