Welcome to West End Turns!
Theatrical and Reclaimed Turnings and Craft
Hi there, I'm Matt and thank you for visiting West End Turns.
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I'm a theatre carpenter and technician, working primarily around London's West End but also on touring productions across the country. I was planning on starting this back in 2012 when I was given my yellow ticket of leave after over 8 years working on Les Misérables, but found I never had the time to commit to it. Who'd have thought all it would have taken was a global pandemic! COVID-19 has had a drastic impact for all theatre and entertainment workers and as a freelancer it has meant almost all my work dried up. One of the few upsides to this is I now have more time to pursue my love of woodturning and actually produce items to sell, something that has been requested in the past but I've never had the time to do!
The majority of what I produce is from recycled and reclaimed local materials. some of which has been saved from the theatres and shows that I have been involved with over the years. I will normally be able to give some history to where each material has come from. I also volunteer in a local woods and am fortunate enough to be allowed to removed some bits that we clear from there and local parks and allotments in the area.
I try to keep waste to a minimum, using offcuts from bowls and larger items to be used for smaller pieces like boxes, pens, bottle stoppers or light pulls.
Shavings even get used as packaging or are donated to allotments or the local farm to be used as bedding.
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I try to recycle as much as possible so my packaging may have had a previous life too. Please try to reuse any bubble wrap that I may use for your purchases.
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Please have a look around and if theres something that you want that I don't have, get in touch, there may well be something on the workbench waiting!
