OUR STORY
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
GOULTY’S WOODTURNING TIMELINE
Would you believe Goulty’s all started because of a wonderful accident? Here’s how it all began…
January 2005
How We Got Started
Would you believe, I bought my first lathe by accident? It’s true, I didn’t go out to buy a lathe in 2005, and the first one stood around getting rusty for about 4 years before I set it up. Once I got started the passion took hold of me, and I really hope that it never leaves me.
March 2009
Our Journey
I had arranged a mortgage for a landscape gardener about the time that I put the lathe together, and he supplied me quite a lot of freshly felled wood. Sycamore and willow and some oak. This became by first supply of turning wood. I happily turned all sorts of things, bowls, vases and candle sticks and the like, taking great pleasure in gifting my turnings to friends and family.
May 2012
Our Story
As you can imagine, our house began to fill fairly rapidly with wood turnings as I eagerly sought my wife's opinion on what I was doing, because Maureen always gives me honest opinions. The invention of Goulty's Doofawotsit led to us looking for ways to sell our wares, and in early 2016 we started going to Craft Fairs all over the north west selling Goulty's. This was a success, in that the Doofawotsit very quickly established itself as a good value innovation. We were kept busy as the craft fairs were usually 3 day affairs and we needed to carry enough stock to meet the demand that we hoped would be there. We were not disappointed.
July 2014
Our Passion
I had some beech for the Doofawotsits that was quite badly deceased and certainly not good enough for our normal product, so I made a Doofawotsit and put a flat base on it, instead of the usual point. The intention was to see if it could be a viable “indoor” option. That product is still standing next to my armchair at home, has been named Goulty's Doofatable and does its job supremely well. This is now a solid oak piece of furniture with a gorgeous hand waxed finish. The addition of Goulty's Doofatable saw sales expand although we were beginning to feel that craft fairs perhaps were not the best way for us to proceed.
February 2017
The Team
The Team at Goulty's is myself, Geoff Goult and my wife Maureen, who is known by all as “the Lovely Lady Maureen”, on account of her being genuinely lovely and the Lady of a square foot of a Scottish estate.Maureen is the part of the team that lets me know when my creative passion is running away with itself. Her patience is immense. When you turn wood, on any level, you and your clothing collect a staggering amount of dust and chippings, that invariably end up all over the house, despite my efforts to limit it. Maureen, I think, is the person that sees and removes the dust and stuff that I simply don’t know exists.
February 2019
The Future
There is a wider Team, wood suppliers, equipment suppliers, wax suppliers and so on. We try to be increasingly aware of the ecological impact of our craft and seek out suppliers with the highest possible credentials. I have a head full of ideas, some, no doubt, rubbish and I expect the Doofa family to expand with other products that are waiting just around the corner. I love the concept of producing one off “Uniquities” for people that trust me enough to be let me loose on their behalf making commissioned pieces for them. I really do believe that Mother Nature does all of the clever stuff and that I am lucky enough to be able to reveal her, at her best. In the words of JRR Tolkien “ The road goes ever on…….” Please journey with us. What harm can it do? You might even enjoy it. Come on, let's get started!
UPCOMING EVENTS
We are planning to attend 3 or 4 local markets once a month each, most likely to be Lancaster, Preston, Bolton and perhaps Skipton, in addition to one off events at County Shows. Keep an eye on the diary to see where we are.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL?
We’ll commission you a truly unique piece. Just leave your email address, and we’ll be in touch.