John Mainwaring
After leaving school John Mainwaring not only served a traditional apprenticeship as a carpenter, he also received private tuition in art and in 1974 he was able to merge the two disciplines when he embarked on his career as a maker/carver.
John's work has been featured on TV as well as numerous publications with Miller's Collectables describing his pieces as "collectables of the future". John states: "My first experience with wood that I can remember is as a small boy in my father's workshop watching him plane yellow pine with a large wooden plane. The lovely hissing noise as the iron cut crisply through the wood is etched in my memory."
John uses traditional tools but occasionally if it suits him he will incorporate modern developments. He tries to bring out the spirit or essence of the piece he is working on. He says, “If this needs exaggeration, the length of a bird's beak for instance, then I will do so."