THE TV CARPENTER : Home Makeovers with Wayne Perrey

Wayne chats with Zoe Pocock from Muck N Brass

January 10, 2020 Wayne/ Zoe Pocock Season 2 Episode 20
THE TV CARPENTER : Home Makeovers with Wayne Perrey
Wayne chats with Zoe Pocock from Muck N Brass
Show Notes Transcript

This week I chat with BBC presenter Zoe Pocock,
We discuss being the original Luxecycler and how a change of career has made her one of the most successful and well respected figures in the world of interiors.
Guest: www.mucknbrass.com

Sponsor: To take advantage of the generous 15% discount from my sponsor Thorndown, please visit http://bit.ly/TVCarpenter. Discount code: TVCarpenter

Contact me: Wayne Perrey on Twitter and Instagram.

Music: "What's the Angle" by Shane Ivers


To learn how to achieve a Safe, practical and beautiful home,
 join THE DIY DOERS Facebook group

Speaker 1:

On today's show, I'll be chatting with Zoe, the TV presenter and luck cycler from Mac and brass.

Speaker 2:

In fact, the head of the owner of the production company phoned and said, look, this might be a bit left field, but the BBC have offices to make this show in Britain. It is the case. Tell people about it. And I was like, she's not left field at all. I think kids are the future. And like it's great to do. I like everyone remembers their favorite kid's TV show and I'm not competing. I'm not giving them my ideas away. You're going to do it like definitely up for doing that. I didn't know how. I was not going to swear. I don't have to beat Pew. I keep having to like, yeah, take gold gobs of water that as well.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the TV carpenter. My name is Wayne Perry. Now, this is a podcast where I invite all my friends along to have a chat and they tell me all about their upcycling, their interior design, their garden design, and uh, I get to pick their brains really so that you can create amazing things for your house. So hopefully it's a little bit of a information service that I'm offering. Uh, how's this week gone for you? Uh, is it all all down now? Christmas is over, the Christmas trees are down, and then you suddenly look around at your house and you think, wow, what can I do in it and where can I decorate? What can I build? Now we've got rid of all the Christmas decorations and I'm going to do that myself. So we've decided to decorate our hallway. Now I live in a Victorian house. I'm divided into two flats. So we have a communal hall downstairs. And for years it literally hasn't been touched for about 10, 15 years. I think. Neither one of us, me and my neighbor, we get on really, really well. But neither one of us didn't want to upset each other by decorating it. So I mentioned it and my neighbor was like, yeah, whatever you want to do, go for it and I'll give you half the money. So I'm actually really gonna let rip and do some paneling and go wacky colors. I think I'm phoned down my sponsor, uh, supplying me with some paint cause they've got some new heritage colors coming out. So I'm going to look through their catalog and see how I can create something amazing. Um, with, with the thorn down new collection, uh, thorn down is my sponsor. They'd be my sponsor since the beginning. They're absolutely amazing and they create an amazing eco paint. So it's a woodwork paint can be used inside and outside, but it also can be used on plastic and terracotta. And they also have a peelable glass, um, paint as well. So I interviewed, uh, thorn down just well before Christmas actually. And I was chatting with Caroline and Ben who are the husband and wife team who own and created thorn down brand. And, uh, I pick their brains and Ben was telling me about, um, the paint and how if, if the wood that you're painting is wet, um, it can breathe in, the moisture can still escape raw. So it's, uh, it's developed in a way that, um, water can't penetrate the paints so it protects the woods. So if you're painting any woodwork outside, it'll make it last as long as long as possible without it rotting from the inside out cause it's wet inside. So have a little, listen to this really short mini interview I did with Ben and Caroline from thorn down paint.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You say that it's, it's water in Palin, but then you also, it's got, um, micro porous and I use this when we were doing the YouTube videos I was, I used it to paint terracotta pots. So to seal them almost. Yeah. But like you talked about how micro set allows the things to breathe. So how does that work? How is your pain? Water repellent and micro poorest at the same time? So micropores means it's very small holes. Um, and so in terms of waterproof water won't sink through it, but water vapor could pass through it. So if you've got water inside the timber and it's drying, then as it sort of evaporates off, it can evaporate through the film. But if you've got water droplets on the outside, that won't go back into the Tinder. Who knew that that was the thing being micro poorest so that the moisture can escape the word so it doesn't rot from the inside, but yet raindrops can't penetrate it and rot it. Just another amazing feature that thought down paint have. If you like the idea of using thorn down pain, you can look on their website thorn down dot code at UK. And if you've put in the code TV carpenter, you can get 15% off all their online purchases. So check out their website if you want some discount on some amazing paint. So now come to the main event. It should really have a drum roll for this lady. It's Zoe from Mac and breasts. I've known Zoe for a few years. She lives around the corner from me. Literally two, three minutes drive away. And she and her team, her husband, Mike and Abby and her assistant are amazing and all are bonkers in equal measures. And her story is absolutely brilliant. She explains how she created this company where the upcycle furniture and creates and how, um, um, do workshops. They create products and it's forever growing on every time they launch something it absolutely go crazy. But when you see where she's come from and you see, you know, what got her to where she is now, it really is a Testament to prove that you know, art and just following your passion can really pay off. And as she says, she never really feels like she's working a day in the office is kind of everything she does is different and crazy and bonkers. And if you look on her Instagram, um, muck, muck and brass, uh, you'll see, but I hope you liked this interview. Uh, normally when I do interviews I have to edit them and I cut bits and bobs out. But I actually haven't edited this at all because there was so much in there that I couldn't, I couldn't edit it out. The only bit I edited it is she had a bit of a coughing fit at the end. So I just stopped a little bit early. Um, but I hope you like listening to, I'm smiling cause I've, I've just listened to it and I, I absolutely love it. So I hope you enjoy listening to Zoe from Mark and Brad.

