A workshop full of wonders.
I heard the word "watch."
THEY LAUGH
Home to experts in time-honoured crafts.
Hopefully we've caught this in the nick of time.
Together, repairing treasured pieces of the past...
Oh, no.
Wow, look at that.
Wow! Look at that!
THEY LAUGH
TRIANGLE DINGS
Quite proud of that.
..and unlocking their stories.
I'm completely blown away by this.
Oh, dear.
Bringing the broken...
MACHINE CLATTERS, BELL RINGS
Oh, I'm desperate to take a look.
..back to life.
Oh, fantastic!
Oh, my...
Wow, this is amazing!
Yeah!
Welcome to the Repair Shop.
- Morning, Brenton. - Morning. - Good morning. How are you? - Very well.
- Beautiful day. - Isn't it lovely? - Almost too hot for a coat. - I know.
WHIRRING
Itching to get stitching, Amanda and Julie,
welcoming another double act to the barn,
Jeff from Newmachar in Scotland
with his sidekick, Hamish.
THEY CHUCKLE
My goodness. Look.
- Hello. - Hello.
- Welcome to the barn. - Thank you.
Look at this. Who's this?
This is Hamish.
And he's in a little bit of a sad state of affairs.
- Can I take his arm? - Sure.
THEY LAUGH
- Oh, mate. - Look at him.
Where did you get him from?
- So, I'm a magician... - Ah.
..and I got him at a magic convention
probably about 20 years ago.
- OK. - And as soon as I saw him, I had to just have him.
How do your audiences react when you bring Hamish on?
As soon as they see his face
and he opens his mouth with a great big smile, everybody loves him.
It's more than ten years since I last performed with him...
- Really? That long? - ..and people still ask about him. - Wow.
- So you must miss him as well. - Yeah, of course I did.
He's such a cool little dude,
and he's just the life and soul of a show.
How old is Hamish?
I think he was created in the early 1990s
by a brilliant puppeteer called Dave Showler.
He had worked with the Muppets
- and he was one of the puppeteers. - Wow.
- Gosh, that is exciting. - It is, isn't it?
- We've got puppet royalty. - We have, haven't we?
- But I think he went for a lot of one-offs. - Mm-hm. - Right.
- So, as far as I'm aware, Hamish is a one-of-a-kind. - Wow.
Which is why I would love him to have a new lease of life.
So when...when did this damage happen?
Just wear and tear.
And I guess all the travels that we've been on.
His arm fell off, very embarrassingly, during a show.
- No! - Yeah. And I looked horrified,
and the audience just fell about laughing,
- thinking it was all part of the act. - THEY LAUGH
- Did he used to have clothes on? - He did.
He used to have an orange T-shirt
and really cool tartan trousers,
- or trews as we say in Scotland. - Trews.
- And it's really sticky inside his head as well. - Oh.
I don't know if anything can be done about that.
And you may notice that these are not his real eyes.
So I'd love to take him back out
to bring joy to so many different audiences as well.
Jeff, thank you so much for bringing Hamish to us.
He's absolutely adorable. I can't wait to get started on him.
No, it's very exciting to have him here.
- And thank you for trusting us. - Yes!
Oh, no. Thank you so much.
Are you going to say goodbye?
He said no!
Bye-bye, Hamish.
- Thank you so much. - Safe journey, Jeff. Bye-bye. - Bye.
SLURPING
Come on, let's take him.
So it's very sticky in there. Something Jeff did mention.
And obviously, we can't leave him with these stuck-on eyes, can we?
- So I'll take that. - Yeah. - You can have everything else.
Oh, thank you very much.
- I'm going to restuff his arms and legs. - Yeah.
And I'll make him some clothes as well. How about that?
- Good idea. - Yeah? - Yeah.
Nearly there.
- There we go. - Oh, well done.
From the fabric and fluff of the bear bench
to some tougher stuff.
A challenge for a new face in the barn -
architectural stonemason Rich Fraser.
Thank you so much for coming down
to give us a hand with this.
It's in quite a few pieces, isn't it?
Have you ever fixed something like this before?
- Well, usually when it's on the walls. - OK!
So this is a new one for me.
John and Margaret Ivin are hoping
Rich can save this precious piece of the past.
Hi. Welcome to the barn. Come on in. Take a seat.
- Get comfy. - Thank you.
It's so nice to meet you both.
I don't know where to start with this.
We've both got so many questions.
What is it?
Well, it's a section of our kitchen wall.
Last summer, we had our kitchen renovated
and our builder came in and said,
"Just come and look, I've found something."
