A 12-YEAR-OLD’s passion for woodwork has garnered the attention of hundreds of thousands of people – including a few celebrities – thanks to the magic of social media.
Gabriel Clark, who lives in Kirkby Lonsdale, has been interested in making things since he was a little boy, improving on his skills and flair for woodwork ever since.
After expressing interest in purchasing a new mountain bike, Gabriel’s family launched an Instagram page which spotlighted the Year 7 pupil’s craftmanship in the hope the profile may attract commissions.
However, the page only had six followers by the end of its first week, prompting Gabriel’s dad, Richard, to issue a call-out on Twitter for support.
“Gabriel has always been interested in woodwork since he was a little boy,” Richard Clark, who works as a writer and director, said.
“He used to make all sorts of creations from even four-years-old. We could see this was something he was interested in and supported that.
“He’s got progressively better at woodwork over the years and become more and more advanced.
“We had been talking about setting up a social media page together.
“Gabriel wants quite an expensive mountain bike and we said he had to pay for it himself, so he thought of selling his woodwork online through Instagram.
“We set up a page around two or three weeks ago to show people what Gabriel can do to try to get commissions.
“Gabriel felt quite despondent after only reaching six followers.
“So I tweeted about the page to see if we could help get Gabriel some more followers and it just blew up.”
Thanks to the power of social media, Gabriel’s Instagram – clarkie_woodwork – began attracting thousands of new followers.
Among those are a host of famous faces including: Radio 1 DJ Greg James and Youtube star Joe Sugg.
Gabriel even received a shout out on Radio 2 from Zoe Ball about his page which, as it stands, has nearly 230k followers.
“I thought what is going on? I couldn’t quite believe it,” Mr Clark said.
“We were so surprised by the reaction to it.
“Gabriel couldn’t believe it. I showed him the number of followers on Saturday morning and he was stunned.
“It was quite difficult to quantify to him how many 230,000 people actually are.
“We honestly thought the page would get only a few followers – but it took on a life of its own.
“We’ve had thousands upon thousands of queries about commissions – it’s been incredible.
“People love an underdog story and showing support for a hobby you don’t often see kids taking part in.”
Mr Clark hopes Gabriel’s story will encourage more young people to get involved in woodwork.
“We just want to support his passion as best we can,” he said.
“We hope it encourages more children to get into woodwork and D&T.
“We want to make sure it stays a positive and supportive space for Gabriel and his hobby.
“And Gabriel loves doing it. It’s something which is innate to him, and he enjoys, which is the main thing.”
Gabriel has also carved a bowl for Ukraine which he is hoping to auction off to raise funds for children stuck in the war-torn country.
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