Ryan Godwin is an English carpenter, set designer and furniture maker in Valencia. He has set up shop in El Cabanyal as Made in Valencia. From theatre sets to bespoke pieces of furniture, here’s his story. Daniel Hazelhoff reports…
Well, it’s not every day one gets to meet an individual with deep enjoyment and passion for their craft. We had the pleasure of meeting Ryan Godwin. Godwin is a man who has ridden the roller coaster of life and wasn’t afraid to stay on. Jobs come and go, but a skill honed leaves the world at your fingertips. Paired with a can-do attitude one’s journey may not be the paved road intended. But through the fog of worldly chaos, one may find themselves embedded within a labour of love.
The ups and downs of the past years have hit us all in one way or another. When things break down around you, sometimes you need to pick up the pieces and build something better. Ryan Godwin used to work in the theatre. A high-octane, problem-solving sector, where speedy sets must be made, and the job just “has to get done,” says Ryan.
He’s done many things, from running an art gallery in Camden Market to running other people’s businesses and to set-building. Now he lives here in Valencia, where he makes bespoke furniture for local clients.
From Camden to Cabanyal
When new developments were being made in the Catacombs of Camden Market “about 65 of us had to move out”. With it came the end of Ryan’s art gallery. From there, he helped other individuals run their businesses and ended up getting a job as a pawnbroker. He is not a big fan of that work.
However, Ryan had a close friend in the high-end eyewear fashion industry. “He wanted me to build a static exhibition for London Fashion Week in a warehouse in East London,” says Ryan. That’s when he decided to change his career. “We spend a good chunk of our lives working” says Ryan. “So it’s important to enjoy what you do, and find it fulfilling.”
As a freelance set builder, says Ryan, “no one supplies you with the tools you need to work”. So he bought some cheap tools at the pawnshop he previously worked at and got down to business.
All the world’s a stage
After setting up the set for the London Fashion Week, he started some freelance work for an advertising company. But, says Ryan, the industry shuts down over winter. So with no savings, and the cold of winter afoot, he scored a job flipping burgers. This was at Winter Wonderland in London’s Hyde Park, a far cry from where his skills lay. “It’s all character building though, isn’t it?” says Ryan with a rueful smile.
He became tired of tripping over obstacles in the small space he worked in. So he decided to build shelving, to organise and store things. When one of the owners came in and asked who had built the structure, Ryan explained it was him.
It turns out the two men that ran the little burger joint were two West End actors. Impressed by his craftsmanship, they offered him a job building sets in the theatre. “My first job with them was taking down the Winter Wonderland sets,” he says, a cathartic exercise.
“This was a great period of learning for me,” explains Ryan. “I’ve found that if you ask questions, most people are really willing to share their knowledge.” It seems that, when people see you grow from their advice, it creates a learning atmosphere. And that is beneficial to all involved.”
Ryan’s done it all
Ryan has worked in almost every major West End theatre. He’s also built sets for brands such as Rolls Royce, Masserati and Facebook. And he even scored a series “called Taboo, with Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy, for the BBC”.
Renting out the average West End theatre for a performance can cost about £30,000. So there’s not much time to get the sets done. “It’s a high-stress situation but also a lot of the time it’s incredibly good fun”. Ryan describes the camaraderie and satisfaction that comes with such jobs with warmth.
“If one person doesn’t do their job right, it all falls apart,” says Ryan. From West End theatre shows to six-figure weddings, Ryan’s done it all.
Set building was completely freelance, he says. “Once people know you’re good at your job and reliable, they call you again. You end up working with many of the same people,” he says. And he shares that many of his good friends to this day came from this world.
Made in Valencia
Ryan moved to Valencia about four months before the pandemic hit. With the entertainment industry shut down, and set-building on hold, he took his carpentry skills to his newly acquired workshop in El Cabanyal, where he also lives, and began creating bespoke furniture for local clients.
“The carpentry skills required for set building transfer to furniture-making quite naturally,” says Ryan. “I think the biggest aspect of it all is a lack of fear.”
Having to deal with high-stress situations seems to translate well to processing complex orders. “The only things holding you back are imagination, budget and physics,” says Ryan. “You can’t do anything about those three things. But if someone wants me to build them a castle I’ll build them a castle. If you’re not scared of things, great things can happen, I come from a very can-do attitude”.
“There’s something very satisfying about getting a piece of wood and ending up with something that’s about 5mm thick. But it does require planning,” says Ryan.
“There’s a wealth of stuff that you can reuse, often it takes a lot more time, there’s a tradeoff there”. They make pallets, for example, from strong wood, they carry large amounts of weight, and do not easily come apart. Taking them apart can be time-consuming, but satisfying in its own way, says Ryan.
“I’ve made some fun stuff from pallets,” he adds.
Bespoke furniture that is unique
Many of the products he makes, however, he simply cannot create from purely recycled materials. He makes products to order, and clients require specific pieces. “You can’t find sheets of high-quality birch ply in the streets,” he says with a laugh, “so where I can I use recycled materials.”
When making furniture, the piece lives in one’s home, so acute attention to detail is paramount. “People will be looking at the piece, touching it, living with it”, Ryan points out. “So this is very different from set-building, where you break – or ‘derig’ – the set at the end,” he says. In theatre, you have the “30-foot rule”, he explains. “If you can’t see it from 30ft it doesn’t matter because the audience never gets any closer,” he adds.
Furniture is different, because they are living, practical pieces that need to last a lifetime, not just for a run.
He has made a couple of beautiful but highly practical pieces for the editor of Valencia Life, and you can drool over his other creations on his social media.
The great English designer, craftsman and socialist William Morris encapsulated Ryan and Made in Valencia’s philosophy perfectly when he wrote: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”.
Ryan achieves both with his unique, one-off designs and pieces.
• See Ryan Godwin’s work on Facebook at Made in VLC; Instagram Hecho_en_Valencia; or call to discuss commissions via Ryan’s WhatsApp: +34 633 71 33 38
