a wood worker
As our young minds develop and grow throughout our childhood years, we begin to formulate ideas as to what we might like to do when we are older. Perhaps we’re influenced by our surroundings or from those who brought us into this world. Toms worlds was always a creative world fueled by family members and relatives which were creatives themselves. Allow me to share a little more of Toms world with you and where we find him today.
Tom has always been an outdoorsy type person by his own admission. He was fascinated by the natural world and his love of wood started early on, creating things in his family shed. Not a man shed at that point clearly, but a shed nevertheless or what we might refer to today as ‘a creative space’. His first real passion for woodworking and design came when he was studying product design in secondary school. It was whilst he was at school that he designed his first piece of furniture, an oak coffee table. At that point in Toms life, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. The next step was onto college to study cabinet making.
“My goal is to keeping growing organically whilst sustaining a living from my woodworking. I want to leave my stamp of design on the world without damaging it in the process”
Following on from college, Tom got into the industry via a well known local kitchen manufacturer working on the production line of the business but that became rather mundane and he moved on from there. That clearly was not for him. A few odd carpentry jobs later and Toms focus as it had been from the start, was to go it alone.
That’s where we find him today in his own workshop working on commissioned briefs and one off pieces. So what’s the future then Tom? “My goal is to keeping growing organically whilst sustaining a living from my woodworking. I want to leave my stamp of design on the world without damaging it in the process”.
Toms workshop was full of lovely things, man things and lots of wood things. I guess that’s what you’d expect really. Lots of steam greeted me when I arrived and for those of you who are familiar with the steam and wood connection, there was lots of bending going on, oak bending in this case. Steaming wood goes back centuries. It’s the art of bending or curving wood. This is something Tom is really good at and this reflects in the designs he creates. My impression of Tom was, he’s passionate, very creative and a very clever young bloke. I so wish I had some of Toms skills when I was younger. A real pleasure meeting you Tom and keep on steaming. RD
