Ewen Brown, who lives in Norwich, started designing and making wooden objects around six years ago as a creative side project.

Now, as Slow Made Goods, he creates a range of beautifully handcrafted and useful durable items for the home, including serving boards, spoons, spoons and brushes that are stocked by a range of independent resellers supporting East Anglia and beyond.

And he’s currently working on an exclusive collaboration with a name synonymous with timeless design – the Conran Shop.

The brush collection will launch in their London and Paris stores early next year.

“Having worked for 15 years doing something I was good at but didn’t like, I made a change about two years ago when my family and I moved to Norfolk,” says Ewen.

Slow Made Goods makes handcrafted brushes, boards, spoons and spoons
– Credit: Slow Made Goods

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“To start off I used a small collection of hand tools, hand carving utensils in our dining room and learned a lot about woodworking processes and how to fine tune them.” , he said.

Slow Made Goods releases handcrafted wooden items in small batches
– Credit: Slow Made Goods

“Working with wood is intuitive, so honing my skills often comes from experimenting with a new type of wood or tool, but when I get stuck there is a rich pool of local manufacturers to compare grades with. “

Where did the idea for Slow Made Goods come from and how did it evolve?

When we moved to Norfolk I knew I wanted to find more balance in my life and had read a lot about slow motion.

I was excited to get things done at the right speed, savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them.

Do everything the best you can, instead of being as fast as you can.

Wooden shovels are one of the items made by Slow Made Goods
– Credit: Slow Made Goods

It has evolved from using a knife, ax and hook knife, mainly hand carving spoons from any space that was not occupied by my son or partner, to a dedicated workshop, with an outdoor sculpture space, with an ever-growing range of traditional products and contemporary carpentry tools and materials.

What is your starting point when designing objects?

I play around with the basic shape of the drawing on paper, then start looking at how the waste can be designed and turned into another product. circular brush handle.

I design so much waste in each design so that I can maximize the material and use the small amount of waste in our packaging or compost it.

Tell us about your working methods, the tools you use and where you get the materials for your goods …

I learned on my own how to carve a spoon using a simple ax, a knife and a hook knife, an angled knife that hollows out the bowl of a spoon, and I’m naturally attracted to working with hand tools and traditional techniques.

Broom handles are made using a razor (a tool dating from the 16th century) or a pocket knife on a shaving horse and can be created almost as quickly as using a lathe.

Brushes are one of Slow Made Goods’ main items – and they are collaborating with The Conran Shop on a range that will be available next year.
– Credit: Slow Made Goods

Brushes (brush handles) are often turned on a lathe and bristles, made from natural plant fibers, strung together and finished using a homemade combination of linseed oil and organic beeswax local to protect the wood.

All our wood is locally sourced. For small jobs, we use wood collected from local arborists that would otherwise be used as biomass or storm-fallen lumber – always with permission from the landowner.

Slow Made Goods Shovels
– Credit: Slow Made Goods

For larger pieces, we use local sawmills which use locally felled trees – many sawmills import wood from Europe.

I use brush-based vegetable fibers that are harvested by hand, usually by family businesses: tampico fiber from the Agave plant, Gumati from palm trees, coconut fiber from coconut husks, and broom reed.

Where are Slow Made products available?

I work on small bundle collections that we launch on the website (slowmadegoods.com) every two months. I always recommend customers to sign up for our newsletter to receive store updates as they usually sell out within 48 hours.

A wooden board from Slow Made Goods
– Credit: Slow Made Goods

A limited collection of works is available from a selection of independent retailers, including East Anglian dealers The Merchant’s Table in Woodbridge, Settle at Shropham, Atwin in Norwich and Make Holt.