Welcome to The Repair Shop, where cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.
This is the workshop of dreams.
Home to furniture restorer Jay Blades.
Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune on stuff
that, once it's broken, they just bin it.
But everybody has something that means too much to be thrown away.
And that's where we come in.
Working alongside Jay will be some of the country's leading craftspeople.
Every piece has its own story.
It's amazing to think that some of my work becomes part of that story.
I've always played with things, I've always repaired things.
And I just love it.
There is a real pleasure in bringing people's pieces back to life again.
Each with their own unique set of skills...
Right tool for the right job.
..they will resurrect...
..revive and rejuvenate...
..treasured possessions
and irreplaceable pieces of family history...
Wow! She's fantastic!
..bringing both the objects...
Oh! This is what I remember! ..and the memories that they hold...
Wow! ..back to life.
Oh, my God!
In The Repair Shop today,
these three experts have got their hands full.
Kirsten with a delicate reconstruction of an antique
Hungarian vase...
This is where I hold my breath.
Feels really wobbly.
..while a piece of military history gives up its secrets
to leather expert Suzie.
Steve? What have you found?
Oh, my goodness!
That's incredible! Yeah.
But first to arrive at The Repair Shop, Michelle Deadman,
here to see upholstery expert Sonnaz Nooranvary.
Nice to meet you. And you.
Oh, wow!
She's brought a cherished chair that has seen better days.
What an amazing chair! Thank you.
Absolutely fabulous. The design and the finish.
Well, this is my grandpa's chair.
As a small child, I would sit in it a lot in my grandpa's house,
up in Leeds, and whenever I see it now, it reminds me of Grandpa.
I took possession of it
when he passed away in '91. Amazing. So, lots of memories attached.
I used to go up there as a child for two weeks in the summer holidays.
Right. He would look after me. Would he?
And we'd get up to mischief in Leeds. Love it.
But most of the time, it was spent, really, in his front room.
We'd just sit there, we'd talk. And generally have cups of tea.
Would you? He sounds like a fabulous character. He was.
He was very gentle. A gentle, quiet man, actually.
Was he? Mm. Fabulous. So, when you see this chair...
Yes, it brings back memories of him standing there,
in front of his coal fire.
And making funny noises with his hands. Yeah.
And just memories like that. Yeah. Precious. Very precious.
Looking at the chair,
it tells me that it's from the Arts and Crafts period.
That kind of movement was about 1880 to about 1920.
So you can see it's very stripped back and it's very sort of
simple, but there's an elegance to it, as well. I like it.
The woodwork's got this fantastic patina on it. Yes.
From where you and grandad have sat in it and it would be a shame
really to polish any of this sort of special patina out. Yeah.
It's something that only time can create. Yeah.
And it's still sort of that connection to those memories.
I like it as it is, in actual fact.
It would seem odd if it suddenly changed. Yeah.
But obviously, here, it's seen better days, so doing this
and replacing these studs here, just bringing it back to life. Yeah.
Lovely. It's feeling very sad. It needs some love.
It would be an absolute joy to give this chair some upholstery love.
It would mean a lot.
It will be really emotional,
being able to sit in it and use it again and it will be lovely.
Really nice to sit there and think - I'm finally back in Grandpa's chair.
I think when I first sit in it,
I'll probably wish Grandpa was somewhere near me, that I was
back in those times, that I could be there in his front room with him.
Because I do still miss him, actually.
The Arts and Crafts movement was a distinctive school of design,
which developed in the 19th century as a reaction against the
growing industrialisation of Victorian Britain.
It's typified by its simple style and in recent years has
become very collectible.
So, you know this is a very important chair, right?
An extremely important chair.
So you're going to have to do a brilliant job on this. As usual!
You always do a brilliant job. Yeah. As usual.
So, what are we doing now?
The real idea of this piece is to preserve it,
rather than restore it into a new chair. Yeah.
Because it's really important to Michelle that when she looks
at it, it's as she remembers it. It still holds those memories.
So that's the main thing. Absolutely. But the seat...
Seat base, right. I'll show you the seat base. So, you can see,
I'd say that's probably never been recovered before.
Or reupholstered certainly in its life. I mean, this hessian is old.
What I do know at this stage is that it is coil sprung.
