The Flip Runway Awards come but once a year to celebrate all the amazing furniture refinishers in the UK. A very prestigious event with the all biggest names in the industry associated with them. When i first heard of these awards I looked at their photographs from the previous awards with awe and thought to myself "maybe one day in years from now I would be good enough to enter".
Fast forward a few months and the awards are around the corner the Award organisers announce because of covid 19 the format has changed and it was all online. I thought why not I will enter to gain some experience and being online no one would see me or know me. I had completed a rather beautiful piece using fusion paints it had beautiful exposed wood and the most amazing floral decal, not forgetting, a raised stencil, gold decor wax and my signature moulds so in January 2021 i sent in my submission.
8th January was the night when the finalists were announced during a live video event on Facebook the excitement was fantastic so many of my furniture artist friends were there all rooting for eachother some of us even got all dressed up with a glass of wine. One by one the categories came and went and my name was not called out then the mixed media category was announced , this was my category i use so many different mediums but alas no my name was not called so i kicked off my fancy shoes and went to the kitchen when i heard, "Gink Design" !
Surely it was as mistake as the creative and mixed media categories were gone but it was right and I was up as a finalist for the "Spotlight Award". This was an amazing honour the question asked was "What did you do to overcome the adversity of 2020" in no more than 150 words. I simply wrote about me and my wee family and how refinishing furniture had helped us through lockdown after lockdown and how my teenagers all got an enormous benefit from helping me with the preparation and the painting and making moulds. How it helped fill a void for them as they all have autism and their support network and services such as art therapy and equine therapy had stopped due to covid 19. They were so very dependant on these services to help them cope on a day to day basis but refinishing furniture had replaced some of these and they were really enjoying learning and acquiring new skills.
The results are being announced in 4 days, whatever happens I am glad i entered and I am delighted that i got to show the abilities of my amazing teens, there might be lots of things they can't and may never do but the flip runway awards are showcasing what they have achieved and that is a special thing in especially during these horrible covid times
