Young Furniture Makers Success for OPS Students Eita & Jim.

Published by Orwell Park School on Tuesday 6th of December 2022

A huge congratulations to recent Y8’s leavers, Jim & Eita for being shortlisted for the Young Furniture Makers exhibition.

A huge achievement for Jim who actually went and won the Schools Design Prize and Eita came 3rd in the Young Furniture Makers Awards at the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers on Tuesday 12th October.

They were the youngest students in the exhibition, as most were 16 .

Eita was interviewed at one point as part of the live stream that was on Instagram and one of the judges Henry James, Innovation and development director at Colbrook Bosson Saunders (parent company of Herman Miller), took time out at the end of the evening to talk to both Jim and Eita about their work and explained why they were chosen for the prizes. He was very impressed with both of them.

William Hardie designer and TV personality (from Amazing Spaces; shed of the year and cabins in the wild) spoke passionately about the importance of design and the importance of making things. He said that in a piece of furniture nearly all subjects are covered, from History, English story telling, poetry, through to Maths, Science and Art.

At the prize giving and presented the awards. Tony Attard spoke the Master spoke about the scale of the UK Furniture industry and the importance of creativity in the Furniture industry. Helen Welch from the show 'Britains best woodworker' and founder of the London School of Furniture Making interviewed the designer Mac Collins, about story telling, Simon Acres about mentoring and Daisy Brunsdon about establishing a presence within the industry as a young furniture Maker.

“There were 17 pieces exhibited for the School Design Prize, mostly submitted as GCSE and A level project work with the OPS entries being from the youngest students. We were delighted, and slightly amazed when it was announced that Eita was awarded third prize and Jim the first prize. I think this reflects well upon the creative environment of the school, as well as the first-class tutelage of Mr Earley.”