I farmed for ten years in Shropshire before deciding to make a complete career change. A love of boats and sailing led me to study at the International Boat Building Training College at Lowestoft, where I learned the ancient and challenging art of wooden boat construction. A passion for fine furniture, combined with the technical expertise derived from my studies in Lowestoft, encouraged me to develop my cabinet-making skills.

Boat building is a wonderful, precise discipline, which taught me technical finesse but for me, there are too many artistic constraints compared with the freedom of designing furniture. I went on to study furniture making under Christopher Faulkner at the Ashridge Workshops in Totnes, South Devon, whilst commuting back to my family for weekends in Monmouthshire.

Now, based full-time in the foothills of the Black Mountains in rural south-east Wales, I run a furniture making business, designing and producing fine bespoke pieces. I take commissions from anywhere in the world but the involvement of the client is a crucial part of the design process. What is satisfying about designing and creating a beautiful piece of furniture for a client is that they feel as if they have a little bit of themselves built in to it. They will treasure it all the more.