It was my mum’s (34th or thereabouts-ish) birthday recently and so I thought I’d make her something. No I’m not being cheap! I’m being thoughtful. Whatever. Shut up.
Anyway, Mrs Jordan’s a big fan of Art Nouveau and I spotted this old tile in “Pictures & Light”, a lovely little shop on Stoke Newington Church Street. It was originally from a fireplace surround but I thought it would look nice framed as a mat for things such as teapots and vases.
I bought some old American Red Oak from General Woodwork Supplies (now closed, sob…), planed it to a nice finish, set up a rig to jigsaw it into equal strips, used a mitre box to create four equal sides, sawed and chiselled a ledge on the inside of each piece to hold the tile, treated it all with a matt clear varnish and glued the whole shebang together.
I’m pretty chuffed with the result, even if the mitres aren’t 100% perfect.
But most importantly, my mum seemed to like it. Happy days.
make me something 
I’m completely traumatised by the loss of the General Woodwork Supplies too. Do you know any alternatives? Maddy x
Gutted. There’s a place down the road in haggerston, but I haven’t tested it yet. I shall let you know if it’s worthy…