I first began exploring making dwelling spaces in Wales, during the winter of 1991 with a version of the humble romany ‘bender’, using bent Hazel rods covered with an old army tarpaulin. needless to say i got very wet and cold and ill! Despite the very lumpy start, my desire to create and live in my own low-impact dwelling was un-ignorably strengthened.
I ate my very large and tasty slice of humble pie and spent the rest of the winter living in a friends attic where i began my quest to make my first geodesic dome frame. This, i have to say, was a complete success. With the addition of a good quality ground sheet, a sturdy 20x20ft section of marquee tarp, and a custom built wood burning stove and chimney, i lived in this simple to make structure for at least two years in various planning-free locations around the west country.
On New Years Day, 1994 i found myself in the south of Spain, sitting down to dinner in the first teepee i’d ever seen. That summer, with the help of a friend who was an expert at the task in hand, i made my own tiny 12ft teepee. This again was a great success, and it served as my, albeit small, home until i returned to England some six months later.
I recall that the first time i set eyes on a yurt was that same year in Spain, though it wasn’t until nearly 5 years later in 1998 that i found myself in Brighton running a voluntary woodland management programme within the amenity woodland of Stanmer Park. The week that i sealed the deal with Brighton & Hove Council and The South Downs Ranger Service to go ahead with my madcap plan to manually manage fifteen acres of the “Great Wood” in return for the timber yielded, i received a call from a woman asking me to make her a yurt! To cut a very long and convoluted story short, i’ve been at it ever since.
In fact, in the last fifteen years i’ve made thirty or more yurt frames and over a hundred bespoke fitted covers for all manner of structures: Plains teepee’s; Mongolian Ghur’s; Sami Lavvu’s; 2 & 3 phase Geodesic Domes; truck covers; wildcrafting structures; blacksmith’s forge’s; garden/house/caravan awnings etc. etc.
I run a Singer 211 walking-foot sewing machine with reverse gear.
All tent covers and frames are fashioned by me using the finest materials. Every tent project is unique and custom-made to order. Each tent does exactly what it is meant to do!
