I have had a lifelong interest in the arts, cultural heritage and the crafts but it wasn’t until 2006-07 when I completed a full-time course at Roehampton University Calligraphy and bookbinding that I seriously considered a career in these areas.
During 2008, I had an informal apprenticeship with the letter carver Tom Perkins, learning how to draw letters and cut them in stone. From 2008-11, I studied at the University of Hertfordshire, gaining a BA with First Class Honours in History. At the same time, I continued developing my skills as a letter carver, visiting other craftsmen’s workshops and gaining my first commissions. On graduating in 2011, I set up my own business as a self-employed letter carver.
From 2011-15, I worked on cataloguing the archive of the craftsman Michael Renton for the Edward Johnston Foundation and I also became the librarian and archivist for the Society of Scribes and Illuminators.
In 2018, I completed an MA by research in History at the University of Hertfordshire. In October 2017, I became a fellow of Digswell Arts Trust and had studio at The Forge in Digswell, Hertfordshire, until July 2020, when I moved to Parndon Mill, Harlow. I mainly work to commission, creating pieces of public art, memorial stones, birdbaths, benches, plaques and stones for the garden. I also teach and lecture on calligraphy and letter carving, running workshops and short courses. In the spring of 2018, I ran letter carving workshops at Highfield School Letchworth.