After completing my ‘A’ Levels I studied guitar making at the London College of Furniture (subsequently renamed Guildhall University). I returned to the South West of England full of the ambition to spend my life making musical instruments. I soon realised that with my limited resources this was not going to be the road to riches – or even to a decent wage! I subsequently spent time designing and making furniture and was later employed by a local company to set up their drawing office. By the time I left a few years later, I was the design and production manager, had a load of people working for me and had all of the associated problems and headaches. This was a far cry from guitar making and I didn’t enjoy this period of my career at all. I moved to a much less politically charged and much more enjoyable and fulfilling position designing architectural joinery at a practice in Bath. The work developed across the breadth and span of domestic architecture and I went on to qualify as an Architectural Technologist with the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists. I set up in private practice in the year 2000.

This wasn’t enough for me! In 1999 I started to play the fiddle and this has blossomed, I play rather a lot of music (http://mitchellandvincent.com) and have played festivals such as Glastonbury, many folk festivals and at folk clubs across the UK. I was making and repairing violins in my spare time and I realised that the love of making instruments was still present. Violins are now my main focus. I couldn’t be happier!