Speaker 2:

So waiting for Mike and Bratton. Thank you for being on my podcast. Thank you for asking me. This is my first one ever. Your podcast, you've taken up podcast and you know what? I was so excited about doing this because I knew that you'd be naughty. So you just started on a spectrum. I probably thought Trump's yes, I'm your,

Speaker 1:

I love what you do and I love and we've known each other for years and we'll talk about that as well. But you've come from such a crazy background from like fashion and beauty. But now your Instagram, you're say you're the original look cycler. What does look cycler mean to you?

Speaker 2:

Well, do you know what? I don't even know to be fair. I, when I first saw it about what 2014 I would just hate the word upside cloud cause it just reminded me of like a car engine coffee table or a handbag made out of Coke cans or like, and that was just, you know, it was just this one word for everything out there that if you're doing something up in your called an upside clap and I just think it's, it's just not good enough. I mean, now I would think you'd just be called creative. It doesn't matter because there were so many things you can do. Um, from doing our furniture to making something out of a palette. We'll come back to that. You know, my problems with palette, I'm just using it as[inaudible] on the pallet thing. So I just needed, I just wanted a word that I could use that maybe made it look a bit different because I was doing something, I felt there was a lot different. It was just making things more glamorous, more luxurious, more beautiful, more, you know, warranted and upcycling just upside upcycling there's like going up a Hill on a bike citing doesn't go, I don't even know who come up with that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So when you know[inaudible] you say everything's a bit more glamorous and if anyone's seen any of your Instagram stuff, everything is, is gorgeous to the high end, but what's your background then? How did you end up doing this?

Speaker 2:

Right? But how far do you want the background to go? Well, I know you, you, you and your hobby Mike from like you did nails and things like that. Before that I say, I'm just going to give you a brief. So it started off, me and my husband were around pups in the middle of nowhere in Shropshire and restaurants. And then I opened a nail and beauty bar in the middle of nowhere. It was like a miss Marple village. Um, and there was this barn opposite of the pub that we ran and I used to look in the window and it was all missed it over and dirty and inside. To see like a 1970 salad inside, like it had been just abandoned. And at the time I thought, wow, do you know what? There's nowhere for anyone to go around here unless you've got, you know, you've got to drive 40 miles to have your nails done or go and have a beauty treatment or whatever. And I'd never actually at that point been to a beauty salon, but I thought, you know what, that's what's missing around here. So I opened this, I called it the nail and beauty barn and it was only open mainly afternoon, evenings. And I started to do these beauty parties where you pay a set fee, you come in, you have glass of champagne, have the nipples, have a small treatment. And of course around the area there was only the pub and the post office and an Indian restaurant about five miles away. So it became really popular and everyone was coming in. And then it got to the point that I couldn't surface all the clients like do their nails. So I actually said Mike training to be a manicurist. So when the pup was shot, a lot of time, he would do a lot of the clients like there. Now isn't there a critic nose? And it worked really well. It worked for me because I know you was doing the celebrities like yeah, well this is how we got onto that. So then, um, so this was instruction and then me, me and Mike actually were then in the process of splitting up, I mean, you're going to love listening to this story. Do you want a bigger dream? So anyway, yeah, so maybe Mike, we're in the process of up. Um, but we have, so at this point we had this native beauty barn opposite of the pub and then I won this, um, sort of young entrepreneurs award and that gave us some cash and we opened up nearby in a smaller town, um, called the nail lounge, which was a bigger, bigger sort of set up to what I had in the village. Um, and Mike was really busy there cause it was, you know, he's six foot one heterosexual male doing your nails. What more do you need? A glass of champagne. So, yeah, he was really busy. Um, and anyway, during that time, for one reason or another, me and Mike were going to have a sabbatical.[inaudible] um, and I went and got a job in London or came down here, should I say, um, to help open a nail bar in Charles Worthington. And then that's where the nails started to change to me. So I started getting offers for doing magazine work, from covers working with Vogue. But shortly after I came here, I came up with this manicure idea, um, Louboutin molecule, which has been very famous. If you Google it, Zoe Polk Kotler boots hat molecule, that image ended up in an architectural magazine in Germany. It was like, it's been used everywhere and been copied ever since. So basically it was black on top of you knows, and I did read on underneath local Louboutin shoe[inaudible] and that sort of catapulted my jobs and my offerings. Um, and I couldn't do a lot of them either, so I was like, say, Mike, you need to come down here now and start doing some of these shoes. Um, which he did. I mean, his first camp, I think one of his first jobs was with Nick Knight, who is like one of the best photographers out there. Um, and he's still doing it now. I mean, he does some, some big deal. You didn't Kendall Jenner last week.

