Upholstery workshop is furnishing Cloughmills community with new skills

Life-long creative skills are set to bind the Cloughmills community even closer together as upholstery classes become the latest offering at The Mill in the village.
By Una Culkin
Published 28th Sep 2023, 10:35 BST
Updated 28th Sep 2023, 10:35 BST
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Cloughmills Community Action Team received a Housing Executive community involvement grant of £900 towards an upholstery project which encourages attendees to breathe new life into pre-loved pieces of furniture.

Mostly novices to upholstery, five women and seven men are participating in the three-hour workshops which are running for five weeks in September and October.

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Jim Whitten, Secretary, Cloughmills Community Action team said: “We would like to thank the Housing Executive for their support which has helped us to take a further step forward in the regeneration of the Mill at Cloughmills.

Pictured at the upholstery workshop in The Mill at Cloughmills are members of Cloughmills Community Action Team, Eilish McGarry, Freda McKnight, Wilbert Smyth, Harry Devlin, Eamon O’Toole, Margaret Anne Reid, Gerald Connelly and Muriel Whitten. They are joined by Deirdre Casey, Ballymoney Housing Team, Anna Margaret Jamieson, Workshop Tutor and Jim Whitten, Secretary of Cloughmills Community Action team, Lynsey Quinn, Housing Executive Patch Manager, and Joanne White, Housing Executive Team Leader. Credit NIHEPictured at the upholstery workshop in The Mill at Cloughmills are members of Cloughmills Community Action Team, Eilish McGarry, Freda McKnight, Wilbert Smyth, Harry Devlin, Eamon O’Toole, Margaret Anne Reid, Gerald Connelly and Muriel Whitten. They are joined by Deirdre Casey, Ballymoney Housing Team, Anna Margaret Jamieson, Workshop Tutor and Jim Whitten, Secretary of Cloughmills Community Action team, Lynsey Quinn, Housing Executive Patch Manager, and Joanne White, Housing Executive Team Leader. Credit NIHE
Pictured at the upholstery workshop in The Mill at Cloughmills are members of Cloughmills Community Action Team, Eilish McGarry, Freda McKnight, Wilbert Smyth, Harry Devlin, Eamon O’Toole, Margaret Anne Reid, Gerald Connelly and Muriel Whitten. They are joined by Deirdre Casey, Ballymoney Housing Team, Anna Margaret Jamieson, Workshop Tutor and Jim Whitten, Secretary of Cloughmills Community Action team, Lynsey Quinn, Housing Executive Patch Manager, and Joanne White, Housing Executive Team Leader. Credit NIHE

“Participants have brought in their own pieces of furniture to be worked on in the workshop under the guidance of the tutor Anna Margaret Jamieson and all involved are gaining a real sense of achievement from the work undertaken. Anna is teaching them how to strip covers and braiding from chairs and replace these with new materials and beading.

“She is also guiding them through the processes of repainting chairs as well as repairing, re-stuffing and re-padding seat webbing and covers. Some of the men have made new foot stools in our woodwork workshop and then covered these with soft top covers in the upholstery workshop.

“This upholstery course demonstrates the overriding principles we try to follow in our activities at the mill, to recycle, repair and re-use and it will help the organisation to expand its reach in the community."

Related topics:CloughmillsParticipants