What advice would you give someone starting from square one? 

I was extremely fortunate, in that I managed to get an apprenticeship with Jocelyn Burton and was educated in the “old school”, traditional skills, passed down by the Huguenots. Although it did take over a year of harassing her, by calling her almost everyday to see if she would take me on. Finally, she told me to do a month’s trial with her. This turned into years of formal apprenticeship. I would say to someone starting out, avoid fashions as they come and go. Find that person who is doing timeless, truly extraordinary and highly skilled work. Make a pact with the devil, sell a kidney or lung in order to learn from them. It will bring you more wisdom and knowledge than any degree, course etc. 

Is there a moment that didn’t feel significant at the time, but in hindsight was pivotal to your career as a silversmith? 

I had paralysed my leg in a horrific accident and had to give up my work with Jocelyn along with my apprenticeship. I was living back home in a very depressed state, going through the brutally tedious monotony of learning to walk again, when my godfather whom I had previously reconnected with after many years got in touch. He said that he wanted to commission something and told me his budget. “I have no workshop!” I bleated, “Build one” he replied. And so I did build one, along with the confidence that I can do this. From the ashes of utter despair I created the St George’s House Tree of Wisdom which now sits in the Royal Gallery at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. 

In a world where speed and pace of production is such a driving force, how do you balance this demand with the time and consideration that your craft demands? 

A lesson I have learnt throughout my life is to slow down, inspiration cannot be forced and neither can creativity. I deal with whom I call the 1% of the 1%, the extremely wealthy who are interested in silver. Being patient is not always something that they are well versed in. Usually my projects take between 9 months and 12 to complete sometimes longer. It is how I work and necessary to create considered, timeless works of art. It’s not to everyone’s taste or agenda and I have lost work as a result. But my work’s integrity stays intact. 

If you revisited a point when you felt at the bottom of a ladder, looking back now on all you know now and what has shaped you into who you are today, would you have done anything differently? 

I planned nothing, I always wanted to be a painter and somehow ended up a silversmith. I am not aware of any ladder in particular, life seems to wax and wain, with peaks and troughs. Maybe it is more a game of snakes and ladders. I have always liked Oscar Wilde’s words about not being a noun, be a verb instead. At this moment I am a silversmith, this may change. But whatever it is that I am doing, give it everything that I have. Total and utter commitment. I did not understand this when I was a painter and it is something that I have learned. 

When things feel off-track, what helps you reset? 

As I suspect many of us do from time to time, I can go through periods of low mood and sleepless nights. But I have enough experience in these times now to recognise them, they will pass, slow down, be patient with myself. I would never treat another human being the same way that I treat myself. Going for a long walk across moors in lashing rain or sitting by a stream and simply listening brings me objectivity and the ability to “zoom out” of my current insular self. Everything passes, nothing is permanent. Today’s struggle won’t even be a memory in a few days time. 

Who do you rely on for advice when you need an honest answers? 

As time goes on, I have realised to stick to my own gut instinct. Too many cooks spoil the broth. I know what is good and what is not. The temptation to seek approval and advice is alluring, although often creates more questions than answers. Months of work can be undone along with one’s confidence. Stick to your intuition and trust it. You are the only expert in you and what you do. Having said this, I do value my wife, Jasmin’s advice as she, in many ways is the ying to my yang and can bring a perspective that is quite often hard to hear, but it is honest. She gives me insight that I previously could not see, as a result I create something better and more in harmony with the clients desires.

What does “taking a leap” actually look like in your experience? 

I have taken leaps in work, almost all have ended in catastrophic consequences and a lack of autonomy. Autonomy is the most important thing in my life. To be autonomous, totally in charge and in control of one’s life. It’s the absolute “pro” to being self employed, the “cons” are a lack of steady and reliable work. The thing I struggle with most is that, unlike in oil painting, speculative work in silversmithing is costly. I cannot just make something that I feel inspired to do so. The outgoing is too great, with no guarantee of return. But what I can do is design, this is what I spend my time doing, letting fantasy take control, designing pieces that have never existed before but I so want to see exist in reality. These are the things that excite my clients and get them thinking. More often than not, they come back with, “let’s go for it!” 

Is there a lesson you had to learn more than once? 

I quite often ask Jasmin, “When does the learning stop?” Growing up we are taught that life is simply a paint by numbers. You do this degree, which leads to this job, marriage, children etc. I have toed the line and ticked the boxes multiple times, all have landed in naught. I have no degree and no qualifications. I am totally unemployable. I have had to re invent myself and recreate myself a number of times. With each time there is a simplifying and a honing of life. What is essential? What is superfluous? What do you want this life to look like? With each new chapter, it is again pausing and waiting for answers to come, not trying to force life and demand immediacy. Trusting the passing of one moment to the next, the answers will come as will the results, which more often than not are totally unpredictable. I have learnt to never assume anything. I used to work extremely hard, expending so much energy, staying up all night in my workshop, endlessly travelling to New York and so on. I now work efficiently.

When have you felt most “on the right ladder”?

Isn’t it easy to appear and project being on “the right ladder” today more than ever? The one I am on right now is the most honest and best I have known. I have been on a few very rickety ladders and have been lucky enough to find and grab on to this one with everything that I have. I live a quiet life, renovating our house with Jasmin and our son. Work is feast or famine, hugely affected by geo- politics. We try our best to plan and prepare for the lean months and make hay when the sun shines. But life is good, when I feel agitated or low I walk the three minutes to the end of the road and the most beautiful and mesmerising view of the sea erupts in front of me. Life is not about work for me, it is nice and comforting to have security. But seeking it as a means to provide well being will never provide safety, security and happiness. This comes from somewhere else.

Is there a place that you return back to when in need of inspiration? 

For inspiration I used to visit the silver collection at The V&A, which is the greatest public collection in the world, and always empty! But these days I find inspiration in totally unrelated places. Quite often at “The Dolphin” pub in Plymouth. I go alone and watch humanity in all its glory. Kinship between resilient fishermen, blustering bravado of the younger generation, the solace of a pint after a hard shift at the submarine building yard. We are all levelled from the outside world, our lives are no longer important. Inhibition is free and nobody cares who you think you are or what you have done today. I find more often than not when my mind is distracted, “eureka” moments happen, and I have an entirely new thought that solves a problem that I have been stuck on. 

Which song do you play to re-energise? 

“Hallelujah” by the Happy Mondays or “Dirge” by Death in Vegas (if you will forgive the irony…)

If you were playing a second game, which career route could you have taken? 

A watch face enameler / deep sea oil rig welder. There are very few watch face enamelers left in Switzerland, hence this ghastly trend of “sports” watches. Who honestly needs to be diving to 20,000 leagues under the sea…