Stuart Sharpless, designer.
I did an apprenticeship in mechanical and electrical engineering and spent nine years on the shop floor, manufacturing mechanical components. I might be turning a bearing housing, but I would be thinking of another use for it, like an ashtray or a lamp. I felt I had an eye for design, so I started targeting all the major architects in London. We began making a range of furniture from mirror-polished stainless steel - large boardroom tables and desks. They were bought by the big banks. I furnished the towers in Canary Wharf, working with the architects and designers.
The business grew to be quite big. Then, two years ago, we moved to Ireland. My wife is from Kinsale, and we had our son in England three years ago. Work was incredibly busy. It never stopped, so we thought we would sell up, get out and start again. Now I concentrate on 10 or so projects at any one time. It means we have a much better quality of life. We set up a company called Tadpole.
I've made a few pieces of the furniture in my home: a coffee table and a dining table and a small sculpture. People see stainless steel as a specialist material, but it's no different from other materials. We stay away from painting or powder-coating, so it doesn't let you hide any mistakes behind anything. If you're a bad craftsman stainless steel lets everybody know.
When house prices go up people start to say they can't afford to move, and they look at altering the house they have. One way is to use the outdoor space as another room, and we have a lot of inquiries about garden designs to create those kinds of interchangeable spaces.
I've struggled for years to describe what I do. I suppose it's one-off bespoke designs of unusual items in steel, stone, plastic or metal. I've made panelling for a Harley-Davidson. We did the steelwork in the Flower & Roll garden at the International Garden Festival in Emo Court, as well as building the UCD garden and making the blue trunks in the American patchwork garden.
Emo Court is a fabulous place for kids. There were originally five or six huge balls in the Flower & Roll garden, and some of them escaped. One just went off somewhere into Dublin, apparently. And, weirdly enough, no one has phoned up to say where it is. It's so large you wouldn't be able to put it just anywhere. It's not going to fit in your house . . .
In conversation with Catherine Cleary.
See www.tadpole.ie. The International Garden Festival is at Emo Court, Emo, Co Laois, until September 23rd. See www.igf.ie