Creative Spotlight - Caroline Hoggarth, A fold of chairs
I’m Caroline, upholsterer and founder of A Fold of Chairs. My work centres on restoring and reimagining mid-century furniture, giving it a new life while honouring the designers and makers who shaped it in the first place.
Are there particular artists or movements you keep coming back to for inspiration?
I’m obsessed with the post-war period of design and art. So many artists and makers had their careers interrupted by the war. They experienced the unimaginable, then came back to their work with a renewed belief that life and the world could be good again. The art and design from that moment is full of resilience and hope, and I find that incredibly inspiring.
Barbara Hepworth
What does a typical day in your studio look like?
I usually cycle to the shop, unlock, and the first thing I do is put the B&O stereo on. What comes out of it depends entirely on my mood, sometimes Max Richter, sometimes Bob Dylan, sometimes a new electronic track one of my sons has recommended.
The mornings often start with Emily and me at the desk, responding to customer requests, looking at fabric samples, and working out lead times. There are always shipments going out or stock coming in. By midday, I’m usually upstairs at the bench with the chair i"m working on for the week. That might mean a week of cutting patterns and sewing cushions, or, if it’s something like an Egg Chair, carefully hand stitching fabric into place, shaping it around the shell.
When the shop is open, the rhythm changes. Upholstery is interrupted by customers wandering in (which I love). The furniture sparks memories, stories about family pieces, or sometimes regret over having taken something to the tip that now has pride of place in our shop! Those conversations are part of what makes the work so meaningful.
Do you like working in silence, with music, or surrounded by a bit of chaos?
Not sure I’ve had a moment of silence since I was born -so definitely noise, all the way. But always with tidiness. Noise and order, together.
What do you enjoy most about the process itself?
Stripping a chair back. That moment when you uncover the original marks, the maker’s handprints on the frame, pencil notes scribbled on the wooden frame, traces of the designer and craftspeople who came before me. To then rebuild and recover those pieces for another generation is a privilege I never take for granted.
Is there a place you find especially inspiring to visit?
Hoglands, the home of Henry Moore and his wife Irina, in Perry Green, Hertfordshire, is my favourite place of all. Being in the countryside, surrounded by those enormous sculptures, is unforgettable. I love that you can touch them, feel the warmth or cold of the bronze and stone, see the etchings of his chisel. Inside the house and studio you glimpse Moore’s tools, drawings, the rhythm of his working life. Irina’s influence is everywhere too, in the way the gardens and home were lived in and cared for. It’s a place that captures creativity at its most human and most monumental at the same time, and I always come away feeling re-centred and inspired.
