Interview with Michael Hill, MD of handmade tie and accessories firm Drake’s.
Drake’s London is the largest independent maker of handmade ties in England. Founded in 1977, by Michael Drake, the company has developed into a luxury clothing accessories brand, noted for its particular style…
An interview with the founders of 31 Chapel Lane, producers of Irish Linen goods.
Linen has always been recognised as the strongest natural fibre, even more so wet, and therefore it made perfect sense that the sails of the famous tea-bearing clipper ships, the Cutty Sark being…
Interview with Michael Johnson, Founder of The Copper Works, Newlyn.
I am sure we are all extremely familiar with the term blacksmith – someone who works metal, most notably iron, or a silversmith working with silver, but what about a redsmith? A whatsmith?…
Interview with Greg Rowland of Mike Rowland & Son, wheelwrights to the Queen.
The wheel, with its eternal curve, simple balance and symmetry and unending usefulness, is an iconic symbol of mankind’s unique capacity to reason, design and engineer. The traditional wooden wheel is a beautiful…
Interview with Alan Ritchie, Founder of Hewnwood, traditional timber framers.
I wanted to feature our good friend and traditional timber frame craftsman Alan Ritchie, founder of the timber framing company Hewnwood, as I have been lucky enough to have had first-hand experience of…
An Interview with Edward Barder from The Edward Barder Rod Company.
If you walk into any angling shop, the world over, there will be a sea of mass-produced carbon-fibre fishing rods, racks and racks of them, light-weight, space-age, efficient, and yet, inevitably, soulless. However,…
Interview with Alison Benjamin, writer and co-founder of Urban Bees.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the gentle honey bee, rather than their angry Apocrita cousin the wasp, and encouraged their visits by planting wild flowers with vivid colours around the garden. …
Interview with Pete Coates, Journeyman Cooper & Founder of Oak Barrel Creations.
How many people with ‘Cooper’ as a surname do you know? I surmise that most of us will know, or have known, of someone, near or far, literal or lateral, civilian or celebrity,…
An interview with England's last full-time pole lathe wood turner, Robin Wood.
We have long-admired Robin Wood’s work from afar, a talented, award-winning bowl maker from the Peak District who still makes wooden cups, bowls and plates in the same way as they were made…
An insight into the history, craft and splendour of dry stone walling.
My earliest memory of dry stone walls comes from when I was about 8 years old, when on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales; I found a baby shrew sat on a stone protruding…
