On my way in the darkness, pitch black, my bike lights pierce the overarching tunnel formed by the trees. It’s a mile long, this stretch. In the dark, up ahead, I see two bobbing lights side by side that at first seem like car headlights but then I see that the lights bob alternately and…

Hard for me to imagine but the latest vlog went up today outlining a few things that matter to me and hopefully to you too. I was never sure if these would be of interest to everyone but they take you down a different avenue of my life and I am so enjoying sharing things…

Framing, panelling and book-matching embraces the reality that we must have wide expanses of wood and that that expanse must be either free to move ‘float’, or be semi constrained within some kind of frame. Through the centuries we have learned what that takes. We’ve refined the methodology through our understanding or at least acceptance…

The wood I bought from my friend George is stacked outside the garage workshop in a pile and I have started to work it down to sizeable proportions. Cutting into it I have chestnut, elm and beech slabbed into 1 1/2″, 2″, 3″ and 4″. Before I take it down to working sizes I must…

Coming to a new year reminds me of the times I’ve had deadlines for customers to enjoy what I made over the holiday season. It has always meant more hard work for me but then the added income was critical too. 2008/9 was the greatest trial in building my designs for the White House. President…

I have generally found alternative realities fascinating. A group of young people built their homes for one another in eastern Europe using alternative building methods from natural materials like straw bale, clay, timber framing and so on. They learned the techniques on courses over a number of years and then taught one another on the…

Yes, it’s out! I made this from scraps from some other projects and then the colour contrasting mahogany from a vintage 1850s table leg. Magic! I think you will enjoy watching as well as making it. It’s a four-part series with the last episode out on Christmas day. That means in Australia it is too…

I see men and women from the Sophos cybersecurity entity next door every day. They escape in ones and twos from its high-rise glass edifice of corporate business to snatch a bit of exercise and sanity from nature at lunchtimes and it makes me wonder what it would do to some of them if they…

…and Making it Smooth At first I wasn’t sure of the wood. It was too modern to be true mahogany so I thought maybe Malaysian wood, but quickly saw it was a red meranti from the Philippines. It’s a common enough wood here in the UK. Stain it and it can look like sapele or…

I’ve watched the runners decline with the colder weather as I ride my bike first thing in the morning over this past two or three weeks. Dog walkers too have freed up my cycling space on the paths and cycling has become a treat as cyclists ride the bus and drive the car. It made…