Speaker 4:

Oh my God. But the whole story of that is that I love the fact that you've gone from me knowing you, I've known you for probably the last six years, five, six years, everything you do, you do to the max and you did it, go through it and you have the touch of gold to it, you know?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I don't, I don't intend to do it. Like, Oh, go out there and go crazy. Like I just, I see gaps and I see, Oh, that's gonna be a really good idea. I'm going for it. Sometimes I'll come up with ideas and think, Oh, this is going to be rubbish. And it blows up. I mean, it's not I think,

Speaker 4:

but we let them go. When you're self employed, you know, you've got, well, I'm trying that actually. I've given it enough energy. It's not working. I let that go and something else will take over. And you put your energies in a different way.

Speaker 2:

With me it's, I'm very fast and I'm very mobile and I'm very quick. So I would say yes to pretty much everything and then decide to hate it after. And so I'm a yes person to the point where not, I love that idea. Let's go for it. Although I do know when it's going to be a bad idea cause I'll wake up sometimes. I think that idea I had last night that I've really run, it's not going to get worse

Speaker 4:

timing wise. So how did you go from, from that to to muck and brass and where did, where did the name firstly, where did the note, where did the name Maka brass come from?

Speaker 2:

Well I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Buy right slow down now cause you're going to want to hear this. So the new Mike, even though we're having this sabbatical, we've always been really good at bouncing ideas of each other. We work really well together. I've can't live and work with anyone else and it's very hard to live in what we may, I mean I don't know how I've even coats to be fair.

Speaker 4:

I bet as the app is her assistant who works with[inaudible] is just as crazy and as mad. Just watch her Instagram as well.

Speaker 2:

