vegansim: going the whole hog
It’s a measure how much things have changed in this last year that when I first started looking at how to live greener in early 2019 I was shocked to learn how much of our greenhouse gas emissions come food. Now going vegan for the climate is part of the conversation, but is it really best to go the whole hog on the meat-free front?… Read More
trees, lines and glazing
Two nice things today. First, walking Brindley in the woods this morning, the trees were suggesting all sorts of ways to use lines on a surface. and that was on my mind because waiting … Read More
Earth first bowl
When I was scraping the outside of my first coil pot with an old veneer saw blade to break up the surface before smoothing it I liked the texture so much that I kept … Read More
birch bark vase
The mixture of matt and shiny white glazes and the way they interact reminded me very much of the birch trunks that I see daily walking the dog in Leigh Woods outside Bristol. Where … Read More
inspiration rocks
The other day I went in search of a beach that I last visited almost 20 years ago. It had stayed in my memory because it was covered in perfectly round rocks, like a … Read More
What I fancy making
A week walking in the Yorkshire Dales and then a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with its new Sean Scully exhibition has left my senses thrilled and my thoughts questioning the ability of art to communicate even the vaguest inkling of past experience.… Read More
Poetry is not words
Poetry is not an arrangement of words, but a quality of openness, a distillation of experience and a refinement of expression. So to paint a poem is an entirely reasonable aim.
The language of images
In the introduction to Kathleen Raine’s selected poems she says, nature poetry is not what we write about nature, but rather the language of images in which nature daily speaks to us of … Read More
The persistence of impressions
If I can find a unifying theme for these last months’ travels it is stone. Red stone outcrops carved to make rock houses on Kinver Edge and cut through by the canal which I … Read More
a bowl of water and light
I’ve just delivered a painting to a client who wanted to bring the essence of a landscape that she’d known since childhood into her home. The bay between Tresaith and the Ynys Lochtyn peninsula is like a bowl of water and light, sea and sky almost indistinguishable, held by the outstretched arms of land. It is a place to rest and breathe.… Read More
Painting is like toddler talk
I heard a toddler the other day copying his parents’ talking but making no sense. Blah, blah, b’blah, blah, he said. He couldn’t understand what he heard, but he copied the sounds because he … Read More
something as living as nature
I want to create surfaces that have the energy and life of natural surfaces that become as fascinating and infinitely explorable as the natural world. The artist, Matthew Smith (1879-1959) studied under Henri Matisse … Read More
Land, Sea and Light completed
Created during my years spent living and working as a furniture maker on the coast of the St Davids Peninsula, Pembrokeshire, land, sea and light explores the essence of that wild Welsh landscape. It … Read More
what is interesting about the specific
“what is interesting about the specific is what it says about the universal”. I heard this said by Author Hisham Matar on the radio this morning, talking about his approach to writing. It seems … Read More
With painting, you never know
I always turn to the writings of artist Sean Sculley when I want inspiration and insight. Here, from his selected writings, is a reminder that with painting you never know how things will go. … Read More
Why purple doesn’t exist
The colour purple does not exist in the real world. Apparently it’s true. A rainbow of light from red to violet floods our surroundings, but there is no such thing as purple light. Purple … Read More
improvisation in earth tones
After all those months of working with white for the land, sea and light collection, my palate/palette was well and truly cleansed. So I’m beginning to open my eyes to colour… With the help … Read More
land, sea and light
Land, sea and light iwill be a collection of 17 white reliefs, hung as the doors of oak and beech cabinets, inspired by the cliffs and beaches of the St Davids Peninsula, Pembrokeshire. The … Read More
morning glory dining table
My client wanted a modern, glass topped table to go in an otherwise traditional room. So I looked at the motifs carved and inlaid into some of the other furniture. The form of the … Read More
balance music frame
A rock climber wanted a wall unit to hold a stereo, TV and a few books. I got interested in the way climbers balance and hang… so the piece became all about balance I … Read More
stripes dining suite
This seriously stripy suite was made for a compact London appartment. The lovely client kept pushing me to have more fun, I did.
the mist of familiarity
In 1819 Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “the mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being.” Is the role of the artist to commit themselves to peering through the mist and to … Read More
cliff top to vacuum press in a day
A few year ago I wrote a blog post asking whether it was possible to retain the energy of a sketch in a piece of furniture. Today may have been a step towards that. … Read More
Banksy or Van Gogh – who to copy?
