SHWI Mad Skillz: Pretty Girls Make Shelves

SHWI Mad Skillz is one of our spin-off groups organised by Di and Anna T. They organise bespoke sessions where SHWI members can learn a new skill in a smaller-sized group. Last week, ten members went along to Sheffield City College for a night of furniture making. Committee member Kirsty tells us all about it....

The last time I was let loose with a band saw was my year 9 design and technology class and to be honest, I spent most of the lesson in the toilet swapping notes with my mate who was doing IT next door. Making furniture was just not a priority at 15. But now, I'm 27 with my own home and I need to know the right way around a power drill. So I was really up for a night of furniture making. 

The Women's Workshop is nearly 25!

Anna and Di had organised Sheffield City College teacher Anna Childs to give us a one-of taster session of the course that she runs in the Women's Workshop there. Due to numbers, the courses in the workshop are now open to men too. Liz Kettle from WEST (Women in Engineering Science and Technology), a voluntary organisation that encourage women and girls to take up careers in non-traditional roles in Science, Engineering, Technology and the Built Environment, was keen to show us the facilities.

Liz and Anna met us on a rainy Wednesday night and supplied us with plenty of tea, coffee and tunnocks biscuits (just what some of us needed after the horrific traffic). They introduced the course, how WEST can help women with bursaries and outreach work and then it was down to what we were making - shelves. 

Anna explains what we're going to do

Anna took it step by step - explaining how we would go about starting the project then letting us do it ourselves. It was scary to be let loose on the big machines like the drill and sanders but Liz and Anna were very encouraging (and nobody lost a finger, so yay!). Using her example, we measured, sawed, drilled, screwed and sanded our wood into something that looked a lot like a set of small shelves!

I must say that there was some more talented members in the group than me - Chloe and Carolyne took so much care in sanding and smoothing their shelves that they were left with something very professional looking. Mine on the other hand was a bit rough and ready but acceptable enough to go on my bathroom wall. 

Anna and Liz were so generous in their time and resources and we were so grateful to have the opportunity to play with all their tools and create something really worthwhile. 

Our finished shelves!

If you're interested in one of the furniture making courses, have a look at the page on the Sheffield City College website. 

Kirsty Bowen

SHWI Committee member

WI do DIY

We did DIY (photo by Lorne Campbell)

So SHWI took the annual Summer break in July meaning that understandably our members were practically scratching at the doors of the Women’s Construction Centre in Burngreave eager to get back to some serious SHWI action. We dutifully turned up in our scruffs, builder’s mug in hand ready to roll up our sleeves and learn some fundamental DIY skills. 

Jen, Lindsay, Kim and Louise get tiling (photo by Lorne Campbell)

We got the business section of the meeting out of the way so we could up tools. This mainly involved us all getting rather excited about our involvement in the upcoming Sheffield Food Festival in the form of a classic WI Bake Stall and Best in Show competition and hearing the latest exciting instalment of the debate that rages on about the exact dimensions the shell box entry should be at The Autumn rally.

Kay the glamorous plumber and her troupe of talented tradeswomen had done a fantastic job of organising an informative and most definitely fun evening of learning the basics of some cleverly picked DIY disciplines. A lot of thought had clearly gone into which skills we would be most likely to use ourselves once we got back to our homes. There were taster sessions of painting and decorating where we looked at different paint effects – one of these being frottage which apparently has two meanings (the urban dictionary or Sarah Willoughby will fill you on the alternative meaning of the word should you be interested...). We also had a Q&A session. I’m not sure if this was necessarily part of the plan but we (ok, it was me) had a lot of questions on various projects at home.

Di and Anna learn about light fittings (photo by Lorne Campbell)

We learnt how to change a light fitting, which only highlighted to me how little I listened in my physics classes at school.

Kay demonstrated how to isolate and take a radiator off the wall for when you’re decorating. Pretty useful stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. Not as complicated as you may think.Well when you know how.
There was also a session on tile cutting as well as bricklaying. I for one was inspired, as only this weekend I have wangled a re-pointing masterclass with my neighbour to sort out my raised beds. WICAT we salute you for inspiring us to take on jobs that are traditionally seen as man’s work.

Oh and how I could forget the ever so tiny detail that photos from our meeting and quotes from our very own Lindsay featured in the Guardian the weekend after our meeting. All in a day's work at SHWI! Some of the photos taken can be seen in this post, big thanks to photographer Lorne Campbell for allowing us to use them.

WICAT offer some tremendous courses that are fantastic value for money. See www.wicat.org.uk for further details. We’ll be filling you in on what they can offer us at the next meeting. 


Anna Tebble
SHWI Committee Member