As a technician, I get an equal pleasure from using and demonstrating hand tools and high technology. I feel very lucky that my job fits so well with my outside interests.
These outside interests include understanding how and why objects are produced and in how they are used. Design is everywhere around us, and the very best of it is unnoticeable because it integrates so well with our lives. The utter simplicity of great design is, in reality, very hard to achieve, but this is a goal I always set myself, and the aim I would like to impart on our students.
My life started with an Engineering Apprenticeship at Babcock Moxey in Gloucester, where I first learned CAD. I then travelled Australia and New Zealand on a working holiday visa, as a Design Draftsman, picking up other jobs as I went. At some point during this, I fell into prop making, working for Operas, theatres, and the odd movie (Gladiator, Star Wars, etc.) here at home, and abroad.
From there I drifted into renovating houses, in Australia where I was then living. This, and the people I was living and working with, inspired me with ideas of sustainability so, before I left that stage of my life, I took a Diploma in building Design in the hope of making the world a better place.
I now find myself in Cheltenham doing everything I like and trying to inspire others.
I will demonstrate tools and techniques, but then encourage students to learn them for themselves.
I have a strong connection with the repair cafes here and in Nailsworth.