Well you have always had really good ideas and we came up with this idea at the time for nail wrap. So I don't know if anyone out there remembers their, these stickers for nails and he used to put them on and then you take them up with a hairdryer and they sort of molded you now and then you followed off the excess. We wanted to bring it out. I hope you hear like there would've been things out there and there were things today but we didn't want to use the hairdryer. So Mike ran with that idea and he developed a product where you put in your notes, you didn't need a hairdryer. So we started what was called rock VT London, which was a nail brand. Um, with these ideas. Now, I won't tell you all the long story cause obviously I don't want to keep you here all day while I'm fuck. Just to give you an idea, we started that. Um, and I had it on my friend's toes. I was testing it and she was walking along the street. Someone stopped her and said, Oh my God, what is that on your toes now what it was was like, you know, our gold leaf that we do now. It was like that in nail Polish. It was so gold. You could see it from space. Like it was unbelievable finish. Um, and this girl turned out to be a buyer for top shop. She said, I need to see this person who's brought this out. So within two days I went to top shop and they bought like 45 grams worth of product that I didn't have, that I had no packaging for. I said I did. And we made it happen. Like I thought, I'm going to take that order and I'm going to run with it. And that's how rock booty London started. Three or four years later, it just got flawed. Um, long story, but the business just went under. We grew so quickly, so fast. It was just like a big learning curve. And so, and that was like the worst time of my life. And this was five years ago. So this is when I started Mark. So this is how Mark and bras was born. It was, yeah, the most devastating time in my life. I didn't know what to do. I lost friends over it. I lost family feeling like it was just awful. We didn't lose family, but I lost a lot of confidence and it was just tragic. And then what I do, and I have a written, I'm having a shit time is I make things. So I think a lot of people who are crafty and creative, they, a lot of people do that making or, yeah, it was just, um, or like some people like cleaning. Um, so anyway, I was just making stuff for the flat thing and I didn't want to go out like, it was just my whole life turned upside down. And Mike said, look, I've seen this woman, her name's Ronnie Porter. She does. She puts rapid, I have more paper on furniture and it sells it and Selfridges and I had to look and I was like, Oh my God, that's amazing. Like it was very expensive, like 900 pound for Chester drawers. I thought I couldn't do that, but I thought, God, that's such a good idea. Like turning an old Chester drawers into psych. Really cool with paint, like wallpaper and stuff. So we literally have 35 quid in our pocket and me and Mike went to Lewisham half foundation. I bought a bookcase and Nathan bookcase took it home. Well actually we didn't take that one home. We got the, we actually paid for it to have, haven't delivered, which broke my heart because it was really expensive to get it delivered. And I did it up over the weekend and all I could find it at that time because sort of all the upside came, paints are going to call now and save much more of an advanced than five years ago. You only could get really Rustoleum or any slow. Yeah. And I didn't know about chalk paint because where the last time I adopt soccer with something was when I was 18 when I got my first flat, it was only gloss paint. So when I took this chalk paint now and I'm painting, I'm thinking it was like painting with coach cheese, like what is this shit like I couldn't understand why I wasn't going to smooth and I sanded it and then it was by the end it was like cut yourself a slice of paint. It was just awful. All the sediment gone. Oh my God guys, I thought I'm still saying, I was like, it's the brushes that I don't know what's going on. Anyway, I put it on eBay and it's sold that night. And at that time when like we were going through massive financial crisis, 150 quid was huge. Like wow, we can eat this weekend and this is God's honest truth. Like it was that bad at the time. And I was like, Oh my God, someone's bought it. So I had these mixed emotions of like someone's actually loved it and bought it and then I'm like, it's not good enough. I can't let them have it. Like it's like lumps of shit on it. I've paid it is, it's so lumpy. I'd need to paint it again. So I painted it three times before I delivered it. Wow. When I delivered, me and Mike both went and it was sort of a house in North London is flat and this lady absolutely loved it. She invited us in, we had beers with her and her boyfriend. And that delivery completely changed the way I felt at the time. Like delivering to that one person completely gave me a different view of, Oh my God, I'm actually worth something. I'm not as, you know, because you, you do feel worth. It's the shit that took a knock your confidence to, Oh, it was horrible. Um, and so that's how suddenly I was like, I'm going to do this. I definitely can do that. I can make something. Because I felt, I think it was more of an addiction. Cause if the way it made me feel I needed to feel more of that and quickly. So straight away I took that money, I took half of the money, I got off the sideboard or the bookcase and when I bought another Chester drawers and that's what I did every day I made something on the balcony, which is like four foot by six foot balcony. All I had. Um, and that's how my Kimbrough started. Now my comeback came up with the name. Mike is really good with names I can't even spell properly. I can't even come up with names. Um, but it's from a Northern say in LA where there's muck, there's bras and that's how macabre started.[inaudible] so from there, Oh by the way, me and Mark back together. Now the buzzers point, no, at this point we started Mike and Ross. So we only had like a five years back, whatever. He's going to correct me on the time though cause I don't know that. Um, and so how did the, how did the you go from that to, cause when I first met you you had a shop in Crofton park because it was all very quick to the shop and had a workshop at the back of the shop. I think that suddenly because I was feeling really good and nice, nice, good things were happening again. So I, so one of the, I think it was like the third person I sold a piece to, she was an interior designer and she said, look, I love your stuff. I love this piece. I've got this shop in broccoli. Someone's got it already at the moment, but I think your stuff will be really good in there. I said, look, I can't afford to suddenly lay out for shock. I can't do it. She said, no, I'll do you a deal. I really want your stuff in my show. I really want you to have the shot. And that's how amazing it was. We've got an amazing deal. She let us stay and we were there for a few years. It yeah, it was incredible. And that really helped like kickoff because up until the shop actually I was making my Instagram look like we had a shop because people, I knew people wouldn't, it's harder for people to take a risk on buying something if they're just making it at home. I feel, I feel like you don't feel or look more professional enough. Um, so I made my flat look like a shop and people would message, hi, can we come around and say it? But when you open I'm like, Oh, well we're not[inaudible], but I love the resourcefulness of it. And there, you know, for anyone who has not seen any of your stuff and they will look at your Instagram, what, what would you say was your signature pieces back then? How would you describe your look then? My look, well, this is quite bold. Yeah. Um, it was, do you know what? I tried to look expensive even though I couldn't afford the expensive wallpapers. I'll be honest. Um, I started using my own prints very quickly. Um, so I would design something or see something on the net and I would print a fit. I did that very quickly and that took a lot of test in because you know, it's not just the case of print having on paper and glue in it and varnish it cause it doesn't work like that as anyone who's ever tried it. You know the, the inks run when you varnish or they go yellow. But very quickly I was, because obviously, and this is why I mentioned that nail rock, the vinyls that we literally used on now as we already knew, we had an idea of a process that we could rather than put it on nails we can put it on furniture. Yeah. So we were sort of doing the nail world thing that we were doing with the beauty products but putting it on furniture. You took a lot of G plan furniture. You know the is G plan isn't it? Yeah. I remember has Mike had a love of it at the time? Do you know what, when I moved, when we moved back in together, Mike kind of G plan a table and chairs and the first thing I did was Chuck that crap away cause I was like get that out. It's Brown down on it. But that's the thing with the house with Ikea. I mean can you believe it or now the G plan stuff you know is so seventies[inaudible] from the city, you know 50s old ones. I mean the total range is the 50s and then you cover it in wallpapers like wacky wallpapers and stuff. So the really, if I'd been telling us when I first saw your stuff, I was like, not for me but now I love it. Cool bash for like ruining G plan but like hang on a minute first. I've just found it in a cherry show and you know, if you liked it that much by yourself when it was Brown and um, and we've offered this straight from the beginning. If you buy one of our G plans or any of our furniture, if you change your mind, I want it changed into something else later. We'll do that and come back to us or we'll buy it back. And the reason we did G plan is because Mike loved it and it is really sturdy, well-made pieces. And we can get a lot of it because there's so much of it out there. Yeah. I mean, even now, five years later, I can still get my hands. I've got a stack of it. And that's the rate. And also, and don't forget, like I was doing this from a flat on a small shop. I needed to find furniture that I can replicate so I could use the images on websites. As soon as it's sold, I can then make it so, cause I didn't have places to store it. I didn't have a big shop, I didn't have all these. So I don't have to. And even now I don't have to make everything until it's sold because I'm in London, I can't afford big premises. I have to be very savvy with the space that I use.

