I made my first furniture in the early seventies producing several pine refectory tables and benches. Though did make a milking stool at school taught by a Mr Boddington who would say "don't waste the wood, silly boy" accompanied with a smack on the back of the head with each syllable. It wasn't until college in the mid seventies that I cut my first dovetails for a coffee table which I still have.

My first business, called 'Wildwood' was in partnership in Bristol, making original bespoke hardwood furniture including fire-surrounds, tables, kitchens and wardrobes. It was there that I found I preferred designing and making original modern furniture rather than reproducing old ideas, although I admit to being influenced by Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the Arts and Crafts movement. The X framed table base was originally conceived after making a series of pedestable tables with four C frames joined in the middle: I was convinced that interlocking X frames would give a more rigid and stable base. I was persuaded to register the copyright, though I was sure somebody must have thought of it before, amazingly they hadn't, I had found a new design.

The chair design came from a brief period as a teacher of Design Technology, watching pupils tilting they're chairs onto the back legs, creating terrific stresses in the frame. It seemed to me that a diagonal brace would prevent these stresses and give a very strong and attractive chair design.

The dressers are a logical compliment to the tables and chairs and give me the opportunity to use my favourite joints, hence the dovetailed corners.

Oak has always been the timber of first choice for me. I prefer to use French oak as the quality is consistently high compared to English oak which has more defects such as knots, shakes and 'cat's paws'. I also feel that as France has been growing and harvesting oak sustainably since Napoleonic times my conscience can rest easy. I do not use any exotic timbers and haven't done so for at least 25 years so it is no good asking for a table in Honduras mahogany or Zebrano.