At The Somerset Lifestyle and Retirement Village in Somerset West, our residents have some very interesting hobbies. Mr John Brian is a Silversmith but always finds time to restore some beautiful pieces of furniture.

Mr Brian writes:

“Many years ago in England, I used to enjoy a rummage around old junk shops. I used to pick up old battered Victorian boxes and do my best to restore them to something like their former glory. This is a typical box which I restored:

I then decided to make some boxes myself. You may think that’s easy enough; well not really so. Any box has a total of 24 right angles (90°) at its corners, and if any one corner is one or two degrees out, the box will not come together.

So I made boxes out of inexpensive plywood and then covered them with veneer in various patterns. This photo shows one which I made 25 years ago:

Now exactly what is Veneer? It is very thin sheets of wood, taken from many varieties of trees, therefore I use Oak, Cherry, Mahogany, Avodire, Guarea and many others to form my patterns.

One day I realized that in South Africa I have a ready source of well-made plywood boxes; that is wine boxes. So I buy my wine from La Cotte in Franschhoek and in return they give me old wine boxes – a good deal all around!

I then decide on a pattern and cut out the veneer to the required shape with a Stanley knife. I then apply cold wood glue to the veneer and stick it on the box. These photos show the pattern building up:

And the finished product with a finish of polyurethane applied. And finally my work area in a corner of my garage with some boxes on display:

Why not pop in and see them sometime?”

We thought we’ll also show you some of his silver work.

The best part of living at The Somerset Lifestyle and Retirement Village, is the assurance that you will find yourself among a like-minded community, among peers who want to get as much out of retirement as you do. To find out what The Somerset can offer you in terms of lifestyle, click here and we’ll get back to you.