The majority of wood I have in stock is pre-1930s, occasionally some late-Victorian. From that era wood was naturally seasoned and subsequently better quality, which I like to think is evident from the finished product.

Most of the timber is a softwood pine; hardwoods are not as easy to come by. Old nail holes, markings and weathered features add to the character, but there are many pieces I have, which remain as unblemished as the day they were first put in place - just a bit dirtier! I sand the wood, stain as necessary and finish with natural beeswax.

I like to know a little bit about the buildings from where the wood originates, so as to date it or maybe discover something of interest. A lot of my work currently uses shelving which originates from the Natural History Museum in London. This beautiful wood is from the former Spirit Building, which was carefully 'deconstructed' in 2002 to make way for the sparkling hi-tech Darwin Centre.

These shelves used to house the bottles of 'spirit' containing the literally millions of zoological specimens, such as Nanonycteris, collected by the museum since the 16th-century. Now some of it (the shelves that is) is gracing mirrors, photos and the like. Okay, it's a bit a long winded story, but interesting nonetheless.

I mention Nanonycteris, as this was marked on one of the original labels I discovered that remained on the shelves, denoting what a particular bottle of spirit contained (see photo right). That's the provenance covered.