2017 has been an incredible year and as business winds down a little, I’d like to take a moment to extend to you a huge thank you for your custom throughout this year.

It has been a pleasure to serve you, meet you at the various events I’ve attended and I look forward to doing the same for you in 2018. I hope you and your families have a peaceful Christmas and New Year with (hopefully) a few hours at your lathes wrapping the year up with a little turning. 🙂 

With 2018 just around the corner and the workshop closed now for shipped orders, I’m looking through a chink the curtains on the new year and invite you to look with me at what will be happening in January.

Along with a huge tidy-up between now and when the workshop opens again on 2nd January, there are some terrific things that are going to happen in the first week . . . and beyond!

I greatly admire the work of The Woodland Trust, and in particular their work towards the protection and rejuvenation of the UK’s ancient woodland sites, which total a mere 2% of a woodland total. From January, 15p from the sale of every tin of Hampshire Sheen High Gloss and Original will go towards the Trust’s campaigns in this area. Keep an eye out for the tins with the special lid labels (left). Click the image above to read more about it.

Hampshire Sheen is now a corporate member of the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain. I hope to be able to reach more turners through the clubs and structure of the organisation as well as contributing when I can. There will also be special discounts for clubs being announced in the new year.

We’ve all been looking at the white labels with coloured bands on tins of Hampshire Sheen for a year and a half now, and I’ve decided the current label design doesn’t accurately reflect the product, nor the business. So, with some enormous changes, the new livery will be revealed in the first week of January. Those who have had a sneak preview of the new labels have all given their thumbs-up that the design reflects the company and the product within. Phew!

Along with this, each tin will now be having a batch number and an official bar code which will greatly help Hampshire Sheen retailers at their tills.

Make 2018 Your Year to Colour Stuff!

There’s news about the Intrinsic Colour Collection to tell of ahead of January, too – Firstly, the full sets of 250ml bottles will no longer be available. Instead, you can enjoy trying a complete 150ml boxed set.

The new set comes with a slightly redesigned colouring guide leaflet, the Scotch-Brite pad and a copy of the HD video download as before.

Another addition to the Intrinsic range is a set of 10ml vials with pipette caps that contain the actual colour concentrate I use in the water based bottles. They are great for having a go at mixing the colours to an intensity all your own, or even coming up with your own colours using the Intrinsic ones as a base. These are on a trial basis, too.

A great bonus is that these colours can be mixed with water or alcohol, so for those of you who fancy spirit based colours more than water based ones, this product could be for you.

That’s about it for 2017. Thank you once again for your amazing custom and support throughout this year. I wish you a wonderful Christmas, and I’ll be seeing you again in 2018. 

Safe turning,

Martin

PS – Although the workshop is closed now for orders that require shipping, courses are still bookable, and there are gift vouchers and store credit available, too! If you need to contact me, please use my mobile number (07713 349883) as the workshop line is still awful. The workshop properly closes on 22nd December and service will be back to normal from 2nd January.