Where they'd taken one of the original cupboards off the wall,
this was behind it,
and it was a complete shock to see it there.
Who wrote this, then?
- It was our late son, Christopher. - Yeah.
Chris.
Yeah. Back in... When he was about 14.
Trying to work out what it actually says.
- Can you can you read it? - It says... - Yeah.
"This is original wallpaper.
"Friday, 4:15,
"8th of December, 1989.
"Please leave this wallpaper. Chris."
I wonder what made him write that on the wall.
He often wrote, scribbled little notes
- that he would leave around the house. - Did he?
- And some of them just, "I love you." - Yeah. - Aye.
- It was often written. - Just to you guys? - Mm. - Yeah. - Yeah.
Do you mind if I ask what happened to him?
He got a very, very rare form of cancer.
- Testicular. - Testicular cancer.
How old was he at this point, then?
Coming up to 35.
Just in his 30s.
- It was 18 months from diagnosis to when he died. - Yeah.
- It was so quick. - Yeah. - Yeah.
I'm so sorry.
When you lose a child, you never get over it.
You get through it.
And we've just got through it.
- It must have been emotional... - Yeah.
- ..seeing Chris's name signed there. - Yeah.
Yeah, it's just amazing.
- Couldn't believe it when we saw it. - No.
Couldn't believe it.
The builder, we didn't know he was going to do it.
We could hear machinery, tools working,
and he walks in with it in his hands.
- He'd cut it off the wall. - With a side cutter.
Wow.
- And he brought it in. - He's left a real treasure there.
I can imagine you being in the room and finding it.
He said, "Well, I thought you might want it, so..."
- Lovely builder. What a nice thing to do. - Yeah. - Yes.
- And it was in one piece? - It was in one piece.
- Yeah, one piece. - Yes. - One piece.
What's happened?
So I really carefully carried it upstairs,
and I laid it down very, very gently.
It just went...
Oh.
- Just crumbled? - Yeah. Yeah.
The-the plaster is so brittle and unstable,
so there's no surprise it's been damaged.
- You think, "Can't throw it away," cos it means so much. - Yeah.
- It's... - It's part of him.
- Is that how it feels? - Yeah. - Yeah.
It would be so nice to have it back.
Actually his handwriting would be a treasure.
A real treasure, as he was.
Thank you. And I promise you, we will do the best we can.
- I'm sure you will. - Whatever it takes.
Thank you very much.
- Bless them. - Yeah.
- Where do you even start, looking at this? - There's so much going on.
The paper is really fragmented,
so that's very risky.
I'll have to take my time. I might need some help.
That's fine. Leave that with me.
- I'll sort the paper part. - It's not going to be easy.
- Come on, then, let's get you to your bench. - OK. Thank you.
I need to get eyes on all these pieces
and work out what condition each individual piece is in.
I'm really nervous about handling this.
This is a gypsum plaster, which is very brittle.
HE SIGHS
I'm hoping that I don't see any fractures underneath any of these.
There's a very deep fracture going in three directions.
So that's bad news. That's worst-case scenario.
And that's cracked as well.
There are a lot more fractures on the back ground plaster
than I was expecting.
I'm going to have to stabilise them
before I put the jigsaw back together.
I'm using a restoration adhesive here
because it is viscous enough to penetrate these cracks...
..which will bond the pieces back together.
Everything I do cannot affect...
..the writing on the paper.
Hamish has got a fine pedigree.
And actually, by undoing this,
I'm actually learning how he worked and what he did.
Inside this head is some foam rubber,
and the foam rubber is starting to break down.
I guess it's just reacting to, you know, hot hands or whatever,
and it is very sticky.
Oh, here we go.
Oh, my goodness, look at that.
Ew.
SHE LAUGHS
I can see here the foam rubber -
it's actually like glue.
I'm really happy with the way
we've got rid of all that nasty stickiness.
So where I've scooped out that top layer of foam rubber,
I'm going to actually replace that as my first layer of lining.
So I've been making these templates.
This one is the upper jaw,
and I've already put that together so that will just slot in.
I've got a smaller one that I still need to make.
I chose this particular foam
because it's nice and thin.
I can't bulk this out too much
because Jeff's hand needs to get in to be able to work Hamish's mouth.
Oh, my goodness.
Feels so much better.
I've got to get all of this foam rubber now stuck into place,
and then it will be time to put the cotton layer over the top.
And his lining will be finished.
Braced to face one almighty puzzle,
Rich has spent hours consolidating the fractured chunks of plaster.