Speaker 4:

Turn it around. But what again, what I love, I think a couple of color years ago when I was working on celebrity, big brother, I remember ringing up going there, thrown out a load of shit loaded when you van up and I got you some tables and then I gave you these big poodle and there's like a big plastic bulldog and yeah, and a penguin. But what I love is you were like, Oh I'll take them. Cause I knew you could do something with them. You only went and turned the pool into this amazing lamp and put an amazing lampshade on it. And then you sold it and now you're,

Speaker 2:

no, I have to do it now. I have to find him. But that's what I love.

Speaker 4:

Being resourceful. And you've found a niche and made it[inaudible].

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's going back to me saying I just, I'm, I can change quickly and I see a gap and I know what sells. I mean at the beginning, I think this is a downfall of a lot of people who do this type of work is they are very precious about what they make. They make either than what they like or they get a diff or offensive and defensive. When someone messaged and said, Oh, I like it but can you change your color? Or like there's a lot of, he was like, no, you know that's the color I chose. I'm no, I mean I will if something doesn't sell. Um, I change it. Simple as that.

Speaker 4:

But th but it makes then it made you sound as if you don't care, but actually the way your finishes on everything is like particular like you're like I've been around and you've let, I've got to give that another coat. Varnish, it's got two coats. It has his monitor cause you don't want to chip in. You don't want it to actually the actual make of it, you care. But you, you're flipping about what they want. If the client way,

Speaker 2:

yeah, I'm not, I'm, I'm more for the customer, not for me. I've got forces I wouldn't be here and being in such great position as we are now in it as a company. If I hadn't looked and thought about what my customer wants. Yeah, of course. I'm not going to say it's purple. If you don't like it, don't go somewhere else. Of course not. I mean I do things like this. You can't see in this room where we're actually recording now, where there's an actual lifestyle. Horses are coming out of the wall as a lamp in purple. Right? That was actually left over from an order I had to do a front half of the horse for someone had to cut the horse in half. So what I'm gonna do with the bump turning into a lap. Anyway, I thought purple, you just looks amazing. Now if someone came to me and said, actually I want a different color, I'd have to think, Oh, it's a pain. But of course I did it poke cause I thought it would look amazing if someone else doesn't think so in two months time, then of course I'm gonna change it. Yeah,

Speaker 4:

I love some of the little kitschy kind of stuff you do. So I've just walked into your workshop and my daughter's here. I've left her in the main part of the workshop just playing about with loads of plastic turret. And we're going to talk about your, your Christmas reads these Christmas, this Christmas reads are wreath full of lots of plastic toys. Um, lots of Barbie dolls loads. Baubles tinsel the really kitchen. Really? So tell me about where that came from and the idea,

Speaker 2:

well, funny you should say that. I actually don't even know where my idea for that came from. So as often happens in me, Oh actually no I do, I do. Well last year you lost, you had action ferries on top of your yeah, so they were wrestlers, WWE wrestlers and we just, Abby and I with boots sailing last year, got loads of wrestlers bizarrely came back from boot. So separate ones, the same thing we'd like, right? We've got to do some of these. So we made ferries for the trees and stuff. This year I was cleaning out the cupboard. I said, Oh, we've got all these wrestlers, we've got all these doors. Cause I love taking pictures of dogs and stuff for like prints and fabrics. I was like, well what can you do with this? And, and I thought I need a new Christmas thing. So we've, we've updated our Christmas decks this year. I'll do race, I looked on Pinterest and there was lots of kitchen ideas, but they're not kitchen off for me. And then also I was like, I need like toys and bits. And then it just snowballed. I was like, there was so many bits of toys and junk and McDonald's toys and Lego that just gets chucked away and ready for Christmas because I used to do the same thing when my kids were young. I do that nine sweet round the bedroom. If it's on the floor, it's in the bag and it's going out because you knew Christmas is going to be for full of more like turret and tap. So, um, I was like, no, I'm going to put call out. So I literally, I did not think it was going to be this big. Okay. So just to put it in context, I came up with the idea, I knew what I was gonna do workshops and I only wanted to do workshops. I didn't want to make them because they do take a lot of time. So I put four dates on. They sold out straight away. This is a workshop to make to make the rapes, the kitchen Christmas rate. Um, so it's like a hundred pound for the day, supply, everything. You get large breakfast, it's great day. Um, and then people were like, Oh, I can't make it. Please, will you make one? I was like, Oh, if I start this, this is not going to stop. So I thought, right, I've got to price them right because they do, I can't make more than four days. And that's me. Steiner, I am until right up to seven, like full on. So I put them online and then I'm not joking. We sold like 20 in a day and the thing is with me, I'm like, Mike, expect take them off. Take them off now. You'll never make them all. And I'm like BNB? He's like, yeah, no, but I get it, but no, I'll do it. Cause you never know where your next meal is coming from. Right. And especially when you work for yourself, you're like, got to take the work. And I was like, no, I'll just work extra. I'll come in on the weekend, I'm going to do not. Um, yeah, they just went nuts and then everyone's Instagramming him. I thought he's getting bigger and then my call out for plastic turret that you might be chucking away. Clean up the plastics. I think that's a landfill. Send it to me. I'll pay for postage if it's reasonable. I mean don't be silly. Don't send it and ups. Um, and I'll send you a little small gift in return for your efforts. Well, every day this week, like the price I'm off again, is this, this thing I struggle with myself, I'm half of me is like stop it now. Put your foot down. Say we've got enough. And then the other officer's like, no, we'll just put more workshops on like let's go for it. Everyone's loving it. I mean, that's why I can't stop because Sunday we had our first workshop, the Christmas Wraith and she know what no one wanted to stop. And it was such a lovely day because no one can fail at this workshop. You don't even need to be creative. My daughter even came and she has not gotten one creative bone in her body. I don't even know if they've gave me the right child when I gave birth to her because she's so not like me at all. She made the best rate and she loved it and, and it was like everyone really had such a nice time. Why wouldn't I want to keep doing it? I'll just find all days to do it. So now I think we've got like 10 fully booked days. Oh my God. And I'm now thinking like, how do I change it so it's not Christmas rates so we can do it all year because it's such a great feeling to sit there and make something with other people. It's a bit like a stitch and bitch around the table.

