'Recover' Mencap

From December 2017 - December 2018 I worked for a company called Mencap for people with Learning Disabilities. During this time, I was required to assist a client as part of their outreach to a place called recover. Outreach is part of the work which requires you to accompany a client from their accommodation to a venture in the community. Recover is a charity that welcomes workers and volunteers to recover, transform and individualize old furniture denoted by the public. The crafts people themselves, (workers and volunteers) then go on the same process of rejuvenation and transformation from past pains, traumas or damage and become recovered themselves. In a sense, we are all always learning about ourselves.

Blue and Purple with Fig Tree

An old donated chair, which I transformed into a rustic blue and purple finish, together with the contrasting fig tree and its white background. The rustic effect was created using a rippled but coarse sponge and dabbing the colours together to have a chameleon like surface. The was then painted in the background to dwindle in the distance with a white opaque background.

Red and Yellow with Birds stencil

Transformed and painted in the same style, but with fiery reds and yellows and a stencil of birds in the background. The fierce and vibrant surface of the chair contrasts strikingly to the intricately stencilled birds and the smooth white background.

Silver and Gold rustic chairs

Two antique chairs that required minor wood repairs, where completely painted rustically with blends of gold, brown, silver and white. This creates a dazzling but old antique appearance to them both.

Yellow and Brown table with Seashells

Drawing the surface patterns of shells like doodles in a 2D style, cutting them out, painted around them with a dark shade of brown transformed the surface into a whirlpool of sea shells. Leaving the original varnished wood to cause the yellow to standout and blossom.