With every piece now solid and strong,
it's time to start the big rebuild.
So, here goes.
I need to clean the dust off
so the adhesive can work into the fine capillaries
and achieve a tight bond.
I'm a traditional stonemason and lime plasterer.
Normally I'm outside working on castles, churches, cathedrals.
So this piece might be a lot smaller, but it's just as precious.
The whole thing fills me with terror.
It's so fragile, it's so brittle.
You just have to breathe on it and it's falling apart.
So I don't want to move it too much.
Easy now.
Yeah, there we go.
OK, I'm really happy with how that's gone together.
Let's hope the rest of them go together as sweetly as that.
- Hey. - Hey, Rich. How's it going? - It's going good, thank you. Yeah.
This is looking really good.
That actually all stuck back together now?
- It is, it is. - No way! - It's still quite vulnerable.
The plaster itself is really brittle.
It's being held together with glue.
Wow.
Next, the tale of an intrepid adventurer.
Brothers Martin and Tom Perou have brought
a tribute to their fearless father for the attention of Kirsten Ramsay.
- Hi, there. Welcome. - Hello there. - Hi.
So what have you brought?
So this is an award which was given to my father
for his career in caving cinematography.
Wow. That sounds quite niche!
Yeah, definitely!
- He was a niche kind of guy. - Definitely.
Our dad was called Sid Perou.
He was an incredible person with a real passion for caves and caving
and he travelled the world making films.
So when did your dad start filming?
So his first film was in the 1960s.
Lots of reels of film, separate sound recording equipment.
Not to mention the struggles of actually getting it down caves
and then through water passages.
Just absolutely incredible.
A lot of people have said, you know, he was a real pioneer.
Not just in caves, in microlight, hot air balloons,
all sorts of things.
There's some incredible stories of him,
- you know, dangling out of a hot-air balloon with a camera. - Really?
And, yeah, he'd do anything to get the best shot.
So how long was his career? Did he carry on doing that?
He retired to Thailand in 2010.
He called it a retirement. It wasn't really retirement.
He was still making films right up until last year.
So what kind of a dad was he?
He was really, really good. Really supportive.
We sadly lost our mum in 1996,
and from that point onwards he was our only parent,
and he kind of gave up the middle part of his life, really,
to support the upbringing of me and Tom.
He always really loved when we did anything creative
and always really encouraged that kind of thing.
I think, yeah, he was really, really supportive.
How does this fit into your dad's life?
So this is a Giles Barker Award.
It's named after a caver who sadly lost his life in Spain in 1992.
The award has been given out to cavers,
specifically in the realm of photography and cinematography.
It's awarded by the caving community.
His peers have given him this award.
- Oh, right. - So, I see this award
as representative of his entire career,
and that makes it really special.
How did this get so broken?
I was in Thailand last year when he died.
I chose this award out of the few that he had over there
and brought it back with me on the flight.
Unfortunately, it got damaged in transit.
I have memories of this award in our home in Embsay
and his home in Thailand, and it standing there proudly.
And that's how I remember it and that's how I'd like it to remain.
Your dad just sounds like such an amazing man.
I would really love to get this back together for you.
Thank you so much. We look forward to seeing you again.
- Thank you. - Thank you. Take care. - Bye.
I think most of the pieces are here. I can see there's...
..this little lamp - that's been saved.
I've got the hand holding the camera.
I can see there's a few little areas that have been chipped and lost,
so I'm going to have to do a little bit of filling.
And then the fun part is going to be colour-matching
this almost graphite surface.
And I guess that ties in really nicely to the interior of caves.
I'm going to have to try and find something
that will match that perfectly.
Going to make a start now removing this surface dirt.
WHIRRING
So a great success.
I've managed to piece all the sections together,
but this plaster piece is still really fragile.
It is...a crispy block.
We need to consolidate the back of it using a casting resin.
I'm going to temporarily place a piece of acetate film
over the paper that will protect the piece.
Slow and steady wins the race.
It will work its way into all the little fractures
and nooks and crannies, and it will make the piece stable.
If I poured it too quick it may come up and over,
so I've got to let it flow slow.
All right, time to wait for the resin to set...
..and I'll be able to pass it over to Angie to work her magic.
That's the last few stitches in Hamish's head.
And I have to say, it feels good in there -
it's really good and strong, not sticky. Lovely.
So now I can move on to the eyes.
The eyes are so important.
Eyes give him his character.
And I think it's the first thing, even when you meet a person,
it's the first thing you look at, is their eyes.
