About Us
The Workshop
The home of Needle Rock is an ancient stone barn, with huge doors and slits for windows. The barn is accessed via a winding country lane, a five-minute drive from the village of Llanrhystud along the coastline of Ceredigion.
Visitors are delighted when they visit for the first time and liken it to ‘The Repair Shop’. We make best use of the space with a summer house used as an office and fabric store, with a mezzanine above used as a break area.
We love our workshop, nestled in the verdant green valley, with red kites circling above, sparrows chit chatting during the day, and the horses in neighbouring fields. It’s rather an idyllic place to work, even if we say so ourselves!
Meet the team
At Needle Rock, our passion for restoring antique and vintage pieces of upholstered furniture is the heart and soul of everything we do. Each member brings a unique blend of skills, creativity, and passion. We share a common goal – to make your piece of furniture, the best it can be!
Whatever your vision, we can and will, make it happen. We’re pleased to welcome you to our workshop and look forward to working for you, as we bring your piece of furniture back to life.
Ali
Ali founded Needle Rock in 2013, following her passion to rescue tired and unwanted items of furniture from landfill. She started attending local furniture auctions, and soon ‘got the bug’. With husband Gordon at hand to undertake any woodwork repairs, the duo soon became experts in chair repair.
Ali is professionally trained in traditional and modern upholstery with the Association of Master Upholsterers & Soft Furnishers. Ali loves pushing the boundaries of creative design whilst working on pieces of upholstered furniture, mixing different colours, textures and styles.
When Ali is not at the helm of Needle Rock, she can often be found in the polytunnel at her allotment tending their home-grown vegetables. With three good-natured, but large dogs, Rosco, Barnaby and Edgar life is always rather busy.
Jason
Jason first started at Needle Rock on a government-funded scheme, and soon realised that he absolutely loved upholstery. Fast-forward and Jason has completed an apprenticeship with Needle Rock in upholstery and won ‘Foundation Apprentice of the Year’ with Skills Academy Wales in November 2023. To continue the learning process, Jason is now on an advanced apprenticeship developing ‘Business Improvement Techniques’ at the busy workshop.
Jason takes the lead on classic car and automobile upholstery that come through the upholstery workshop door. Also, any difficult pattern matching jobs, they are given to him as he has the precision to make-sure it’s just so!
When not at the workshop, he’s often found in the various pool halls in Aber. During the summer months he loves nothing more than having bonfires on the beaches with friends, watching the sun sets and probably not far away at sunrise! He’s an avid costume-maker and loves attending Comic Con events dressed up as various characters. Once in character, there’s no stopping him!
Rosie
Rosie started working at Needle Rock just one day a week. Fast forward, and Rosie is now lead machinist at the Needle Rock workshop and oversees all the repair and maintenance of the many industrial sewing machines. With her ‘wee’ Scottish accent, and her ability to speak Welsh, Rosie is a rare find.
Rosie has also completed a Level 2 apprenticeship at Needle Rock, and whilst in the early days Rosie’s main role was sewing on the various industrial sewing machines in the upholstery workshop, she now undertakes all aspects of traditional and modern upholstery as required.
Outside of the workshop, Rosie is an avid gamer and is often found designing builds and creating stories within Minecraft, interacting with fellow gamers across the globe. More recently, this network of gamers has started meeting face-to-face at large Comic Con events up and down the country.
Rosie also has a love of dressing up, so with Jason by her side, this duo have been seen jumping on the Tube dressed up in all their glory. Dedicated gamers from as far afield as Canada and USA have joined them to experience the wonderfulness of these events.
The Name
The ‘Gulls Needle’, a rocky pillar on that stood on our local beach in Llanrhystud, serves as inspiration for our partial namesake. Long since having washed away, it is pictured here as it stood in 1903.
This, along with ties to traditional upholstery and the dynamic nature of both our work and the Welsh coastline – form the identity that is “Needle Rock“.
