Richard Jones
I have been in the furniture making business since the early 1970’s initially as a trainee followed by qualifying as a cabinetmaker with City and Guilds at Shrewsbury Technical College. During the period from 1973 to 1995 I worked for small to medium furniture and joinery companies, as a self-employed furniture maker, for Edinburgh College of Art, and for The Children's Museum of Houston. I undertook diverse roles in these jobs that included cabinetmaker, furniture maker, joiner, designer, restorer, furniture technician and workshop manager.
I started and ran my own full-time furniture business during the years I lived in Texas from 1993 to 2003 providing a design and make service complemented by commercial work, furniture repair and restoration projects for private and business clients, interior designers and architects.
I was offered the chance to return to the UK in 2003 to teach Furniture Design and Making at Rycotewood College, Oxford and worked there very enjoyably for two years. In 2005 I moved to Leeds College of Art and Design as Course Leader of their new Foundation Degree in Furniture.
I undertake furniture design and making commissions on a part-time basis, do consultancy work, and I continue to intermittently write articles on furniture topics for American and British magazines, something I have been doing since about 1997.