It's, they say, the window to your soul.
So I've got to get them right.
Jeff has done quite a good job
of giving him a bit of character in his face,
but unfortunately they're just paper stuck on with a bit of sticky tack.
Look at that. It's going to come off.
Oh!
Now that is a surprise.
I've found a hole.
The actual pupil would have been slightly raised,
and I can see now that would really make his eyes pop
and kind of give him that character, actually.
I'm about to reattach Hamish's arms.
I'm going to draw on all my teddy bear knowledge,
and I've decided I'm going to string joint these arms.
I'm going to start off with a button,
and the button will go on the outside of his arm.
And the reason I'm going to use a button
is because when everything's attached,
the weight of his arm pulling against his body
could stress the fabric beneath the button.
The button will spread the load, so to speak.
So the next part of my Haimish sandwich
is going to be a disc of felt.
And then, from inside,
here you can see quite clearly how the foam rubber,
although it's still strong,
I don't want it to degrade any further.
So we go for yet another layer of felt
and then a disc.
Last but not least, another button,
so that I can come through with the thread.
Oh, don't let go now, Julie. Don't let go now.
Back through again
down the other hole of the button.
Oh! Now out the other side...
I'm pleased with that.
It's incredibly strong, it's not going to break,
and his arms will stay on there for ages.
Yeah, I've just got to try
and repeat it on the other side now.
WHIRRING
I've been looking for some pupils I can actually attach to the eyes
to give them that 3D effect.
I'm looking to see the expression that I get
when I change the size of the pupil.
It's amazing how just a couple of millimetres
makes such a difference to how the eye looks.
In my opinion, that one is too big.
I think he's going to look a bit anxious with that size eye.
So let's go down a size.
That one's much kinder.
I think that's my eye.
He looks a bit startled at the moment.
So, once I pop these on, that starts to soften everything.
Oh, there he is. Oh, Hamish!
- Hey, Ange. - Hey, Rich.
- I have got Chris's paper message for you. - Oh, my God.
It's quite heavy, so let me...
Wow.
Quite a bit of work for you.
Leave it with me.
- I'll see what I can do. - OK. - OK, thank you. - Good luck. - Thanks!
As Angie is passed the baton on the plaster message repair,
the barn's toy tag team
are making sure Hamish the puppet is dressed for success.
There we go, Julie - I've finished his trousers.
- Oh, well done. - Look at the shape of them!
- Tailor-made. - Absolutely!
Do you want your trousers on, mate?
Yes, please.
THEY LAUGH
Come on, then.
I hope Jeff is going to like what we've done.
- Oh, he will. - You think?
- Ten years since he's been able to perform with Hamish. - I know.
Hopefully, he'll fall back in love again with him,
- like he did when he first saw him. - Absolutely.
This puppet once delighted audiences,
but a decade in showbiz left him with broken limbs,
saggy stuffing,
and some ropey replacement eyes.
Jeff is hoping to take his old partner back out on the road.
- Hi, Jeff. - Hello. - Hello. - Welcome back. - Thank you.
When you brought Hamish to us,
he really did look like he'd had quite the career.
Yes, he did. He was in a sorry state.
But that's showbiz for you.
You know, it takes its wear and tear on all of us at some point.
You did say he was like your best friend.
Yeah. He's just such a cool little dude.
It's amazing how he was probably my very first double act partner.
I am so excited to see Hamish back to life again.
- I think now's the time. - I do, too.
- Are you ready? - Yes, I am ready. - Let's do it.
OK.
Oh!
My gosh.
Wow! Look at him.
- His feet are attached. - Yes.
His hands are attached.
You clothed him again. That is fantastic.
And you've done his hair...
..and his eyes!
I never noticed them at first.
Oh, my gosh, he looks so cool.
Wow.
Thank you so much. That is incredible.
You're very welcome.
- Quite overwhelmed. - Are you? - Yeah. It's...
When you saw the state that he was in,
and to see him now sitting up with a massive smile on his face,
it's magic.
It really is magic.
Come on, little buddy.
You might notice something inside there.
- Oh, yes! - Oh!
Feel better?
That feels much better, doesn't it?
Hi, buddy, how are you?
Wow. That's amazing.
You've done such a great job on him.
Do you see the old Hamish in there?
The Hamish that you fell in love with?
Absolutely. His character is there.
His cheekiness is there.
Um, he's easier to use.
And he just looks fantastic.
He looks as good...in fact, better than when I got him.
So what's the future for Hamish?
We have to go on the road again, don't we?
