My interest in frame making began when I was fourteen years old, my father took me with him to the Anglo American Optical Company factory in Hampstead, North West London. He left me with George Low, the caretaker of the building. At the time George was semi-retired and had been an apprentice frame maker at the Anglo around 1900, and had learned to make all kinds of frames in acetate, metal and genuine tortoiseshell. 

In order to keep me occupied he showed me how to make an acetate spectacle frame. It was an NHS 524 high joint in blue transparent. He showed me how to draw out the frame and sides onto the acetate slabs and cut them out accurately with a fret saw and file to the final shape. Then we milled the lens groove into the eye shaped apertures on a milling table. The next operation was to bump the bridge then fixing the nose pads in place with acetone. Assembling the riveted hinges onto the front of the frame and sides was a difficult and meticulous task as I recall. Then both the front and sides were sanded with a fine sandpaper, before they were polished on two grades of polishing mops first roughing then glossing.

Clearly I had considerable help and patient guidance from George and could not have done it on my own, but it was the beginning of an interest and skill set that would stay with me to the present day.

My plan has always been to design and make spectacle frames and sunglasses. At Anglo American Optical we accomplished that for many years, always paying close attention to design, manufacture and service. I am pleased to continue to make now mostly one at a time or in small production quantities. Always to the same high standards and always by hand.