Every dog has its day

     I suspect my late sister Jill was right when she once said to me 'every dog has its day'. Certainly in my own field as a furniture designer maker the traditional modesty that goes alongside being talented with your hands is blown apart today by those who are masters at self promotion and become legends in their own lifetime (and curiously behind a personna of enormous modesty!) But will history quickly forget them and who indeed will the future historians write about in a hundred years time? Does it matter to us now and who, then, is the judge, especially as successive historians fall into the journalism trap and make scoops to get noticed?

    Of course, first and foremost you have to be true to yourself and have the inner strength or quiet confidence of commitment that  the path you believe in, and in my own case I guess it is the 'small is beautiful' road, you follow, irrespective of popular fashion or whatever the dominant trend is. The trend  in England is for very expensive exclusive prestigious furniture which for years I have argued has a direct correlation to our antiquated class system. IKEA could not have been born in England and yet paradoxically the north London IKEA store became one of its most successful! When the eighth in line to the British throne visited me circa 1985 with a view to my making his designs that would carry his Royal stamp. I could (should?) have done the intelligent thing and put the price of my own unique work up extraordinarily. I was, after all, earmarked as one of the top 40 makers in the country on this occasion and since then, young makers have appeared from nowhere asking forty five grand for a piece of bespoke furniture.

   I can confidentially and not boastfully say there is nothing in wood I could not make.  After all, at the age of 17 I gained and A grade at A level woodwork and have used my hands ever since. With my training and vast experience working wood and keen eye for precision I could have followed the trend  (in the field I once was a pioneer in) and focussed on extremely expensive woods, gold inlays, immaculate workmanship, prestigious clients, prestigious Guild marks, etc etc, .... but I chose not to. The price I paid was being so quickly forgotten. The lesson I learned was that the media will make and break, create and forget and the questions I continue to ask are how does one deal with ego and is it just ego? In my case it was slightly different. It was the need to overcome seventeen years of abuse and negation from a cruel father. To be noticed and acknowledged is probably every child's right, so it may not be just a question of ego, but a basic human need.

   Wimbledon champions come and go and those who want it badly enough will eventually win the crown. Ageism is certainly rampant in Britain and what is worse is most 'senior citizens' themselves feel on the scrap heap with little to offer. What a dreadful term a senior citizen! As far as I am concerned I'm still on my gap year (another curious commercial construct) and it may continue into my nineties. I haven't started living yet and have a lot of catching up to become even  'normal' if it is ever possible my life could follow a conventional path! But whilst every dog has its day there is also still fight in the dog. Without fight there is no point but the day may yet come to pass.