- We're going to miss him. - We really are. - We really are.
- Hamish. - You take care. - Say bye-bye, Hamish.
- Bye, Hamish. - Bye! - Bye, Jeff. - Bye.
Because Hamish was in such a sorry state before,
I wasn't really able to use him the same way.
But now look at him. He's fantastic. He's cleaned up.
He looks as if he's ready for his close-ups as well.
And, yeah, we're definitely ready to perform together again -
as long as we both remember what the act was!
You remember? OK, I'll take his word for it.
Hotfooting it to see shoe maestro Dean is Chloe Schneider
bringing a cherished pair of boots with a colourful past.
- Hi, there. - Hiya. - Hello.
Oh, look at these.
- Wow. - Very nice, very nice. - Thank you.
Where do these come from?
So these were my mum's.
My mum was American and found them in a vintage shop in the '80s.
So they would have been old when she bought them, is that right?
Yeah, so the person in the shop told her they were from the '40s or '50s.
- Wow. - And they'd been made for a couple's wedding, a Western wedding.
- Really well-made, aren't they? - Yeah.
What do you think drew your mum to these boots when she saw them?
I think they're so different from other cowboy boots.
And they've got all the little decorative bits on the side,
so I think that would have drawn her to it.
So did your mum have quite an artsy side to her?
Yes, very much.
She grew up in a very small town and she was always a bit different.
She was a punk.
Probably the only punk in the small town.
And then, in the '80s and '90s,
she was very much in the New York art scene.
She was very intelligent.
She was an art historian, so really creative.
She did a PhD, so she moved around
- and she got internships in France, Germany, Norway. - Oh, wow!
And then me and my mum moved to London in about 2010.
And she got a job as a technical art historian.
And did the boots always go with her?
The boots always came with her.
I always remember dressing up in my mum's clothes,
and these were one item that I wasn't allowed to try on.
- THEY CHUCKLE - I think they were a bit too special.
She associated clothes a lot with memories.
She still had clothes from when she was 20.
So I think, for her, they really represented that point in her life,
the New York art scene.
- What was she like as a mum? - We were really close.
We were like best friends because it was always just us two,
so we were a bit of a team.
How come you have the boots now?
So, my mum passed away about a year and a half ago.
- That must have been really tough. - Yeah, really difficult. - Yeah.
Have you worn them since you were passed them?
Yes, I wore them once, which is where the damage came from.
- Ah! - Just once? - I know, I know. - The damage was from you?
- Yeah. - Oh, my word.
I think it was about three minutes into wearing them.
I was on my way to a festival.
I just heard a bit of a rip
and one of the boots fell apart.
- It must have been the most awful sound. - Yes. - Yeah?
- The top's nearly completely come off. - Yeah.
I'd really just like them to be restored to how I remember them.
- A little bit worn. - OK. - Not brand-new, but wearable.
I think they just really represent my mum,
her interests, her upbringing,
and the way that she lived her life,
particularly in the '90s and '80s.
And it would mean a lot to me to have them repaired
so that I would be able to wear them to special occasions
that she isn't able to be part of.
- That's lovely. - Be a privilege, I think,
to be able to get them to be worn again.
That's kind of the challenge, and I will do my best.
- Thank you so much. - It's been lovely to see you.
- We'll see you very soon. - You too. - Nice to meet you.
- Thanks, bye-bye. - Thank you very much. - Bye-bye. - Bye.
I can tell just by looking and feeling the quality of these boots,
the leather is of exceptional quality,
despite the damage.
Chloe said they were made in the '40s...
..which is kind of a pinnacle era for boot-making and shoe-making.
I am really excited, actually, to work on these.
There's some trepidation as to how I go about it.
Because of the way the top is constructed,
with this leather thonging, which is beautiful,
it does mean I can't really split the lining and take apart the boot.
So a lot of this repair is going to be about feel,
which makes things very, very tricky.
But it's quite nice, isn't it,
that Chloe wants to wear these again?
So it's really important that I get some strength into these
so they can be pulled on and off many, many times.
And as the old line goes, these boots were made for walking,
so that is just what I will do.
What I would like to do to make this leather more malleable and workable
is to get some moisture in there.
To do that...
..I'm going to use a cleaning solution.
Oh, dear.
There's a little piece of leather that was so brittle,
in cleaning that, it's just fallen off,
If any big parts start coming away,
it's just going to make this job grow and grow and grow.
And I really don't want that. There's quite enough to do already.
- Hey, Will. - Hey, Ange.
- So I've been working on Chris's wallpaper message. - OK.
