Hello All,
today (05-02-2004) I discovered the "bio" at the oldtools list
(Porch?). Here is my bio, don't know how interesting it is though and
I'll try to keep it short.
0 - 26
Born in The Netherlands in '69. Went to primary and secondary school
in a small town called Schagen, somewhere 50 miles north of Amsterdam
(North-Holland). After finishing here must have been a year of doing
some small jobs and I visited evening school but 1 year later I was
definitely at the art school in Rotterdam. They kicked me out within
the first 'cause my projects were a bit to rebellious (should follow
as a sheep was what I got to hear...) After art school I spent some
years doing whatever was needed to survive (working in the fields,
antique business, moving,..). This lasted about a year after which I
went to the Rietveld academy in Amsterdam. A short marriage resulted
in the birth of a wonderful daughter. The Rietveld was enormous fun
and except for the first year I spent their my days from 9am till
10pm. Studied industrial design but couldn't finish as...
26 - now
I went to London for a summer course at RCA (Royal College of Art) to
learn something about vernacular furniture. In August 1995 I moved to
Finland, Helsinki to be precise as the result of meeting a wonderful
lady, Leena, in London. We're now married and together we have 2
children. We live in an old wooden vicarage (Vanha Pappila) in
Hattula where Leena runs a small interior design company and I keep
my clients busy as a branding & corporate ID and product development
consultant. This description of what I do I hate most as it sounds
either completely meaningless or very cocky or both... it's up to you
to decide :-) What I like about my work is the communication and
visual aspects and helping others to develop new products. It happens
to be that the products I help them with are mainly tools to be used
by professionals so no toothbrushes or pots and pans.
As said, we live and work in an old house. Still loads of renovation
is needed and although we could hire (if we could find them cheap
enough) carpenters to do the work for us, but why not give it a try
ourselves? The most essential changes have been done by professionals
(Leena's father and her cousin), we now should do the finishing:
- replace the ugly office doors for old solid pine doors with nice mouldings
- make all the skirting boards, trims, and so forth
- add some cup boards
- do parts of the kitchen (we buy old chests, cupboards,...) and
build a fitted (? fixed) sink unit
- painting, waxing and oiling
- who know what more
of course we still have the garden ;-)
In all, much to do and when it comes to hand tools and how to work
them, very much to learn still.
Best regards,
Jeroen Carelse
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