Speaker 4:

Cause I've done your workshops. I've done your upholstery one. You do an amazing, awesome. We did it. We did it. We did it over the while, the Megan, the wedding, the Royal wedding, and then a Royal wedding. Um, and I came along and I love your workshops. So you know, you do, you do like your upholstery workshops. You do tables, painting and you know, um, um, what'd you call it?

Speaker 2:

We do Gog leafier table manners. Manners. Yeah. We do leafing bottled workshops, transfers, potent up porcelain lights as well. Like mannequin, mannequin lamp workshop. I forget what I do to be honest. I honestly don't know. Half the time you'll have to remind, I have turned up once and there was a workshop on, I forgot. Yeah. So what did I do? Buy a bottle of wine. That's workshop.

Speaker 4:

So if anybody wants to do any work, please come to them. So what again, we've known it too for years and we always bounce ideas off each other. Was what you're up to. What TV show are you doing at the moment? And again, the TV side of stuff for you is really taken off. So you started doing, what was it called? Um, uh, flipping profits. So tell people about that.

Speaker 2:

So flipping profit was just a one off and I don't think they planned it to be a one off, but it was, it was one of the fastest put together shows I've ever known, actually, um, filled very quickly. Um, I did four episodes. Basically it was an upsight. CLA hate the bloody list of so clever market trader and an antiques dealer. Three of us all different. Each episode you get chucked in a town, you buy something, you got to flip it for a profit basically. Um, it was always going to be easy for me because I can do something to it. And antiques dealer they got, you know, it's much harder. Yeah. And that was insane business wise for us. Um, they just started airing it in Australia, New Zealand and that's gone crazy. So we wrapped into, look at triathlon. We had someone actually Monday turn up here from New Zealand to put my stuff in the workshop on TV. Yeah. Straight up. That is insane. Yeah. And my, and she asked if I'd be, cause I wasn't here, I was having copies figured out. Um, I was that baby, she could make her hand lap like right there, like felt sorry forever. No, we're gone. You've come all this way. Gives a bit of notice. So that is been, that was crazy. And then the kids one, the junk rescue. Yes. This is CBD. Well, see, after flipping profit, in fact before political profit, I didn't actually want to do TV. I've got asked to so much money for nothing and all the rest of them. And I was like, I don't need it. I don't, I actually don't even like the formats of those shows, if I'm totally honest, because I would do it as a business. And what they're trying to portray is like, Oh, if you're going to Chuck it to the tip, well if you spend 500 quid on it, you might make 10 quid profit. Like that's not what I do. That's not my ethos of my business, so I didn't want to do that sort of thing. Um, and so they, the production company phoned me and said, look, in fact, the head of the owner of the production company phoned and said, look, this might be a bit left field, but the BBC of asses to make this show, we've written it. Um, it's for kids tell people about it. And I was like, she's not left field at all. I think kids are the future. And like, it's great to, I like everyone remembers their favorite kid's TV show and I'm not competing. I'm not giving them my ideas away. Shit, I'm doing going to do it like definitely up for doing that. I didn't know how, I was not going to swear. I don't have to be you. I keep having to like, yeah, take God gobs of water, but it's worth, um, anyway, so we did, we moved, I moved to Glasgow for a month to fill on the first day. Episode's amazing. Loved it. I mean, I'd never done it for the first 30 episodes. Hates watching. I don't think I even watched more than one because I'm so embarrassed because I've never done anything because actually flipping profit was filmed after John Crestview, but it was aired before. Okay, okay. Just so you're up together. So yeah, it was my first TV I'd ever done and I didn't know what I was doing at all. And they never tell you they T they liked you definitely get a, carry them to do this. You do. And it was minus four in Glasgow in November. I mean, and it was freezing. It's awful. But I loved it. A second series. Oh my God. Just fell into it. Loved it even more. And it, yeah, I really, really enjoyed it and I love the whole thing about it. The kids, we've done some shows with CVBs like this summer, social and different Paul artists meet all those kids and they're queuing up for autographs and they make you things and come and show you. It was absolutely amazing, amazing, really, really lovely woman. Cause when you, when you got it, we were like, you're doing kids. Not in a bad way.[inaudible] how are you not going to swell? How are you going to kill him? Selling things that say, you know, old oil paintings, I've shit graffitied on him or you know, so and, and then of course swipe right for Jesus. I think, you know, you see my work, you know, so I did worry about that, but then I thought, no, the kids really, that age group aren't on my Instagram. It's not my name on my Instagram. That's why I did set up my personal one. So it was a bit more, yeah. But you know, it's what, fine. I love the kids. It's been amazing. It's 60 episodes. I think they want every weekend now. They used to, not every day, but now their weekends at the minute. So gonna repeat around again. Repeat for five years. I look really horribly in the first area. So it's only in an incentive to keep dieting. She looks amazing. She's been on a mission and she's lost working out. Cause I keep seeing junk rescue. Oh God. What's the cake down again? Go. So just

