I learned traditional woodworking in England. I put aside the craft when I came to America to go to graduate school in an unrelated field, but I eventually trained as an architect and set up an architectural woodworking business in 1989. Now retired, I can pursue my lifelong interest in the design and making of fine furniture. My current interest is chair making, and I draw inspiration widely from the hardwood furniture made in China during the Ming dynasty to the bentwood furniture conceived and manufactured by Michael Thonet in the nineteenth century to Art Deco work, especially that designed by designed by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the innovations in plywood furniture by Alvar Aalto, Ray and Charles Eames, and then Peter Danko. I don’t usually make reproductions, but I have made variations of Ming pieces I like, as well as some that I admire by George Nakashima. I design all of my pieces.