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Enter a workshop filled with expert craftspeople, bringing loved pieces of family history and the memories they hold back to life. A heartwarming antidote to throwaway culture.
Season 8 - Episode 6
Jay Blades and the team bring four treasured family heirlooms, and the memories they hold, back to life.
First up is a unique and challenging commission for bear repair duo Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell. Dolls Amy and David are the treasured possessions of 36-year-old Jess Hiles. First given to her when she was five, they have been her constant companions through thick and thin for over 30 years. Now Amy and David are looking their age, with missing limbs and tired bodies. While Jess would like them to be preserved for the future, she would also like one or two additional modifications: new clothes to match the tracksuit Jess wears when competing in the Special Olympics, a carbon fibre running blade to replace David’s missing leg, and some Jay-inspired headwear.
Instrument expert Pete Woods has a medley of musical family memories wrapped up in a faded 50s drum kit to restore. Mark Winsor’s Grandad Pappy, his dad, uncle and great uncle were better known as Pete and the Stardusters in the pubs and clubs of the West Country in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Some of Mark’s earliest memoires as a child are of watching his family play with Grandad Pappy on drums, and on very special occasions joining them on stage to play sitting on Pappy’s knee. Mark would like to revive the drums and his family’s musical heritage, but after years in the garage the drums are more rack and ruin than rock and roll, and restoring them will test even Pete’s formidable restoration talents.
Next to arrive is the oldest item ever to pass through the barn doors - and an ancient jigsaw puzzle for the barn’s resident ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay. The 2,000-year-old terracotta figure belongs to Melanie Wells but sadly smashed into several pieces during her family's recent move to the UK from North America. The statue once belonged to Melanie's great-grandmother, for whom it became an important reminder of her homeland after she fled China in the 1940s. For Melanie, restoring the statue will also restore the link to her great-grandmother and her own Chinese heritage, while for Kirsten getting the statue back on its feet again will draw on her own restoration roots, conserving ancient treasures at the British Museum.
Finally, there's a puzzle for art conservator Lucia Scalisi. Emily Ellis’s painted wooden toy box belonged to her grandfather Rolf and his brother John. It followed them to the UK when as boys they fled persecution in 1930s Nazi Germany because of their Jewish heritage. As well as reviving the beautiful paintwork, Lucia has the tricky task of deciphering and restoring the fading German lettering before she can return this important piece of family history back to Emily ready to be handed down to her own young son.
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Thank you,
skorpion.
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