Can you see those in there? Yeah.
Traditionally, so I think a chair like this, you can't not put
traditional coil springs back in and stitch a horse hair base in it.
Yeah. Again. So, you're going to reupholster this the traditional
way - or the Sonnaz way, I should say.
Which is the proper way. The proper way. Exactly. Cool.
We couldn't put a bit of foam on this. No, no.
It would just be a travesty. No, it would. Good luck. OK.
Sonnaz's first task is to strip the old upholstery from the frame.
It soon becomes clear that the chair has arrived at
The Repair Shop in the nick of time.
You can see how brittle everything is.
And it's literally falling apart, just by me pulling it.
I don't think I've ever been able to rip the hessian and the
fabric off quite so easily as this before.
Stripping is the worst job out of the whole process cos it's
just so messy and dusty and gross.
And it can take so much time, as well.
So now, I've got this whole seat base stripped out and now
it's time to build the whole thing back up again.
Next into The Repair Shop is ex-military man Ian Matthews,
with a family heirloom for the attention of Steve Fletcher.
Is it Ian? It is, yes. Hello. Steve. Pleased to meet you. Hi.
What have we got here, then?
It's a riding crop. A riding crop? Yes.
Not had a riding crop come in before. Ooh!
This looks very interesting.
Suzie? Yeah. Would you like to come over and have a look at this? Sure.
Steve will be joining forces with his sister,
leather expert and master saddle maker Suzie.
Oh, my word!
Yes. So, how did you come by this?
It was my great-uncle's.
Um, it was passed down to me by his brother and it's been in the
family ever since.
It was relatively in that condition when I got it.
OK. So he was a rider, obviously. Yes, he was in the military.
He was in the military. Yes.
Royal Field Artillery. Is it a ceremonial thing?
It was presented for being best wheel.
And what exactly does that mean?
That's being in charge of the gun carriage. That's of him in uniform.
OK. And that's at a time when he'd be using this?
Roughly about the same time, yes.
Do you know how old he was at this point?
When he went in, he would have been 17, going on 18.
I see there's, um... an engraving on the top there.
DR Matthews. And AC? AG.
AG. Albert George.
Ah! OK.
How old were you when you were given this? I was about 12. All right, OK.
Oh, really? And what did it mean to you when you were 12?
Um, not a lot. Well, I was wondering that!
It was actually used like a toy. Yeah. Oh! For many years. Right, OK.
But it's become more important to you as years have gone on
because you've known the history.
Yes. Being in the military myself and then,
you can appreciate the military aspect of it. I think it's stunning.
I would be very excited to own something like this.
I think it's beautiful. And what can you do to restore this?
So, the collar and the end needs
to come off and replace the leatherwork
here which will be pigskin because pigskin's very thin
but very, very strong.
Perhaps, Steve, you could help with the cleaning up of the metalwork.
Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah? Absolutely. Yeah.
Are you very attached to this particular piece of leather? No!
So, I can replace with a new piece of leather and whip on and
make it all look nice and tidy. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for bringing it in. Take care.
When I was given it at the age of 12,
I used to play with it in our back garden.
Didn't like to mention, but I actually used it for scrumping,
for getting the apples out of a tree.
Not knowing its real significance.
I'm feeling a little bit nervous about how it will come out in
the end. But looking forward to seeing it completed.
Before Suzie can work on the leather,
Steve first has to find a way to remove the metal tip.
Can I make you a cup of coffee? That's my coffee mug. I know, sorry.
It's hoof glue tea. Oh, lovely... What is it you're doing?
Just trying to heat this up because I'm pretty sure there'll be
hoof glue or some such thing that needs heating up, it'll go soft. OK.
And then it should just pull off.
OK.
It's not moving at all at the moment.
Um, so I might just put a flame on there, actually. OK.
Just a gentle flame, just so it gets really, really hot.
It's not going to melt this, is it? No, no, no.
I'll just be really gentle with it.
If you've got a bit of spare leather... OK.
Just wrap round it, so it doesn't hurt my hand when I hold onto it.
Will this work? Yeah.
Yeah, look.
That's coming off. It is. It's just popping off, look at it.
It's sliding off. Well, I'm blowed, look.
Oh, wow! The heat is pushing it off. Wow!
