The wood used for the pictures comes mostly from the Midlands area, stretching occasionally to Cheshire and Northampton. I buy the wood already cut into boards. This means going to sawmills or wood yards and sorting through piles of wood to find interesting pieces. Often these are dirty and rough-sawn so the first thing to do is to plane the boards. The wood is then cut to avoid the cracks or any unusable parts and next it is sanded to get a nice smooth surface to work on.

Often the boards are large but I keep them as big as possible until I have looked to see whether I need to cut them and where I want them cut. This means spending a lot of time just looking at the wood until the grain suggests a picture. At this point I will cut if necessary and then I am ready to start the art work.

The pictures are burnt into the wood using a hot wire pyrography machine. Much of the work I do freehand but if I need to ensure that the shape of a bird or animal is correct I will draw these on first with a pencil.

When complete I coat the wood with Danish oil. This does not colour the wood but brings out the natural colour and gives a matt finish so that there are no reflective effects from artificial lights on the surface of the picture. It is recommended that the pictures, if hung in a hot, dry environment, are occasionally given a coat of Danish oil. Alternatively a coating of beeswax polish can be applied. It is also better not to hang the pictures in very bright, direct sunlight as this will cause fading and dry out the wood – treat them as you would a good piece of wooden furniture.

Please note: All wood is treated for woodworm! All the timber I use has already been felled – none is cut especially for my work.