Starfish Designs (Scotland) Ltd
Unit 1, Old Ferry Rd
North Ballachulish
Fort William. PH33 6SA
Scotland, UK

Tel: +44(0)1855 821429

Email:
admin@starfishdesigns.co.uk

In 1987 a young girl asked her father to make her a Clarsach which she had recently taken up at school. This was not as strange as it might seem because he was already a joiner and general woodworker. After a bit (well quite a bit) of research he and his then wife decided there might be a future in making harps and Starfish Designs was born.

That’s where the romantic ideal stopped and the hard work began! Mike and Gay Anderson secured the use of a workshop within 5 minutes walk of their house and began by making a harp for their daughter as requested. From there they set about designing and making their own innovative range of harps which slowly started being taken very seriously by harp professionals. In 1991 a young MOD gold medal winning fiddler called Duncan Chisholm asked Mike and Gay if they would make an electric violin for him to use in his newly formed band Wolfstone. A few piles of firewood later and the first starfish electric violin was made!

Both ranges of instruments were selling well and in 1992 as the business gathered pace Mike and Gay were joined by Dave Shepton. With a background in boatbuilding Dave brought some slightly different skills to the business. Soon they were working as a team and continuing to design new instruments and refine the existing ones. All three of them shared similar views on the direction the instruments and the business should go. This team naturally progressed into working as partners before making an official partnership in 2000.

In 2002 Anne Nelson was employed part time to help the partners with the mountain of paperwork and she soon took over most of the office work and string orders.

By now the upstairs workshop was heaving at the seams and the novelty of carrying everything up and down a half landing stair was wearing off! The search began for new premises Having looked all over the place and almost signed up to a place 12 miles away  the perfect building came to light just across the car park! In October 2002 Starfish moved into a ground floor building twice the size of the existing workshop and Dave, Mike and Gay were able to design the interior layout to suit their needs. (See workshop for detail)

During these past 2 to 3 years Gay had been only working part time as she took a college course to become a homeopath and set up her own homeopathic practice. With the increased space (and overhead) it was time to employ someone else in the workshop working full time on making harps. In March 2003 Davey Tod, another boat builder,  arrived and quickly got to grips with the various harp making techniques and methods and indeed introduced a few of his own! Anne’s job continued to develop with her also taking on the stringing of the harps and general string management.

February 2004 saw the end of an era as Starfish became a limited company, Starfish Designs (Scotland) Ltd, and lost one of its founding partners. Gay took this opportunity to withdraw from the partnership with Mike and Dave continuing as the two directors of the limited company. Gay continues to work for the company one day a week as the harp lever fitter and string expert.

Another good foundation block was laid in October 2004 with the purchase of the building giving security to the future and eventually reducing the overhead when the mortgage is paid off.

With the order book continuing to look full and other innovative projects getting put on the back burner another person was employed in August 2005 to make harps full time. This time a bigger chance was taken and a chef called Barry Moran stepped forward. Barry has been working at the very top of his profession as a pastry chef in Andrew Fairleys restaurant at Gleneagles hotel. The attention to detail required for his previous job is very similar to that needed for harp making and the training is going well.

That brings the story of Starfish to the present day some 18 years after it started, who knows what the future will bring but it doesn’t look too bad from here!