Hailing from Craigieburn in Melbourne’s North, James’ interest in woodwork began at high school.

At 17-years-old he decided to undertake a school-based apprenticeship during Years 11 and 12, working one day a week for a family friend’s business – Heartwood Furniture in Eltham.

James was a second year (and highly regarded) apprentice when he joined TIDE in 2012, and completed his qualification in 2015.

He derives a lot of satisfaction from being able to make a piece of furniture from beginning to end, as well as seeing the customer’s appreciation of his work when it is delivered.

One of James’ strengths is problem solving when considering the construction of a piece of furniture.

He enjoys the challenge of coming up with solutions for the best construction method, and then developing custom jigs for specific furniture elements.

Passionate about timber, he particularly likes Walnut as it is easy to machine and work with, it doesn’t chip out too much and has interesting features.

His favourite TIDE pieces to make are the Tuki desk and Tuki bedside tables due to their technical difficulty and many components.

He has built many of these over the years – in fact, if you order a Tuki desk or bedside it will have most likely been made by James!