Who is Shabby Fox?
Shabby Fox
Shabby Fox is the brain child of...me!
My name is Ben and I am the guy behind Shabby Fox. I live in the UK and have
been making things since I was a child. Its been the one consistent love
throughout my whole life. Growing up watching shows like Art Attack and
Watercolour Challenge and having a Mum who was an artist, a Dad who was a
cabinet maker was the perfect combination to inspire a creative mind.
As a child I would make things out of recycled cardboard and basically
anything I could get my hands on. I would go to my Grandma’s and she would
present me with a huge bag of cereal boxes, washing up bottles, kitchen roll
tubes and other such things that she had collected from her friends, and I
would turn them into some crazy thing!
I would go to my Dads workshop on a weekend and usually have an ongoing
project there with him. Maybe a little table, maybe a little box or even to
just help clean the workshop and watch him work. I used to take great joy in
using the huge hoover extractor to suck up big piles of sawdust! He is also is
a huge fan of model making and used to have a huge model railway which has
inspired me massively over the years with my miniatures.
Then at home, my Mum was always found standing behind an easel or a type
writer. Painting and drawing was her number 1 hobby and later in life became
her main job. I would quite often join her in painting along with my sister. We
would all sit down together and paint a similar thing. Watching mum taught me a
lot about working with paint and also how much difference such a small detail can
make. She was a very colourful person and her artwork always reflected that. My
whimsical side 100% comes from her!
My logo is actually a painting she did of me as a fox <3
In my early to mid 30s I decided I hadn’t been scratching that creative itch that lives within. Life gets busy, bills need paying and everything becomes
rather exhausting. So I decided to build myself a small workshop, a place where
when I had time; I could go and be creative. I took a week off for my 34th
Birthday and spent it in my little workshop. I made an intentionally wonky
cabinet out of pallet wood. The idea had been floating around my mind for years
and it was incredibly fun to bring it to life. It had little drawers, tiny
shelves and even a hidden compartment. You could imagine it being found in an
old wizards study full of potion bottles and trinkets.
I was going to just keep it for myself but decided to share a little video
of it online and to my surprise other people loved my weird wonky creation and
even wanted to buy it.
This gave me an idea. If people wanted to buy the things I make, then
potentially I could justify spending more time in the workshop and still manage
to cover bills.
So over the years I decided to allow myself to take time away from my main
business (specialist tiler & home renovations) to open up more time to
create. Slowly but surely Shabby Fox started to evolve into what you see today
and now creativity is once again a huge part of my life.
I think its important to know a little about the artist your buying from
which is why I have shared this little bit of history about me with you.