Ow! Hot? Yes!
Looks like treacle. Yeah. So... Caramel. Yes!
So when we put it back on again...
..we just have to put some more hoof glue in. Yeah.
Heat it up and push it on. Yeah.
Well, at least we know - we have a plan of action. Yeah.
With her own plan of attack,
Sonnaz is preparing to rebuild the armchair,
starting with the springs, which are essential for giving the seat
form - and the user a nice, comfortable sit.
This is the planning stage of my springs.
There are different grade springs.
The grade denotes the springiness or the firmness.
All of these are 9-gauge springs.
So they're sort of soft, but not firm,
cos we want it to be comfortable, but not hard.
Now I've tied all my springs in, I am lashing them in.
You've got to make sure that the knot doesn't move,
so it's nice and tight. And that the spacings here are even,
otherwise your springs won't be straight and they'll be off.
This is true traditional springing up of a base.
My sort of favourite motto
is "every stage has a knock-on effect to the next stage".
It's crucial that I get these springs in the right place and sort
of mirrored, so they're all even,
and that my lashing's all good, etc, etc.
With the springs in place, Sonnaz begins to layer the seat pad.
So this is the base haired up now. I've stuffed it with horse hair.
There's no real exact science.
Each upholsterer would do sort of their own version of a pad.
What my plan is for this is to actually stitch some calico to the
top of my padding here and then have my fabric go over the top of that.
It can give you sometimes a bit of a nicer finish.
The whole objective really for putting so much thought and
effort into how best to reupholster this pad is really to make it as
comfortable as possible for Michelle.
I imagine, having had a little chat with her about her grandad,
that she would be sitting in this chair for long periods of time,
thinking about the good times that she had, so I think it's
worth the thought and effort to get it absolutely right.
Sonnaz covers and stitches the layers of seat padding into
place, ready for the fabric.
It's this final layer that is giving her most cause for concern.
I'm really quite nervous to reveal
this chair to Michelle
because of my fabric choice.
Michelle specifically said that she doesn't want the chair to
change much from how she remembers it.
If I put a shiny new, with bright blues and bright greens, as per
the original on there, my worry is that would be too new for Michelle.
On the original chair, there was actually also this lovely cord.
So I've chosen a cord that's slightly bigger, so that it's really
going to be obvious and is similar to the original cord,
in both design and colours.
Now for this bit.
Here is where it joins.
When this comes round and sits round that corner like that,
and this one meets it, here, I actually made a little cuff
that's going to wrap around them both and disguise the join.
Lovely.
Great. Thank goodness for that.
It fits nicely. That's a real relief.
I just hope that Michelle likes it as much as I do.
Next into The Repair Shop, Joanna Fay.
With her is her half-brother Julian Rowe.
She's brought an item for ceramics restorer Kirsten Ramsay.
Hello. How are you? I'm good, thank you. I'm Julian. I'm Kirsten. Jo-Jo.
Hi, Jo-Jo. Nice to meet you.
Do you want to get it out of the box? Here we go.
This looks interesting. Very pretty, isn't it? Oh, wow!
The vase belongs to Jo-Jo and Julian's 83-year-old mother,
Patricia.
Let's have a look. So, it's broken, I can see, across the handle.
What a shame. My mother broke it while cleaning.
We've tried to fix it, but...not very well.
What can you tell me about this piece?
Well, this belonged to my father,
who tragically died in a gas explosion very early on in his life.
Oh! It's the only piece I have of my father.
It's the only thing I can remember him by, really.
So, really precious. Yes.
Cos everything else got destroyed in the explosion. Oh, no!
This was the only thing that survived.
So, when was that?
I was just 11 at the time. Right. So this is why it means such a lot.
Yeah, I can understand that.
And do you have sort of memories of it...?
It's been on the sideboard forever. For as long we can remember. Golly!
Right. So, when was this actually broken?
Cos it looks like quite an old repair.
It is old. About 35 years. Right. So, this is your mum's vase.
Does she actually know that it's here?
She does. She does, yes.
But she won't do by the time we take it back to her,
cos she's suffering from dementia.
So it's a short-term dementia. Right.
So she'll remember the vase, she'll remember breaking it, etc. OK.