Right now I’m struggling with the finish of a series of landscape cabinets and would love some fresh ideas. The doors are laminated reliefs inspired by the coastal landscape. As a ‘medium’ it’s got huge … Read More
coincidence – pierced forms
Isn’t the web a feast of coincidence. A ring carved from bamboo by Kevin Woolgar @kevinwoolgar, a photographer in Puerto Rico, and a ceramic sculpture by Matt Sherratt @sculpturalforms working in North Wales arrived … Read More
the lighhouse cabinet
When a client arrived to discuss a cabinet for his new Georgian appartment in Clifton, Bristol, he was carefully carrying a large cardboard box. When I asked what the cabinet was for he openned … Read More
hang a landscape on your wall
I want to make a collection of cabinets that hang on the wall like beautiful landscape paintings, whose interiors take you inside the landscape, and that everyone can see because it will go on … Read More
“I want my furniture to look like that.”
When I was first training as a furniture maker I saw a print on a friend’s wall. It was a painting of a dark headland on the horizon of a grey-green sea. I want … Read More
the landscape painter’s chest
A dovetailed chest in oak and recylced mahogany for the Pembrokeshire landscape painter, John Knapp-Fisher. This piece was commissioned by John to sit in his room under a painting that is hugely significant to … Read More
Starring role for dining table
Last night Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (Sherlock and Watson) starred alongside the Leaf dining table in the BBC TV series, Sherlock.
breaking wave
With the wild waves ripping into the Pembrokeshire coastline this winter, here’s a wave-inspired dining table. It contrasts the conventional straight legs to the left with the cascading wave breaking down the legs to … Read More
water table
a coffee table in glass and elm inspired by a still pool between boulders at low tide on Caerfai beach, St Davids, Pembrokeshire I’ve shaped the surface to accentuate the fluid figuring and … Read More
300 years in the making
Last Saturday saw a significant celebration – the unveiling of the first piece completed at the Pembrokeshire workshop. It had only taken 300 years to make.
Porthmelgan sideboard
A sideboard in native brown, pale and tiger oak, inspired by the rock strata at Porthmelgan, Pembrokeshire. It was is inspired by the layered rock formations at the little bay that sits under the … Read More
JCBs and day-flying bats
It’s been a week of arrivals and unexpected help. Birds from Africa, bats from hibernation, carpenters from Tasmania, and machine tools from Milton Keynes.
On the move in 2013
2013 sees the planned move to live and work in the landscape that has become my muse.
Nature in Art exhibition
delighted to have my work in the British Contemporary Crafts exhibition at the Nature in Art Gallery near Gloucester, UK, 13 Nov – 16 Dec.
rock pool collection pictures
Here is the collection of sculptural lights and tables inspired by the tiny marine world inside a hole in a large boulder at Caer Bwdy Bay near St Davids in Pembrokeshire.
Land, sea and light video
Here’s a video about Land, Sea and Light – this is the beginning of a project to create a collection of fine furniture inspired by a stretch of the most beautiful coastline on the … Read More
first birdsong table completed
These are occasional tables with inscribed birdsong. Listening to a particularly soulful blackbird in Spring I started writing down his song in my sketch book, not using musical notation, but just responding to the … Read More
using burr veneer video
How do you create a veneered table top? Here’s one of a series of “making of” videos now on the site. A coffee table designed to sit between two comfy cream sofas in front … Read More
Birdsong Tables
A while ago, sitting on a bridge in my local nature reserve and listening to a particularly soulful blackbird, I realized that birdsong could be a great source of inspiration for the visual design … Read More
Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen
I heard today that I have been accepted for associate membership of the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen. It means that my work will be appearing in their rather splendid summer show in Painswick (30/7 … Read More
Boxes as Sorbet
Boxes are a sorbet for the furniture maker – they refresh the palate between heavier and more complex pieces. But they are also a reminder of the fundamental qualities of wood which make it a … Read More
Goodbye table. I will remember your making.
It would be easy to think, looking at a calm and refined piece of furniture, that the experience of making it is equally calm and refined – a relaxed and measured series of steps … Read More
leaf dining table
A contemporary dining table echoing the tropical leaves through the dining room window. This architectural dining table was made for the ultra-modern house of a precision engineer.The client had clear ideas about the shape … Read More
Clay, wood and beauty 3
If you’ve been reading the recent posts you’ll know that I’ve been thinking about the relationship between woodworking and ceramics, both from the practical point of view – thinking about how they complement one … Read More
clay, wood and beauty: 2
Paul Bradley – the maker of the pot in the previous post – pointed me at the work of Edmund de Waal. It’s interesting what he is saying in this video about his Japanese … Read More
clay, wood and beauty
I think there’s a great affinity between ceramics and wood. I treated myself after a recent commission to this beautiful piece by local potter, Paul Bradley. It’s very refined and yet has a natural … Read More