Going with the grain

PETER Cummings makes furniture that defies categorising: beautiful to look at, wonderful to sit on, incredibly practical. And, of course, expensive...

Stools are a few hundred pounds, chairs and benches £1,500 and more. Clearly, not the sort of thing if you just want something to put your feet on, or to snooze on in the garden.

But some people spend that much on a handbag, a watch, others on a holiday. And Peter's furniture will last a lot longer. And if you're looking for an heirloom...

Peter, from Darlington, trained as an engineer, worked at Cummins, moved into IT and up to Edinburgh. For the next ten years he had a number of jobs, all well paid, all pretty frenetic, most of which involved leaving the house at the crack of dawn, not getting back until late at night and rarely seeing his wife, Amanda, and their three children.

Time for a change.

"It's hard to give all that up when you have a family to provide for, especially as I didn't really know what I wanted to do," he says.

Then came the bookcase.

"We were moving house, I was fed up with all the books lying round in heaps so we needed a big book case. I saw one that cost £700 and I thought 'I could make that'. So I did."

And he realised - actually, it was Amanda who realised first - that this was what he really wanted to do.

"I'd always loved art, wanted to be an artist, but it made more sense in a place like Darlington to become an engineer," says Peter. "And in any case, I liked the man's world of a factory and noise. But I realised I wanted to make beautiful things. Not ordinary furniture, I wanted to make something bold and unusual, the sort of things that no one else did."

Peter sought help and training from Wyn Bishop of East Witton, who had trained with John Makepeace at Parnham House, "the pinnacle of master craftsmanship".

And then he was on his own.

He started working in the garage at his parents' house and then, early last summer, moved into one of the workshops in Silver Street, Reeth, where he had previously lived. The commissions built up steadily so that now he knows that he has at least enough work to see him through to the end of the year, his first full year's work. A milestone.

Each piece of furniture takes a couple of weeks to make. Peter uses a wide variety of woods - just reading their names is a sort of poetry - white oak, red oak, native oak, sweet chestnut, native ash, lime, black walnut.

Many of the pieces use contrasting woods for a dramatic effect. They are also wonderfully tactile - beautifully, curved, smooth wood that you just have to touch.

"I've also been learning more about anatomy and ergonomics, so that even though the chairs are made from wood, I want them to be as comfortable as possible," says Peter.

One of the early boosts was when the organisers of the community orchard in Reeth commissioned some seats and bench.

"A number of people come and find me here because they've seen my work in the orchard. It's been great for me," says Peter.

Almost inevitably, most of his customers have been from far afield, from Aberdeen, down to Suffolk. "The guy from Aberdeen found me on New Year's Eve. He only came in to turn his car round."

Another customer was a young man who came in with his parents and ended up asking them if he could have one of the stools for his 21st birthday.

"I was hugely flattered by that. I never really expected lads like that to want my stuff. But I know it will last."

After a number of moves in a number of years, a few months ago, the Cummings family bought back the house in Reeth they'd sold a few years ago. The children are settled in local schools, Amanda works in Richmond.

"And I can just pop back and forth from the house to the workshop. I can pick the kids up from school and be with them. Then maybe pop back here for an hour in an evening," says Peter.

"Life is just so much better. It all seems to be working out."

* Peter Cummings Original Furniture, 7 Dales Centre, Silver Street, Reeth. www.petercummings.co.uk