But by the time we take it back to her, fixed, hopefully,
she'll be absolutely over the moon and gobsmacked, won't she? She will.
She was actually devastated when she broke it.
I completely get that, yeah.
So it's actually going to mean a lot to lots of people, isn't it? It is.
In different ways.
Goodness! I do feel the weight of responsibility, I have to say!
We wouldn't take it to anyone else. No, we actually wouldn't.
The heartbreak my mother experienced when she broke it,
I remember that clearly, when we were very young.
It means an awful lot to me because it's the only thing that I've
got of my father.
And it was quite a tug on my heart strings to let it go.
It's going to mean a lot to the family.
Produced in Budapest in the mid 1800s, the vase was designed
by Ignac Fischer, who specialised in highly decorative pottery.
Now, that's what I call a beautiful jug.
You probably caught it sparkling... It was, actually. Yeah.
So, what is it used for? Is it, like, just dried flowers or something putting in there?
It's decorative, it's Hungarian.
And it's got this quite sort of distinctive cream background
and pierced work. Can I touch it? I ask before...
Actually, you've already touched it. Have I? Yeah. You came straight in!
Touched it. I thought I'd trained you. Oh, no, you didn't.
I'm a rebel. Look at that! That's broken, isn't it?
It's REALLY broken. Ooh! Yeah. There's actually a hole there.
Oh, it's a hole. Yeah, there's a hole, a bit missing, goes right the way round.
And then we've got these bits on the... Actually, there as well.
And here. Basically, everywhere you look. I'm quite chuffed. I know!
I touched it again.
Suzie's getting to grips with the worn handle from the
World War I riding crop.
How are you getting on with that whip, then?
Well, you came right at the beginning,
so just beginning to take off the glue here. Right.
I'm going to strip off this handle. That glue's gone, hasn't it?
Look at that! Yeah, it's hoof glue. Hoof glue.
Taking all of this leather off because I'm going to replace
it with this pigskin.
And I'm going to dye this to match the original colour.
Was this dyed, then, originally? Cos that looks a different colour.
It probably was very, very light, but over the years,
it just tones down with the use.
OK. Just gets that lovely patina on it.
And so, I'm just going to try and replicate it with dyeing it.
But all this little stitching, can you see how tiny that stitching is?
Now, this is what I think - I don't know how you do that,
cos you've got to stitch that when it's on the actual cane. Yeah.
On the whip. Yeah. So, how do you do that?
It's a little thicker here than it is own here,
so I have to taper everything down and keep the seam exactly straight.
You still haven't answered. How do you do that? That's magic.
It's magic? It is magic.
So I can pull up a chair and just watch you do a magic show?
If you like! If you like. Right!
But you'd be sat there for a while. I don't have to wish you luck.
I know you're going to do a great job. Thank you.
OK. So I'm going to see you soon, anyway. OK, sounds good. Bye-bye.
While unravelling the old leather,
Suzie makes an interesting discovery.
Hey, Steve.
Come and have a look and see what I've found.
What have you found?
So, on this riding crop, when I took the leather off... Oh, my goodness!
Oh! The paperwork underneath and it came off on the leather here.
Yeah.
And I'm just peeling off this top layer
and trying to see what was written.
They've got "stable"... Yeah.
And I think this is going to be "management".
Cos I'm assuming that this was made in the military saddlers. Right.
And they would have used whatever paper was to hand.
That's incredible! Yeah.
Let me know when you uncover some more. OK.
I'm intrigued. Me, too.
But more meticulous unpicking doesn't reveal quite the
military secrets Suzie was expecting.
This is like the minutes of the Allotment Association.
And up here, the stable is, I think,
an advert because that name,
is it, Lame, it runs all the way through it. Oh, OK.
Yeah. Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.
I thought I'd show you before I cover it up with leather for
another 100 years. Oh! So, where are we up to on this, then?
So, um, I'm just going to clean the rest of it up a little bit
and then I'll be covering it with the leather. Right.
If you could repair the cap that we took off...
Yeah, the cap actually has got a split in it.
I didn't see that. Yeah. So, there's a split there. I've closed it up.
OK.
And I'm going to put a small slither of metal underneath there, just...
Oh, yeah. You see it? It's the way it's been made, all the way down
here, but it's split away from there. OK.
