About

Hello there!  I'm Mark, Chief Scrapleteer, the man responsible for this idiocy.  I'm a woodworker and maker based in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Following a long career in mental health I retrained a few years ago as a carpenter, fulfilling a long-held desire to work with my hands and with natural materials on a daily basis. I've always loved making things - especially from wood, so it was like something of a calling. It was basically like being a kid again and being allowed to play in my dad's garage. I started hoarding all the spare scrap wood and pallets that I could get my hands on and built up quite a healthy collection.

After a few years training and graduating I started up hanging doors, fitting floors, making tables and cabinets, bars, exhibition stands - all the usual wood-based things! What I really started to notice was the amount of waste involved in most jobs - there was always so much wood going spare!

My ethos has always been to reclaim, recycle and reuse as much stuff as I possibly can - I hate the idea of good wood being chucked into landfill, sent to China or burnt. It just doesn't sit right with me. I try to use every last bit that I can.

What better use could there be for it than to turn it into something beautiful and satisfying? All of my pieces are made from reclaimed and recycled wood. This is where the great bulk of the work is done! I process and sand, then paint each piece individually. Anything is possible with a bit of colour and imagination!

I have been used to selling my work locally at craft fairs and markets, usually around Leeds and West Yorkshire, but with the current Coronavirus situation this hasn't been possible. Therefore I'm trying to focus on building up my online store and website, so please take a look around and message me if you have any questions or feedback.

I'm active on Instagram at @scraplets and @kirkstallwoodart so feel free to give me a follow and keep up to date!

Scraplets were born from a simple Instagram lockdown project, the #100dayproject. I was taking some pallets apart and noticed a block with several nails sticking out of it, like arms and legs. All it needed was a face!  And a name. By Golly, did it need a name...

 

This gave me the idea of making a little range of different coloured characters, I took some more reclaimed pallets apart and sanded up some wood blocks, then gave them a lick of paint and a wax. 

I used some nuts, bolts, staples and nails that I had lying about in my workshop and suddenly, before my very eyes, an army of clowns had emerged. The rest, as they say, is history ...

 

I've now created a couple of hundred individual Scraplets, each with their own quirks and personalities.  I remember reading somewhere that Charles Dickens holds the record for number of characters created by one person - they reckon it's around 2000. Give me five years and I think I can beat that!!