By Alesha Capone
BY THE age of 72, many people would have retired and be taking life easy.
But not Hoppers Crossing antique restorer and furniture-maker Graham Hickman.
He has been doing the job full-time for more than 16 years, but took up the craft when he was a young man.
“I started making furniture when we first got married, because we didn’t have any,” he said.
Mr Hickman’s family still own the first object he built, a book-shelf designed to go over a small fireplace.
The father-of-three was taught the art by his wife’s cousin, an English-trained antique restorer.
Some of the first pieces he made were created in his garden shed, which had no power and no light.
“Then I started repairing furniture for friends for free, they told their friends, then it got so much I thought, ‘I might charge for this’,” Mr Hickman said.
“It started off as a hobby really, people began asking to fix this and that, and it became a business.”
He kept making and restoring furniture through his years as an instrument technician in the airforce at Laverton, then taught school students for 15 years.
The antiques-enthusiast has gone on to do courses in furniture restoration in England, woodcarving, wood-turning and can also do French-polishing.
He trained in marquetry with Geoff Hannah, whose cabinets sell for up to $1.4 million.
Mr Hickman even worked for a violin maker at one stage and has restored furniture valued at up to $80,000.
“When you’re restoring antique furniture, you never know what you will have to do,” he said.
“On a couple of occasions, people have turned up on the way to the tip with furniture.
“I enjoy those sorts of jobs, the more difficult it is, the more I enjoy it.”
Contact Graham’s Antique Restorations on 9749 2510 for more information.