So I'm going to strengthen it by just putting a very fine
sliver of metal and soldering that on.
Right. Good. Thanks. How exciting! I know.
While Steve fixes the metal end, Suzie prick-marks the leather
for the handle, carefully punching holes, ready to be stitched.
I'm pulling the thread through, as I'm pushing the needle,
because I don't want the needle to go into the thread.
This is when the leather can tear, so just take your time.
One slip up could ruin the entire piece of leather,
setting Suzie back several hours.
The beauty with handstitched items is that they're very,
very strong because the threads are going in and out and then a
step and they're crossing from the left to the right,
whereas machine stitching, the threads link in the middle.
Once the stitching is done and the metal end repaired,
Steve and Suzie can finally put the crop's handle back together.
So, I'm at this point where we're ready to glue the cap back on.
OK, is it tight? Yep.
Is think put the glue in here first. OK.
Twist, twist.
Just... There you go. There you go.
Oh, look at that!
Yes!
It's beautiful, Suzie.
Well done. Well done. Thank you very much.
Right, what are you going to do with the other end?
I have to whip this little tab on. Oh, right, OK.
That'll take you five secs. Won't take me very long.
So, nearly done. OK.
Across the workshop,
the expert eye of Sonnaz has spotted some clues to suggest there
may have been more to this armchair than she first thought.
I've been sort of looking at the back as I've been working on it,
and I definitely do think that there was a cushion on the back here,
attached in the corners with the studs.
Another clue to back up that theory is the fact that the centre of the
back is in really good condition and we can actually see rub marks
either side, where the cushion wasn't,
so I think that it would be a really lovely touch to actually make
a cushion and reattach it in the same place it was when Michelle's
grandad had the chair.
This is the first time I've ever secured a cushion to the inside back
of a chair, so it's a new experience and it's a new look for me.
I quite like it, actually.
I like the contrast between the brass, the cord and the velvet.
I absolutely can't wait for Michelle to have this chair back.
I do really sort of enjoy the thought, really, of her sitting in
this chair and reminiscing about her time with her grandad,
cos it sounds to me like they had a really lovely relationship.
Michelle's grandfather actually lived in Vancouver, and my
grandad lived in Vancouver, as well. We were really close and, you know,
all I've got is fond memories of him, so I totally,
totally understand Michelle's connection with this chair
and if only I had a chair off any of my grandparents to remember
them by, I just think it's a really lovely, special thing.
So...this is the moment I've been waiting for all day.
Great.
Great, great, great.
Owner Michelle brought the chair in to The Repair Shop after
years of loving use had rendered it tatty and worn.
I don't think I've ever seen the chair in its proper state,
so that might be a bit of a surprise to me.
Overall, though, I'm really excited to see it.
Also here to witness the transformation,
Michelle's mother, Cecile.
That chair was special. The fact that after he died,
the one thing she really wanted was Grandpa's chair.
And I don't think we can quite believe now what we're going to see.
I think it's going to be quite exciting!
Hi! Hi! Nice to see you. How are you? Good, thanks. How are you?
I'm very well. Sonnaz, this is my mum.
Can you remember what your chair looked like when you brought it in?
It was in a sorry state. Sad. Really sad and unloved by me.
Well, I won't keep you any longer. I'm too excited. Are you ready?
I'm ready.
Oh, Mum! Oh, yes! You've got it exactly! Lovely!
It is, isn't it, Mum?
It's fantastic!
That's amazing!
It just looks the same as Grandpa's chair.
Thank you so much! That is lovely!
My pleasure. Look at the cord and look at the back of it now!
We've got a back, Mum! Yes!
I was absolutely petrified
that you wouldn't like the colour of the fabric.
Oh, were you? Yeah, totally. No, it suits it.
This fabric sort of echoed the original. It does.
Without looking new. Yeah.
Because one of the things that I heard you say was,
"I just don't really want it to change."
Now it's there and it's like that,
I can almost put that right into Grandpa's front room again.
They're such treasured memories, aren't they? They are.
And that's what it's about. So I can't thank you enough. Thank you.
My pleasure. My pleasure. It has been...
Throughout the process, I've just been thinking about how...
Oh, Sonnaz. You're getting all emotional.
