At 7 years old Carlyn started working with wood. Having worked with paint, fabrics, clay, metal, plastic, she finally settled down to work with wood, this wonderful warm and tactile material.
Carlyn trained at Wolverhampton school of art, studying 3 dimensional art and design, wood, metal and plastics. This is where she started sticking materials together and making boxes with beautiful stripey jointed corners. This lead her to create laminated wooden blocks, that were colourful but balanced with contrast and visual energy. Carlyn began turning them on a lathe and was excited at the result.
In 1989 Carlyn was able to start her business with a grant from The Princes Youth Business Trust and a bursary award from Wickes DIY. In 2004 Carlyn received a bursary award from The Worshipful Company of Turners, this funded a new lathe, enabling further development of her work.
For Carlyn the whole process of producing an object is important, from designing and planning, the attention to symmetry and being able to visualise the outcome. Then selecting the wood, usually English sycamore and glueing it together with beautiful combinations of veneers.
“The big buzz as I am turning the piece of work on my lathe, to see it emerge from a gluey lump of wood, to spring to life, the coloured lines so clean and bright appearing to crossover and weave in and out of each other. Then finally carefully applying the finish. I can see my fascination of circles and lines working together. The satisfaction is enormous. The design is permanent.”
Carlyn enjoys making pure and simple forms with the addition of a complex laminated element to enhance. Taking pleasure updating traditional design, bringing an ordinary object into a contemporary world, inspired by architecture, complex linear structures, railway lines………