Click here for 'Root & Branches', the Matthew Burt profile piece by Darren Loucaides.
Kim has enjoyed spending a few weeks gathering
work experience in Matthew's workshop; the rest
of the team have been together for several years
Meet the team
In Matthew's words: “Six skills are needed for
the business - design, making,
administration, selling, and after-selling
[servicing pieces]. My wife Celia is vital to the
last three; she staffs the showroom. The
thing about these six areas is that they all
need to be done with the same commitment.
I don't see why the world should beat a path
to your door just because you make things.
Our goal is to contribute to design history,
while successfully filling the relevant brief.
“The senior maker, Mark, is invaluable. He
and I make decisions on who makes what, and
then the makers work individually or as a team
depending on the piece. The piece itself begins
with a meeting: we all sit in the workshop, in a
circle like hippies, and explore our aspirations
and goals. Then they'll try and solve all the
problems I've caused them with my impossible,
impractical designs! But they have to be alive to
possibilities, as well as self-motivated. We don't
want monkeys, we want bright people capable
of thinking for themselves.”
As for the signature pieces, every one gets
the Matthew Burt branding, although the
client is told which particular maker worked on
their piece. The makers themselves are all
“local boys”, and apart from Kim, who's here
on work experience, they've all been around
for a while now. Stroll into the workshop on a
typical day, and you'll find it in a frenzy of
action as the team toils to keep up with
Matthew — all set against the incongruous
backdrop of chilled music. Eighteen-year old
Daniel was lucky enough to be taken on from
scratch, but the rest are proven makers with a
range of different talents. One thing they all
share, though, is a passion for problem-solving
- which comes in pretty handy when tackling
Matthew's ideas! “Really,” Mark laughs, “we'd
be better off without him!”
Apart from the in-house team, there are what
Matthew calls, the satellite workshops. These
are makers who have left, but still cater for the
frequent overspill from the mother workshop in
Sherrington. “It's wonderful, because you don't
get all the grief and pain from witnessing the
birth. But makers leaving? It's dreadful when
they go. This is the same as any family-run
business, it's very personal. It's not just me I
have to worry about if it all goes under.”