You're thinking about Grandpa and just the story. I know.
Because it's just such a special relationship that you had and
I had a really good relationship with my grandad.
It's brought back memories for you, as well. Yeah.
Yeah. I know. And I really do wish I still had Grandpa about.
But I just think it's such a lovely thing to have that's
connected you to Grandpa, really.
Yeah. I know. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Really appreciate it.
Thank you.
When she unveiled the chair, I wished Grandpa was with us still.
I really do. You just long for that person back in your life.
It was really something seeing Sonnaz become quite emotional
about the chair, along with us because she has a connection
with her grandfather, as I have with Grandpa.
You can see how deeply she felt for the chair itself and it's not
just the story - it's the chair, as well. It's lovely.
She's smashing. I can't believe she's done it so beautifully.
I'm really happy she has.
Ceramic expert Kirsten is beginning to unpick the old repairs on
the Hungarian vase. It's previously been restored,
but I think Joanna said it was perhaps something like 30 years
ago, so I'm going to undo all the previous restoration,
take that off, clean it, and hopefully, there's only a couple
of tiny little pieces missing, so I can then reassemble it.
Breaking down the bonds of some old adhesives can be difficult.
And Kirsten's having to delve deep into her restorer's armoury.
What's in there, then? Just a Hungarian vase.
I'm still trying to take this apart, actually.
Do you remember it had quite a lot of sort of old yellow glue on it?
And what I've been doing is just starting off with some
acetone, actually, to see if that would just soften the old adhesive.
It hasn't. Right.
I'm now on to industrial methylated spirits. OK.
And that seems to be doing the trick. Look, it's actually starting
to soften. So, you're going to have that apart, then?
Now to find out her efforts have paid off.
Ooh! My goodness!
That's absolutely brilliant. Look at this.
That seems to be working quite well. Oh, is it? Yeah.
So, that's sort of the main section that's come off the back of
the vase there. And it's softened all this old glue. Right.
Which now comes away very easily.
OK. But I think now that bit's come away, hopefully, it's under way.
After deconstructing the vase,
Kirsten can begun reconstructing it, starting with the trickiest section.
Handles are always very difficult.
You have to sort of balance the bits and they wobble around,
so that's what I'm going to attempt to do now.
So I've got my pieces prepared and... Oops!
And I'm just using an adhesive here that is suitable for
earthenware, which is what this piece is made of.
Right. This is where it gets difficult.
Kirsten must now simultaneously line up,
stick and hold the pieces in place,
all before the adhesive hardens, and with only one pair of hands.
This is quite tricky.
I just dot the glue into the middle
of the piece that I'm sticking because most people just use
far too much glue and it all squashes out.
This is where I hold my breath.
Feels really wobbly.
But with the help of some very modern sticky tape,
this 150-year-old vase is starting to take shape.
But Kirsten isn't taking any risks.
I'm not quite ready to take my hands off,
I'm still anchoring stuff in place with the tape.
Um...
I don't want it to collapse in a big heap.
Time to check if the adhesive and the tape have done their job.
The piece feels quite stable and strong and that's quite a relief.
Yeah, I'm happy with that. I'm now just going to start filling it.
I'm just going to use a filler here that cures extremely quickly
and it also will give some strength to the body of the vase by
filling all these little missing areas.
It's quite a tricky restoration.
With the piece now intact, and her repairs filled and sanded,
Kirsten can turn her attention to the intricate decoration.
There's so many different styles in this piece.
You've got this almost sort of Satsuma-y style,
you've got an almost sort of Islamic style round here.
It's interesting.
You look so closely at all the different details,
as you try and emulate - well, mimic them, really.
I love this sort of retouching.
Everyone's under strict instructions to leave me alone at the moment.
So...
Also absorbed by her repair - Suzie.
The end is in sight for the restoration of the
much-treasured riding crop.
This is the final part, the little leather tab on the end,
that the old one was actually not the original.
So I've glued the tab on and then I've taped around it and now
I'm just whipping it on, using a linen thread that I've waxed.
And you want to get the thread tight up against the previous
thread and then pull it up.
It's a little tricky on this crop because it's not straight, so as I'm
turning it under my arm here, it has a little bit of a sticking point.
What I'm doing is replicating how this crop was originally made.
