Devon Rural Skills Trust - Training Program

Between 2014 and 2018, I undertook the training program with the Devon Rural Skills Trust, a charitable organisation dedicated to preserving and passing on traditional countryside practices. This experience formed a core foundation of my material understanding and ecological awareness, which continues to influence my creative work today.

Through hands-on training, I developed a deep respect for craftsmanship, rhythm, and the intelligence of natural systems. The apprenticeship involved:

• Hedgelaying

• Dry stone walling

• Coppicing & woodland management

• Turf hedging

• Charcoal making

• Hurdle making

• Cob house building

This grounding in rural craftsmanship has deeply shaped my approach to installation art—especially in terms of structural sensitivity, spatial logic, and environmental responsiveness. I see each technique not only as a skill but as a philosophy: an understanding of how human presence can work in collaboration with natural processes.

Many of these traditional systems echo in my sculptural works, both materially and metaphorically—whether in modular forms inspired by nature, or in the act of building itself as a meditative, embodied practice.