Maria Sheovska was born in 1989 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her grandad was a woodworker and her parents have always been “the handy type” so she was introduced to using tools and making things from an early age.
She was only 7 when she first started studying art and at 13 she was accepted at Sofia’s high school of applied arts “Sveti Luka" where she majored in Graphic design. She also did sculpting, drawing and history of arts as part of her education.
Due to sudden unfortunate family circumstances, Maria had to start working at the age of 14 to help her mother with the bills and rent. With the help of one of her teachers, she found a part time job at a signage design and making shop where she went to work everyday after school for the following few years. There she picked up the know-how of signage making, vehicle wrapping, using tools and printing machinery, as well as precision and attention to detail.
At only 18, while still at school, Maria was offered another job as a head of design and customer relations at a neon signage making company, working with some big Bulgarian clients.
Between the ages of 14 and 18 Maria also entered and won multiple drawing, graphic design, maths and chemistry competitions and received a scholarship for high grades. She then wanted to study Product Design at the famous Bulgarian Academy Of Arts because she loved designing and making functional objects. However, she couldn’t afford to pay for the private lessons needed to prepare her for the exams so she started a petition to her school asking for weekend access to run her own free drawing classes for herself and her fellow students in preparations for the exams, which had never been done before. The petition was successful and the weekend classes became very popular amongst pupils from other schools as well. Impressed by her initiative, different teachers started volunteering and coming to teach, all for free.
The people on the examination board, who also happened to run a lot of the overpriced private classes, became aware of her initiative and at one of the mandatory consultations told Maria that she didn’t have what it takes for the Academy. Maria took this personally and decided to apply to every university in Europe that had a Product design course just to prove a point. She got accepted to all of them.
Unfortunately she had to retract her applications as she didn’t have the finance, nor knew English, which was a requirement for most of them.
Impressed by her portfolio however, Coventry University didn't want to accept this and contacted Maria to offer her student loan, an advanced scholarship to cover her accommodation and an exemption of the English language exam on the condition that she gets a basic English level by the time she arrived, all based on their belief that her talents would increase the course level.
Maria worked harder to save up for the following few months and took night classes giving her a basic level in English. She finished school and moved to the UK in September of 2008 to study Product Design at Coventry University.
It was a real struggle for Maria in the beginning mainly due the language barrier and after nearly becoming homeless in her first year of Uni, as her scholarship didn’t transfer on time, she went on to graduate with Honours in 2012.
Maria was working as a bartender in her second year of University when a guest lecture introduced her class to an entrepreneur programme based on the Dragon’s den show. At the time she was dating a motocross racer and that, combined with her many years of experience in signage making, gave her the idea for a motocross equipment design and customising shop. She entered the competition and pitched her business idea in front of a panel of people. She won and got sponsored to open her business in April of 2010, which she called The Grasshopper Custom Printing, after a grasshopper logo she made when she was at school.
Maria ran The Grasshopper for 13 years and got to create the signature looks for many riders, including Neville Bradshaw, Brody Knibbs, Scott Beaumont, Ivo Monticelli, the KTM race team, Judd kids team and more, as well as featured at The International Dirt Bike Show 7 years in a row.
Between 2019 and 2022 Maria also part time worked as a motivational lead to problematic and struggling kids and young adults between the ages of 8 and 21 for a company called PET-Xi who contacted her for this job. She was sent all over the country leading a team and providing support and training in maths and English, and later on wrote and developed a course on “Employability after school” for the company, which is still being taught.
She also works as a costume designer and props maker for theatre and TV and was a head of the Costume department on a feature film in 2022 with IMDb credits. Maria volunteers in a community drama group and tackles acting, hoping to do it professionally one day.
When COVID hit in march of 2020, Maria converted her business and used her equipment to make face masks. She single headedly made over 2,500 masks for less than three months, working over 14h everyday and was interviewed by the BBC on multiple occasions.
In the summer of 2022 Maria was contacted by Bob from THE-MACHINE-SHOP to run their marketing and design. They clicked instantly as a team and her creative approach has helped the business gain more popularity and clientele, especially amongst the females, as well as expanded its areas of use, offering content and services for events, some of which including Motorcycle Live, ABR Festival, The Malle Mile, MCN London Excel and more.
Maria is currently working side by side with Bob on growing and expanding THE-MACHINE-SHOP.
Maria loves house projects such as re-building and making furniture as well as drawing.
Our staff is primarily made up of engineers, technicians and fabricators from the surrounding automotive factories and design offices . There is a huge knowledge base here and asking stupid questions is encouraged.
Bob is our welding and fabrication instructor.
There really isn't much that he can't build or fix (after he broke it first...).
He's been building bikes for quite some time.
Bob previously managed a team of fabricators who made race bike tanks and chassis ridden by the likes of Josh Brookes, Davo Johnson, Peter Hickman, John McGuiness among
Bob is our welding and fabrication instructor.
There really isn't much that he can't build or fix (after he broke it first...).
He's been building bikes for quite some time.
Bob previously managed a team of fabricators who made race bike tanks and chassis ridden by the likes of Josh Brookes, Davo Johnson, Peter Hickman, John McGuiness among others.
Despite his terrifying appearance, he's actually very friendly!
Jake is one of our very skilled welding tutors.
With a diploma in welding and sheet metal fabrication, he has over 5 years of welding work experience in a wide variety of areas,
including architectural, structural, film sets, automotive and more.
Jake is a patient teacher, who will encourage you to deliver the highest quality of work. H
Jake is one of our very skilled welding tutors.
With a diploma in welding and sheet metal fabrication, he has over 5 years of welding work experience in a wide variety of areas,
including architectural, structural, film sets, automotive and more.
Jake is a patient teacher, who will encourage you to deliver the highest quality of work. He will advise and guide you throughout your learning process and he’ll make sure to answer all your questions so you can get the most of your welding lesson experience.
Jack is one of our excellent welding tutors and a general help around the shop.
He has an extensive engineering background and a great sense of humour.
Electrical mechanical engineer by trade, Del is our right hand man when it comes to sudden bike repairs, tyre changes and other last minute challenges we might face at events and festivals.
As a young man he moved into operations management in fast paced manufacturing. He likes restoring classic bikes and building custom café racers and
Electrical mechanical engineer by trade, Del is our right hand man when it comes to sudden bike repairs, tyre changes and other last minute challenges we might face at events and festivals.
As a young man he moved into operations management in fast paced manufacturing. He likes restoring classic bikes and building custom café racers and bobbers, while also enjoying adventure bike riding abroad.
At our legendary Bike Nights, you will always find Del behind the BBQ as he is
THE-MACHINE-CHEF, making you the best burger in town!
(If all the other burger places are closed…)
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A DAY OF ENTERTAIMENT, ACTIVITIES AND NEW MEMBERS PERKS