It's lovely to keep the old ways alive.
Pop the end of the thread through this loop.
I'm going to pull the loop ends through.
And I just need to trim this off.
And then put some varnish or glue on it
and that'll stay on for many, many years.
Ian's back and he's keen to see if the riding crop he once used
for his boyhood apple scrumping has been restored to its former glory.
The riding crop was in a very bad state of repair.
I had used it as a child to play with.
I would like to see the riding crop as it was made originally, so that
myself and my family can understand what the item actually looked like.
Because in its state that I brought it down, it wasn't very good.
Hello, Suzie. Good to see you. Nice to see you. Come on in.
I've got something to show you. I hope so!
Do you remember what it looked like when you brought it in?
Unfortunately, yes. OK. So, here we go.
Oh, wow!
So, what I did was I replaced the leather that was all torn. Yes.
And we... Remember that big dent you had in here? Yes.
So, Steve very kindly managed to get rid of that for us.
And I whipped on a new piece of leather for you.
And all of this was handstitched.
Made my eyes go a bit wobbly when I was doing it. It looks fantastic.
But hopefully, you'll put it in a pride of place somewhere.
In the living room at home,
there will be some pictures and when I eventually get the
reproduction of his medals, they'll be going with it as well.
So, you can have a whole big display on Great-Uncle Albert. Hopefully.
It's the only piece of history we have from him that generation
of our family. Oh, wow! It's an object that they can hold. Exactly.
And say, he held that almost 100 years ago.
What a wonderful way to keep somebody's memory alive.
The family think it's fantastic. Yeah.
Difficult to put into words the emotions you feel,
knowing that a member of your family is held, used something like that.
And you are now the custodian of it. That is fantastic.
On the restoration of the Hungarian vase, Kirsten is still
meticulously toiling away, applying some fine decorative details.
She's using a blend of gold and bronze powders in a clear
glaze to gild the piece.
You must be finished! Eh? I have, yeah. Have you? Yeah.
No, but hold on, where have you done it? Like, where...?
That's a compliment, actually.
Thank you. I can see the damage, which is good. Thank you. Wow!
I think Julian and Joanna are going to be amazed by that.
Amazed. Yeah.
I know that their mum, Patricia, has really sort of missed this
piece, actually, while I've been working on it.
And I think they're quite keen to get it back to her.
You've done a blinding job. Thank you, Jay.
Kirsten has managed to return this collectible antique vase back
to near original condition, erasing the ailing repairs and
painstakingly mimicking the extraordinary paintwork.
It's time to send this beloved piece and all the memories it holds
back home to its owner, Patricia.
Julian is taking charge of this special delivery,
as half-sister Jo-Jo is away.
Today, we're very excited because my mother's going to be seeing
it in what was its original condition,
which she's not seen that for probably the last 30 years.
She knows something's going on,
she's not 100% sure what it is, but today's the day.
How you doing?
What's this? I've got a surprise for you.
Wow!
Do you remember in the summer when you shouted at me for taking
Harvey's vase away?
You've not! Oh, you've not!
I'll be honest, I've not seen it yet, so I'm hoping beyond hope.
So, let's just have a look, see what we've got.
Oh, Ju!
It's like... It's done!
OK, there you go, just check it out.
Oh, I daren't touch it! Check it out.
Oh, my goodness! It's perfect!
Are you happy?
I'm over the moon.
I mean, quite genuinely, from the bottom of my heart,
I'm over the moon!
Thank you so much! You're so welcome.
Oh, Julian! Thank you, darling! It's wonderful.
I love you.
I love you, too.
What a lovely, lovely gesture, Ju. Speaking for Jo-Jo,
it's the only real tangible thing that she's got of her father's.
The only real tangible memory that she's got of him.
You know, the one thing that she can actually touch and feel and see,
and they've done a splendid job.
I can't believe it.
For goodness' sake, don't drop it. I won't! I promise I won't drop it!
Whatever happens!
It's had a few adventures.
Happy, Mum? Yes. That's perfect. Thank you, darling.
Join us next time, as more neglected items are rescued...
This is in a bit of a bad state.
Almost looks like it's been dropped down the stairs.
..and their cherished memories restored...
Wow! ..in The Repair Shop.