I began working
with Richard Williams at the Goodwood Cellars several years ago after
retiring from the foreign office.
We specialised in making heavy, solid furniture from reclaimed pine
over the years we have gained a reputation for producing good
value tasteful furniture. During this time I found an interesting
way of keeping myself interested between the commissions by making mirrors
from the natural off-cuts of the hard soft woods used in the furniture
making process.
The shapes and sizes of the mirrors have always been dictated by the
wood itself. No mirror can be duplicated because of this reason
the colour finish is only decided when the mirror is made. That
is what is so exciting about making these mirrors, the fact that no
two can be the same, and it is because of this that I started making
them
full-time.
I spend a lot of time choosing the wood for my mirrors the more
bizarre the better. English Yew is possibly the most unusual wood given
the great contrast of colours, followed closely by Burr Elm. English
Elm however gives us the stability of a hard wood has such wonderful
shapes, colours grain.
Finding unusual
shapes within the wood is very difficult I spend many hours searching
for the right wood for the job. Suffice to say I can make a mirror of
any shape, from any wood but try to maintain the woods natural lines
however, the resulting shape is dictated by the wood itself.
I hope that I am
not the only person who has an interest in wood in its natural state,
rather than the factory mass-produced items we see in the high street
to day. To this end I invite you to browse through the following pages
and look at some of the examples of my work.