Speaker 1:

finally talk about collaboration, cause I'm in your workshop at the moment and I'll, I can see these amazing wallpapers and these amazing fabrics and things like you said before you started creating and printing your own stuff. But how did the collaborations work? Like, so you've worked with MJ as well?

Speaker 2:

Yes. Okay. So let me explain those. So firstly, I want, I wanted to bring up my own wallpaper. Um, and I knew what I wanted, which is the Comerica, which is the, um, the mixed flamingos and the sexy legs one. So it's like a Flamingo[inaudible]. Yeah. Um, so I knew I wanted that had exactly what I wanted in my head. And at the time I was like, Oh, I can't paint that, can't draw it. How am I going to do it? Cause I was on my own at the time as well. Didn't have our, they didn't have anyone else here. Um, and randomly, I mean this honestly a lot of my, what I do is hard work, but I also have a good doser luck. Um, a girl messaged me and said, I love what you've done with this particular wallpaper I was using. She said, I designed that, but I'm not allowed to say I did. Um, because she worked for a design house. So in house she's on a portfolio not, and I would say she don't. I was like, what? I said, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get paid to design that? And she went 200 quid. I was like, are you shitting me? Like is that your job? Like you just, she's so she explained you design, they put the, the owner of the design house puts them out there. It might go to DVA covers, might go to Walpole, whatever, and you only get paid with it sold. And I thought, what a shower freely, you know, if you're a designer and you're amazing, really talented and you have to do that as a job because you can't find an outlet because a lot of artists aren't business minded. So I said, look, okay, I wonder where am I going all paper, I want to do it with you. I'm going to tell you what I want. Will you paint it for me and I'm going to give you 10% of everything sold period. Ongoing forever. Like you can say you've done it, you can use it in your portfolio. She said, Oh, okay. And she felt a bit weird about it. I was like, just go with it. Like you'll get 10% of everything. So whether it's wallpaper, fabrics, wash bags, whatever. Um, and so we started and she's been getting a fee every last Friday, every month for, since we started, what, two, three years ago.[inaudible] paper. And then MJ is a new collaboration. And I saw her, I knew about a long time ago and I saw her butterflies on her Instagram that she had painted already. So this one was already hers. And I said, look, can we use some of the stuff already painted and put it together? Um, whereas their new one you will die at this. It's a religious based one is insane. Um, she's painted the elements specifically for this wallpaper. Um, that's going to blow everyone. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So your religious ones for people who don't follow you on Instagram, um, you, you, you take old original like, um, Virgin Mary posters or you know,

Speaker 2:

yeah. But that is, this wallpapers is just religious stuff, but it's so it's not a piss take a toll on them. We do[inaudible] gorgeous one where she had someone[inaudible] a woman. Oh yeah. Super woman that was on it. But the Mary, she's just studies on her Instagram now is on it. Um, so yeah, I just wanted to change the way artists can collaborate and earn money and also get noticed because you know, if we collaborated with Loris no one would have known about her because she's not allowed, wouldn't have been allowed to use it. And I think it's just terrible. Um, and yeah, I love working with people cause obviously I can't do the painting. I haven't got time, you know, how much rushing about doing. Um, even if I could train them,

Speaker 4:

we can, you know, I realized that by working and partnering with certain people, you bring different things to

Speaker 2:

I know. So there's no financial risk to them at all. They didn't lay out any of the money. I lay out everything. So I buy all the fabrics, I do all the testing. I, everything is us and they're not anything that sells, they get 10%. So no one's going to leave. It's a win for everybody. And I think a lot more people should work like that and help each other. Cause there's a lot of these groups out there on social media like, Oh, which is covered and we are going to help women empower women. Hey, don't empower women. There's a lot of people that don't. They just either steal your ideas or, and this Lord didn't have to be a woman by all means. Like I think empowering anybody and helping people where you can. I S I knew Laura was talented and together we couldn't use both their strengths to make something fabulous and that has been the biggest hit. I mean now we've got full Calloway's hour I'm working on, we're working on some more together and I love it. I mean I'm always open to new artists as well and new talents. It's at the moment, it's just time for me. I'd like to build a bigger house in house here now. Like take some of the pressure off me so I can work in that area more.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I do enjoy collaborations. Like I work a lot. I do a lot of collaborations and trade swaps and things like that and, and I've realized as well the more, you know, me doing these podcasts, I've approached people like myself and all my friends and with that, yeah we'll do it. I mean people are up for having collaborations and, and being part of something fun. I think there's, you know, as long as you ask them, you always have to.

