have been doing woodwork for nearly 40 years now, having started out in my village in Wales under my father's feet. He was not a woodworker, but he did many things with his hands. If anything broke down at work or at home, he was the person people relied on to fix whatever was wrong. I apprenticed to a family member in a joiner's shop when I was sixteen years old and have been involved with woodworking since then.
In 1979, I began to research the old ways of turning on the spring pole lathe. I returned to Wales and England to track down the last Bodgers--those old-time woodland turners who produced turned parts for the chair industry around High Wycombe--and have been working on the pole lathe ever since.
In 1982, I began making English and Welsh style Windsor chairs. (Click here to view a sample of my work.) I started teaching "green woodworking" in 1985, keeping my focus on the traditional crafts of Britain. Three years ago, I moved to Kentucky, where I found the traditional crafts similar to the British tradition. I set up shop in the tiny town of Paint Lick.
I spend a great deal of my time in the mountains tracking down Appalachian craftsmen and working in the schools to keep these traditions alive. Using traditional technology as an "appropriate technology," I also work in developing countries and economically depressed areas, setting up projects using local materials and talent to create cottage industries with other craftsmen and women, in an ecologically and environmentally-friendly manner.
I am currently teaching a variety of Woodworking and Blacksmithing workshops here in Paint Lick. You are invited to come and join us in making chairs, shaving horses, pole lathes and tools of the trade.