So Rich and I were kind of hoping
that we could have something to finish it off.
Just that it looks more together.
- Is this something that you could do, maybe? - Ooh, technical drawings.
- Yeah, I've got the dimensions. - Oh, Angie. - I know.
So you want me to make a frame or something like that?
Maybe a deep box frame would be good.
- I'd love to. No worries. Leave it with me. - I appreciate it.
- Thank you so much. - That's all right.
Ceramics saviour Kirsten is poised to take the plunge
on her rescue mission of the caving award.
It's always worth making a plan
before you start introducing adhesive
and sticking stuff together.
It's very easy with ceramics to, what we call, lock pieces out.
You get maybe three pieces together
and then you find that you can't introduce the fourth section.
I'm going to be using...
..a two-part epoxy resin.
This really is the crucial edge.
This is where all of the weight is balanced.
And with that in the right place
I can now introduce
the foot and leg.
The piece is together.
I am going to use
some very low-tack tape
just to make sure that these pieces don't slip out of alignment
whilst they're curing.
I can now reattach
the lamp and the hand,
and then I can just leave this to cure.
WHIRRING
- Suzie. - Hiya. - Hello. You all right? - Yeah, yeah, all right.
- I need to pick your brains... - OK. - ..again.
That's fine.
HE CHUCKLES
I've got these boots. I need to do a bit of patching.
I've got some white material,
but it's such a difference in shade,
so I'm wondering if you've got anything a bit closer in shade
that I can do the patching with.
This I use a lot,
which is kind of a stony colour.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah, that's a lot closer than the white, isn't it?
- Weirdly, it is. - Yeah. Saved me again, Suzie.
- That's all right. You're more than welcome. - Thank you.
- All right. See you in a bit. - All right.
Paper conservator Angie has the tricky task
of transforming torn wallpaper back into a single, smooth surface.
I have mixed a paste of cellulose powder and methyl cellulose
to create a surface that is almost paper-like.
Which means that, as it dries, I can retouch it easier,
creating the sort of illusion that it's still one piece.
WHIRRING
Well, Angie has asked me to make a very simple frame
for the plaster message board.
I've chosen a nice piece of sapele here.
Simplistic in design,
but hopefully, all together, it's going to look quite smart.
Rich has kindly saved me a lot of the fragments
from the wallpaper.
It's missing quite a few pieces,
so I would like to try and find where these go.
This looks promising.
Oh, there we go. Nice.
OK, I think there's a tiny bit of the W missing,
and I only have one piece that has a black line, so...
There we go.
This is going to fit right there. Perfect.
I love jigsaw puzzles.
Once this is done,
I will start moving on to retouching - my favourite bit.
What have we got here, then?
He looks like a caver or something.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
- Look. - Oh.
- And he's got a camera. - Yeah. - Cor.
Do you fancy going down a cave?
- I have...I have been caving. - No!
- Yeah, I do like going in caves. - Seriously, David? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Oh, my goodness. - Up in Scotland, I've done it a little bit as well.
You're a dark horse, David.
THEY LAUGH
CRACKLES
With the leather on the cowboy boots
now supple enough to work with,
Dean can begin the crucial tear repairs.
My idea to strengthen and repair this huge gaping hole at the back
is to use a polyester canvas.
It's very, very strong.
I'm going to try and feed that in between the upper and the lining
either side of the tears.
I'm going to glue that in and kind of bring it together
and close that seam as best I can.
I'm going to apply some glue to this polyester first.
I'm going to try to slide the first bit in while it's wet.
I've got to be reasonably quick to get this bit in.
I don't want it to stick to the leather
before it's in a good position.
It is incredibly fiddly,
but so far it's going to plan.
Now everything's back together, I can see that
there are pieces missing.
This is quite an awkward shape to cut
so what I'm going to do is use some masking tape...
..and stick that over where the big piece of leather is missing.
I can see through the masking tape,
almost like tracing paper,
and use a pencil to get the rough shape.
That's that piece shaped to that hole there.
It just needs glueing in.
Now that is in securely.
I know some of these repairs look a bit patchwork.
Blending those repairs into the original boot
will come at a later stage.
Kirsten's hoping her own adventures in adhesive
haven't left her unstuck.
So that's all of the tape safely off.
I can, however, now see the areas
that are going to need filling.
I'm going to use a wood filler,
and that's because if you use a filler that's too hard
and you then have to shape it
and perhaps sand it, you risk
damaging the surfaces around it.
So I tend to use a filler that's a little bit softer
than the material I'm actually filling.
