The inspiration for the first bird I ever made came from reading, for the umpteenth time, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. The bird took me six days with a hammer and chisel to complete and although hideous in the extreme it still hangs from the stairs landing at home. Friends and relatives loved it for its originality and gave me the confidence to approach a local craft gallery. They kindly agreed to hang it in the showroom and await public reaction. The publics reaction was quite frankly astonishing. That was in 1993 and I have been making my birds ever since.