Students awarded for sewing skills

2:10pm Sunday 27th July 2008

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UPHOLSTERY students from St Albans were awarded for their work yesterday.

The presentation day at Coursers Farm, in Colney Heath, saw 15 students, including four from St Albans, achieve credits or distinctions for their work in both upholstery and soft furnishings.

Students were presented with their certificates by Joan Milton, president of the Association of Master Upholsterers and Soft Furnishers, who had travelled from Shropshire to be at the event.

She said: “The standards of upholstery we see here are rare. There are very few upholsterers with these skills. This is traditional upholstery at its very best.”

Joan also commended the work of teacher Wendy Shorter and pointed out the difficulty in finding upholstery teachers and courses due to lack of funding.

Student, Patricia Pryce, of Parks Street, St Albans, was awarded a credit for her antique Victorian nursing chair and child’s cupboard box.

“I did the course as a hobby. It was intensive and challenging but lots of fun. Good teachers are few and far between so we are lucky to have Wendy,” she said.

Wendy used to be a tutor at West Herts College in Watford and then set up the training centre in Colney Heath after she was made redundant.

“I have people of all ages coming to my classes from far afield because of the lack of courses. The courses I run have been designed by the trade for the trade and are ideal for those wishing to work within the industry or who want to start their own business,” she said.

“It would be great to get more school leavers involved. Craft-based courses are slowly dying out in colleges - it is essential we keep them going.”

Wendy’s students Sharon Brown and Cathy Johnson, from Welwyn, have gone into partnership and have started to make a range of footstools, ottoman boxes and screens.

They have sold their work at local craft fairs and at the Living Crafts Show in Hatfield House.

They have now progressed on to taking on individual commissions in traditional upholstery.

Wendy’s training centre offers a wide range of programmes from professional accredited courses in upholstery and soft furnishings to part-time daytime and evening leisure classes and a range of short courses.

For further information visit www.wendyshorterinteriors.co.uk or telephone 01727 824358.