This is going to be quite a nice piece to fill...
..because it's got that texture to it.
These thinner joins,
I'm actually going to use an acrylic filler for,
and that's because it's much finer.
WHIRRING
All of the losses have been filled,
and I think I'm ready to tackle retouching this -
what looks like quite a tricky colour.
It's about the sheen.
You've got that almost metallic graphite colour
and then I've got a really lovely silver powder.
And here I've got just a dry-ground black pigment,
and I'm going to add that in as well.
I think that looks quite good.
Those break lines are starting to disappear.
WHIRRING
That mastery of colour matching is put to use
as Angie camouflages her repairs to the 1960s wallpaper.
I am using watercolours
and some brushes that I got from Florence
specifically for retouching,
because it allows me to do very, very fine lines.
I need to work to recreate the top of the C of Chris's signature.
Right...
Only one way to do this.
Go for it.
I know this is such a tiny, tiny bit of the wallpaper done,
but I feel like this is the most important bit
because it's Chris's signature.
And it gives me such a good feeling that Margaret and John
can actually appreciate the message all over again.
It's taken the heritage craft skills of a stonemason,
a paper conservator, plus a little carpentry,
to rebuild a pile of rubble
back into a readable memento.
Oh, that's heavy. All finished, Angie.
- What do you think? - Oh, my God. I think it looks great.
- All finished? - Yeah. - Well done.
- Shall we get it covered up? - Yeah. - Absolutely.
For John and Margaret,
it's a precious link to their late son, Chris.
- Welcome back. - Hello. - Thank you. - Nice to see you both. - And you. - You, too.
- Please come in, take a seat. Get comfy. - Thank you.
- Are you excited? - Oh!
How are you feeling?
- Nervous. - Nervous?
It's what it represents.
It's our son.
- Our late son. - Yeah.
- It's... - Yeah.
It's part of his life.
He often did write notes in places.
I'm so excited for you to see it.
- I can't wait. - All right.
- It's amazing. - Wow!
- Wow. - Brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
Even the torn bits of paper, back together.
Better than I ever imagined it would be.
And the old wallpaper...
What can I say? What can we say?
- It's funny handwriting. - Yeah.
He would be chuffed to bits to see that.
I mean, he was, what, 14?
And he would have been 48 this year.
- He was a lovely boy. - He was.
Yeah.
I know that Rich had his challenges
with trying to piece this back together,
but I think he's done a great job.
It's... Yeah, I mean, it was so fragile.
It's amazing.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. - Thank you.
You're very kind. Thank you so much. Safe travels.
Thank you very much.
- That makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it? - Absolutely.
To see his handwriting up there in that message,
it was just so him.
It's Chris. It's what he represented.
That's been revived again
and it's put back what we love so much.
The cowboy boots may now look the part,
but for cobbler Dean, that's only half the battle.
It's really important that these boots are functional for Chloe.
She does want to wear them.
Now, if she was to put her foot in it now,
it may well cause blisters.
It is quite rough around the inside, around the back of the heel.
So I'm going to use a lining leather
and create a back lining on the inside.
We've got the rough shape of what the back lining will be.
I'm just going to offer it up to the boot
just to make sure I'm somewhere near.
I'm happy with that shape, actually.
Just cutting out the leather back lining.
It's a lovely soft leather.
It should feel really nice on Chloe's foot.
Now, because this leather is quite thick
and Chloe's foot is going to go in,
I don't want it to catch on that top edge.
So what I'm going to do is thin that down by skiving it.
To do this by hand,
you get either a piece of glass or a piece of marble,
and the knife pushes against that.
By doing this process, you get a taper on the edge of the leather,
and it really goes down to almost paper thin.
When that's in and I sew everything together,
that's just going to add to the strength of the structure,
which is vitally important if she's going to wear them again.
I've got to try and get this right first time, really,
because the glue won't slide.
And this is really tricky cos I can't see anything,
I'm just feeling it.
The beauty of this glue is it's extremely strong,
so it's just adding more strength,
which is what these boots really, really need.
It's the moment of truth.
I really am working blind here.
I can't see anything - it's all through feel.
That lining's in.
It's just ready to be stitched together
and made really, really strong.
MACHINE CLANKS
The caving award is almost prizeworthy again.
I'm very happy with the way that the retouching has gone.
I think the colour blends in really nicely.
I think the final stage
is to work on the base.
I've got a couple of little areas
where the wood effect has chipped off,
so the last thing to do now
is to just touch those in
using a little bit of an acrylic paint,
and then this is going to be ready to go back to Martin and Tom.
