Robert Parker is an artist craftsman who makes a wide variety of wooden items from chopping boards to furniture.  He works in locally-sourced English hardwoods such as ash, apple, spalted beech, birch, cherry, elm, oak, pear and walnut.  The wood for each piece is carefully selected and hand-crafted in his workshop through various processes from a fallen tree to the finished item. Robert works and lives in the Blackdown Hills on the Devon, Somerset Border. His interest in wood came as a result of making wooden toys for his children. The quest for more interesting material led to collecting English hardwoods. He trained as an engineer at Hallam University, Sheffield, after completing a mechanical apprenticeship at Aldermaston qualifying as a turner. After 16 years in management, in the food industry, He decided to make his passion and hobby his livelihood.