Hello from Somerset!
We hope that you are keeping safe and well under the current C19 restrictions and that you have not been too badly affected by the closures.
Here in the Southwest we feel fortunate that the November lock down in England has been very different from earlier in the year; all of our local suppliers remain open and we can continue to make our mirrors, picture frames and cabinets.
We can still get ‘take out’ hot chocolate at the beach and our 10 year old son is back in school with his friends.
What next for our high street shop space?
The Ilminster Emporium has been closed since Bonfire Night along with the other ‘non essential’ shops in our little town, which is difficult as we approach the usual time for Christmas shopping.
We traders all pulled together to set up a successful Click & Collect service and you can still buy a small range of our handmade mirrors, picture frames and cabinets from the shop.
As the news was coming in about the new English lock down and after working so hard to build up the momentum lost in March, we all wanted to keep the Emporium going, even if we couldn’t open as normal.
We set up a new Instagram page and pledged to collectively promote every traders items as often as we could on our social pages.
We also have an evolving window display to entice our lovely local customers to keep shopping with us.
So far the results have been really good and we are very thankful for everyone who has continued to support our little shop.
You can contact us via the Emporium Facebook page to reserve any items.
Autumn in the workshop
As the weather turns colder we have stopped using the extra outdoor space which we hired to help social distancing in our workshop.
We are carefully balancing the staffing hours to continue to keep the team safe and unfortunately that means that our extra long lead times have not yet returned to their pre pandemic low of 2 – 3 weeks.
Our farmhouse workshop may be chillier in the Autumn months, but it can also be very beautiful with a frosty morning sparkle or an eerie mist in the afternoon and we have taken some really atmospheric photos over the years.
You can find more workshop pictures on our Instagram pages.
5 star Reviews
We are now into double figures with our reviews on Google and it is really helping our little business to stand out on the web, we want to say a HUGE thanks to all who have taken the time to leave us a comment or two.
Our lovely new customer Susan gave us 5 stars on the 9th November and left a review of the extra wide frame wooden mirror which we recently made for her.
“ My mirror is beautiful, very well made and stunning in its simplicity! ”
If you have the time to support us by leaving a review, please visit our Google My Business Page.
Here is our latest 5 star review on our Etsy.com shop
Rachel was very happy with her custom made ‘dovetail’ mirror with water resistant Danish Oil finish and she left us this great review on 3rd November 2020
“Marc came back to me so quickly with a quote on a bespoke mirror. It fits our bathroom perfectly and looks lovely ”
Contact us before 23rd November for a pre Christmas delivery
Our cabinets and larger pieces remain at 6 weeks (down from 8) but we are able to accommodate pre Christmas deliveries for most of our mirrors and for all of our picture frames if purchased by Monday 23rd November.
Marc and our team are all working very hard and we and hope to be able to extend this offer with a special limited number of mirrors and picture frames, available for delivery right up until Christmas week, please watch our social pages for updates.
The best Christmas gift (with a waggy tail!)
Every November we have a little family to remember when our crazy Jack Russell ‘Marv’ came to live with us, 4 years ago.
We are so pleased that we made the decision to collect our bouncy puppy a few weeks before Christmas to give us all time to settle in before the chaos of wrapping paper and shiny decorations added to the daily disarray of lost squeaky toys and a knocked over water bowl.
Marv is still very playful and his water bowl sometimes gets knocked over still, but we all love him.
Your photographs
Our kind customers have kept us going these past few months, closing completely in March was very upsetting and like many others we honestly did not know if we would have a business to come back to.
Your understanding of our extra long lead times has been much appreciated and we are always very interested to see the photos that you send us of your handmade pieces in their new home.
This month we have Hesta’s two large picture frames and Debby’s mirrored bathroom wall cabinet to show off and we think they look great.
For more customer photos see our Pinterest pages.
We will be back with another update next month.
If you have any questions or if there is anything which we can create for your home, just ask.
Best Wishes,
Marc & Rachel Wood
Handcrafted using traditional woodworking techniques;