Presented to a prolific cave photographer
to mark a lifetime of achievement,
this award had sadly hit a rocky patch.
Brothers Martin and Tom are hoping Kirsten has restored the statuette
to something worthy of their intrepid dad.
- Hi, there. Welcome. - Hello, good to see you again.
Yeah. Lovely to see you both. How have you been?
I've been really curious about it.
I've just wanted to see how it's going to turn out.
And for me, it's about the past
and being able to take the past to the future with me.
Yeah, it's made me think a lot about how much he did in, you know,
his career and his life in general.
And...it's helped me reflect on all them kind of things
and realise, you know, just how much he achieved.
Are you ready to see this?
- I'm really ready, yeah. - Yeah. - I'm really excited.
OK.
- Wow. - Wow.
That's incredible.
It even looks like when he first got the award.
- Look at the shine on the base. - Yeah, yeah.
- It looks amazing. - Yeah.
I'm amazed by that.
You can't even see anywhere
that it's been put back together.
That's absolutely incredible.
- Wow. Thank you so much. - You've done a really fantastic job.
- Thank you. - Very welcome. - I love it.
Now it's back together, what are your plans for it?
It's going back home.
It's going to help me remember him every day
and it's going to be a really important talking point.
And I can show off the man that he was
and everything he achieved in his fantastic life.
That's really lovely.
It's been an absolute pleasure to work on
and it's been really fascinating hearing about your father.
- Well, we appreciate it so much. - Yeah, absolutely incredible.
Thank you so, so much.
- Very welcome. It's all yours. - Take care. Thank you. - Bye-bye.
I'd never, ever expected to see it in this state again.
Kirsten's done a fantastic job.
It's a fitting tribute to my dad and his incredible career.
It's going to remind me of him every time that I look at it.
I think it's something that we can now take through
to future generations of the family
and something that we can really remember him by.
Now I'm on to the really satisfying part of this repair.
Initially, I thought I would just try and colour match the repairs
into the rest of the boot,
but I think, after working with them for a while...
..it would actually make them stand out more.
So I've decided to paint the whole of the vamp area
with the leather paint on this cracked and repaired leather,
and just try and blend everything in.
I think that will give a much nicer finish.
I can totally understand
why these boots are so important to Chloe...
..and how upset she must have been when they were damaged so badly.
So I feel almost a sense of pride
at being able to bring them back to a wearable state.
When these boots arrived at the Repair Shop,
their ageing leather had seen them almost split in two.
Right, let's get these covered up.
- Can't wait to see her reaction. - I know.
Nervous, right?
Chloe is longing to wear these boots again
as a fitting tribute to her artsy American mum.
- Hi, there. - Hiya. How are you? - Nice to see you again. - You too.
Very excited to see the boots.
- Yeah? - Mm-hm.
It was a real challenge when I first saw them.
I was quite worried that I wouldn't be able to do them.
But it has been a privilege to work on such unique boots,
so I hope you're happy with what I've done.
- Thank you so much. - Are you ready to see them?
- Really excited, yeah. - OK.
Oh, wow.
You can't even see that they've ripped.
Incredible.
- They're not quite as fragile now as they were. - No! - Hopefully.
Yeah, they feel more sturdy. Thank you so much.
Wow.
Lost for words a little bit.
I know my mum would be really pleased
to see them back in this condition.
And, yeah, they look exactly like how I remember them as a child.
- That's good. - Yeah.
- Do you want to try them on? - Absolutely, yeah. - Yeah?
This is the moment of truth.
- Are you slightly nervous, Dean? - Very.
THEY LAUGH
Let's hope they survive the trying-on!
WILL CHUCKLES
Relax, Dean, it's fine.
Wow. I mean, they feel a lot sturdier already.
Pretty comfy, actually, yeah.
I'm a similar age now that my mum was when she first bought them.
But, yeah, I think she'd really be happy to see me wearing them.
The boots look fantastic.
And what a lovely way to honour your mum as well.
- Thank you. - Good luck with them. - I really appreciate it.
- Thank you. - Bye-bye. - Bye-bye. - See you later.
- They look good, man. - They do look good, I know.
Being able to wear these boots is really important to me,
cos losing my mum so young, there was a lot of thoughts around,
"She's not going to be at weddings or graduations."
So to be able to have something that I can represent her with
and have a part of her there is really special.
If you have a treasured possession that's seen better days
and you think the team can help, please get in touch at...
..and join us in the Repair Shop.