Biography

I was fortunate to grow up in a stimulating and creative environment with my parent’s woodcarving and gilding workshop competing with the surrounding Scottish forests and hills for my attention. A strong appreciation of my natural surroundings and an awareness of man’s interaction with it through craft was formed early on.

A biology degree at Edinburgh led back to wood and craft with several years spent developing skills and exploring design in various workshops including a period working with Andrew Lawton, master cabinet maker in Derbyshire. In 2005 I moved back to Scotland, with a workshop in Dumfriesshire, then to Edinburgh in 2010 where I started working with The Balvenie Distillery to design and make wooden cases for their high-end releases alongside my own furniture. In 2014 I established my home and workshop at Bruntlands farm in Morayshire.

I aim to create furniture that fulfils its purpose in an honest and quiet way. I try and do this by selecting trees that have grown in the local landscape and allowing the methods of construction to guide the forms dictated by the function of the piece. Handcraft is important to me and although not fixed in tradition I respect the forms and techniques developed by generations of craftsmen responding to timber and allow this influence in my own contemporary design.

A stool in Oak, shaped to fit and balance, legs jointed through, blackened and scorched in fire.

A small desk in Cherry and Laburnum, single drawer hand built from Oak and Cedar of Lebanon, dovetails strong and elegant.

Ultimately, I want to make useful objects that enhance people’s surroundings, that they find beautiful and have meaning for them.