all about Hodgy ...

 

... He has been the artist putting style into many of the trendy spots in town, including monkey Bar, Bar Bola, Bouzy Rouge, Cafe Antipasti...... He is even the master craftman behind the sumptuous furnishings at Balmaha and Luss Visitors Centres and the Victoria Hotel in Tarbert. Evening Times

When it came to choosing between art and woodwork, I opted for an apprenticeship with the outstanding cabinet makers, Piers Kellewell. It was there that highly skilled craftsmen taught me the true and perfect way to work with wood.

Beyond the actual craft, I increasingly found myself drawn to problem solving and communicating with customers, which inevitably led to self-employment. This provided me with the thrilling experience of working out what a customer wants, then visualising and drawing it, followed by the satisfaction derived from the customer having the confidence to commission the work.

Quality is my passion, and an insistance on excellence often takes precedence over profit. Since taking on my first apprentice when I established the company in 1986, a new apprentice annually embarks on their three-year training. Every year, we proudly send off a third-year apprentice to become tradesman.

From 1986 to 1991, we exclusively designed and produced exceptionally high quality furniture, shop/bar/restaurant fittings, with all designs completely tailored to the customers’ requirements. With each design, I felt an incredible urge to produce something even better, wanting the relevant designs and production to be of the highest standard.

However it was all to change when I took a sabbatical, travelling to Australia and South East Asia, where I lived with a wood carving family. I saw how they transformed their visions into carvings by following the natural pattern of the wood, which more often than not, had presented them with their original vision. Along with experiencing how wood was used practically in a very natural form, I sub-consciously realised what was required to relieve my dissastisfaction with designing solely to commission.

In 1994, I re-established the business, quickly returning to working at break-neck speed alongside apprentices and fellow tradesmen, only this time I had something more to offer. I was grateful that customer confidence in my reputation, gave me the creative freedom to experiment with Scottish wood, discovering that it incorporated all the natural visual messages.

From 1994 to 2008 we have been producing my designs, adapting them to suit the job’s practical requirements.

In 2007, I set about selecting the favourites, and started to realise my all-time dream. This was to display and sell a unique collection of pieces, all completely different from one other through nature’s fingerprint, but made to the same design perfected over the years. It gives customers the freedom to choose something that simply catches their imagination, as an alternative to commissioning a bespoke piece.

To this day, I enjoy nothing more than working on a challenging bespoke commission, where I am asked to design and produce something that I have not tackled before. From a personal, professional and creative point of view, this is the food of life.