Speaker 2:

I mean the reason I suggested this, it's like often if they don't post cost and Oh and you've already interviewed some really cool Wiegand like if you think I'm in that I'm in, but you don't always have to get anything out of it either. Like we do. We are choosy only because of the time factor with me and Abby here. Cool. Did you hear my stomach go then apologize for, did he have to find quotes? Um, yeah, we have to be strict only because of the time thing. Yeah. Um, I'm open to anything that comes along that I think, Oh, that'll help them just about helping us. Like that would be nice for them cause I think it's good to give back. You know, I invite people to my workshops for free and I think, do you know what? Yeah, they deserve to be at it. I know, I know. Maybe they can't afford it or they just need some cheering up. It's not, and it's not, I'm not going to get anything out of it. I do, I do like doing things, you know, to give back sometimes. Cause I, I know I come across so different on social media. Like, cause I am loud, I am out there and I am, but I am actually very generous when it comes to like working with people. I just wish I had more hours in a day to be totally honest.

Speaker 4:

You end up measuring your time in your life in time. So we're just going to wrap up now. But when I, when I, when I, when I always finish my podcast, I always ask people, um, you know, I, I class you more in the interior design kind of world. So I want you to describe to me your dream, your fancy or favorite room and what you're drinking when you're in this room.

Speaker 2:

Oh, what am I drinking a lot? Um, my dream room, I've just done it in my lounge, my dream room, let me print carpet. Um, light pink. Actually it's not my drink room because it's not my dream place, but I've gone for everything I like. See I'm born sick of is people who have to do an Instagram is matchy-matchy and everyone at the moment, it's got the same pictures at the same gallery wall and the sameness I just got on in my lounge and I've actually just put in everything I like so it doesn't really match us per se. But actually when I took a photo the other night when they can't pick, just be laid and I'll put everything back. I was like, actually it doesn't, it didn't need to match. It looks good. Like I've just gone with things I like and that's how I feel at the minute. I think you just go for things that make you happy. A lot of people on Instagram go for things because they see someone else who got it. And it's a bit like the Mary debriefs. Like does it make it, what's the name, condo, does it spark joy? Not so you know, wafers that, but it's like, do you like it? Like I've got this shelving you me up that I put uh, painted, um, like pink and everything on it is everything. I've really liked it this summer that I've bought on my travels because I've been doing these cruise ship tours, working on cruise ships, teaching kids how to up cycle. But we miss that and we do another pop tops that we'll have to have a part two. We will have a boat. I bought everything on my travels I liked. So I went to visit[inaudible]. Um, great. So I bought this little Napoleon and gold leaf deer and then I went to Montenegro and didn't realize that very big Christmasy place. And the whole of Montenegro is for the Christmas shop. So I bought these Russian dos Christmas dos. So I've just gone for stuff that I love and it sparks joy this year for me. And what makes me feel nice. Um, lots of pain. That multiple pain. Um, Jack Dennis, the dark Coke. Still going on the drink. Don't want to do another tequila though. Oh, does she like tequila? Yes. We've, we've had many of those. So people want to contact you. What's the best way? What's your website? Mach and brass.com. So Mark, then N for November and then bras, MK and bras.com and social media. Same Mark and brass. All Mark and Ross. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. She's dying. We're killing her off. It's been a pleasure speaking to you Zoe. Thank you. So for coming. Thank you for asking. I'm going to go find my daughter that should be covered in glitter. I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

What did I say? I told you she was absolutely bonkers, but she's absolutely brilliant. I love Zoe. I think she's great. And uh, yeah, I hope you hope that came across in the interview. Uh, if you want to contact though, either forget, you can look her up on all her social media is that she said before. And if you like the idea of using thorn down, paint my sponsor. Don't forget our offering 15% discount on all their online purchases. You just have to put in the TV carpenter when you go online to thorn down.co. Dot. UK. Now, I hope you've enjoyed listening to the podcast. Don't forget you can contact me, Wayne Perry on Instagram or Twitter. Uh, if you could do as a favor and like this, maybe give us five stars. Um, what was really interesting, I was looking through all the stats. This shower's been like viewed all over the world in like far flung places, places I've never even heard of. So, uh, wherever you are in the world, I hope you're enjoying listening to me talk weekly about interior design and garden design and anything home related. And like I say, if you got any questions for me, just get in touch. But all that's left for me to say is thank you for listening to the TV carpenter.

Speaker 5:

[inaudible].