So, we had our first event! And what a fabulous opening event it was too. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer team to welcome than the Factorylux crew with their rather fabulous Van, stocked to the rafters with cool lighting components for us to play with.
As Mr M & I work hard on our build and Moregeous Manisons inches closer to completion, I’d started to think about some test events when Stanley and Sophie got in touch to say their mobile light making factory would be visiting Manchester, welcoming architects and interior designers on board for a Make A Light workshop. Did I fancy hosting the final day and inviting some pals to the workshop? Hell yes!
I’d seen the van concept being developed over in Yorkshire but was seriously floored by the attention to detail. Complete with spiral staircase, coffee stop and roof top terrace, this would be most people’s idea of a perfect festival camper van. It literally parks up, drops anchor, raises the balustrades and is ready to go.
The first afternoon sessions hosted guests from various interior design practices, mainly commercial and city centre based, with each lasting 2hrs – serious electrical training going on. Lots of smiles at the end though and I did a mini-tour of our ‘venue’ for the guests afterwards. Refreshing cucumber water and chocolate buns all went down well!
For the 4-6 slot, it was our turn. I was joined by Lee from DV8 Design, Kimberly from SwoonWorthy, property journalist Jill and my light loving pal Hannah. First up we had our safety talk and let me tell you, Sophie means business. She is properly strict and we realised we were actually going to learn something, not just mess around with lamps!
Once inside The Van, we all chose the coloured components we wanted and were presented with some very cool personalised name tags (they’re actually called something else technical but I forgot what!) to be heat-shrunk onto our flex. I chose a chevron black and white flex with black fittings. There was also a great discussion on colour having no gender what with Lee plumping for a hot pink cable 🙂
We literally built our luminaries from scratch: clamping the earth, live and neutrals, feeding the flexes properly into the fittings, correctly measuring and stripping the sheath from cables to expose the copper (I will henceforth always wince when I see electricians doing this with pliers!) and then fully tested – it was fascinating and actually quite tricky. The Factorylux staff ensure every luminaire which leaves their doors is fully compliant, checked, tested and registered with its own unique code, as were each of the ones we made.
As you can see, Kimberly and I were both gleefully delighted that ours passed!
When all the safety checks had been done the Friday afternoon gin cocktails could come out, decorated with Tweetin Corner jasmine, infused with homegrown lemon verbena and Manchester, yes Manchester grown lemons. I know they look like limes but give me a break, it’s rained a lot this summer and we’ve not quite reached the yellow stage.
A most excellent, not-quite-ready-but-getting-there event, great guests and a brilliant British company to kick start our Moregeous venue.
We’ll be holding our first foodie event with a Luxe-BBQ in early October, the 9th to be precise, so do please pop back later this week to check out the fab menu created by Jan at Tailored Chefs, & get booking details.
And obv, if you’re a brand or simply someone with a great idea looking for a super cool, hireable space in Manchester, get in touch 🙂 x
Such a fun event – I felt like a proper electrician myself by the time I left!! Thanks so much for hosting this one and I’m looking forward to even more to come at Moregeous Mansions!! 😉 xx
It was FABULOUS to have you there Kimberly, you were such a fun guest and it was a great afternoon. Roll on many more to come 🙂 x