I was born in Birmingham, England in 1978. I have three brothers and a sister, and a growing number of nieces and nephews. In 2001 I moved to Northampton with my job where I have settled and now live here with my partner Adam, our two cheeky Bengal cats Amber and Deeley and our Cocker Spaniel Bruno.
The horse connection:
From the age of 9 through to 19 I attended horse riding lessons with Cherry (and Jamie for a while too!). My first riding school pony was a gentle aged palomino mare called Amber. Along the way Amber sadly retired, and later I rode a pretty strawberry roan mare called Kayliegh. I was never a gifted horse rider and fell off many many times, once landing on directly on my head (jarring my back, causing me to lose my confidence completely; it was a year before I rode again, I was about 13/14 then) and once after being kicked in the face by another horse (luckily I was only about 10 and bounced back)! I finally gave up having riding lessons when I was diagnosed asthmatic after having allergic reactions after each lesson. I miss riding and find it hard to sculpt not being able to go within breathing distance of a horse, so for me, Google has become my best research tool!
My sister is much more of a natural horsewoman and she went on to take care of several horses on loan and even had part ownership of a handsome gelding called Ebony. The highlight of our riding days was when Cherry won the chance to ride Beatos, the original Lloyds Bank horse (R.I.P big guy) in a bet over a game of pool with the stable owners! Cherry is a true horse-woman and didn't even give up riding after she once broke her arm after a bad fall.
Jamie did incredibly well while he joined us for lessons, and took the title for most spectacular fall when his horse bolted and he took a flying leap into the menage fencing! Luckily he also bounced and was fine, but we didn't half get a scare!
Although we sound accident prone, I'm pretty sure most people who learn to ride have many falls and we're a pretty average bunch really.
The Clay Connection:
When I was a young teen I discovered Fimo, and would spend hours making miniature models, driving my family mad with requests for new ideas. I took Art at Sixth Form (college) and un-knowingly sculpted some pretty interesting BAS-relief models, but as "Horses" wasn't a desired subject for an A Level project I had to move on to more acceptable subjects such as Renaissance art and Salvador Dali, sigh. (only kidding, Dali is an intriguing character!).
It wasn't until the age of 26 that I finally combined my equine fascination with my sculpting abilities, and created the set of three medallions; Lawrence, Baldy and Claude. Pleased with the results, I experimented with several casting techniques and produced my first resin edition and some interesting custom cast models. During this time I also began to sculpt Jasper; a small traditional scale Percheron sculpture, researching breed standards, anatomy and learning sculpting techniques along the way. Frustrated with the slow progress of Jasper (due to so many other commitments) I sculpted several medallions, bust models and a foal named Little one.
With my commitment to the model horse sculpting and collecting hobby established, I am looking forward to many more years of development, and many, many more sculptures!
I also enjoy drawing (mostly animals) and some examples of my work can be found here: