Richard Chapman British, b. 1955

Craftsman Richard Chapman might be forgiven for rubbing his hands in windy weather as plummeting trees suit his creative purposes perfectly. His workshop lies amid stocks of fallen timber bartered from landowners and foraged from near and far.

There are black lumps of bog oak which had been buried for thousands of years until farmers snagged their tractors on them on the subsiding peat of West Norfolk's Southery Fens. Hunks of bright-red yew, grey ash and creamy elm glint between piles of box, plane, mulberry, acacia, lilac, cherry and chestnut. All will be chopped or carved, honed, hollowed, planed, burned, dyed or polished - and even dried in the microwave - to make works of art or artefacts for industry.

 Now in his 50's, Richard Chapman gained a passion for carpentry during his childhood. When a schoolboy in Loddon, " I had the luck to be taught woodwork by a master cabinet maker," he says. In his own subsequent career as a PE teacher at Springwood High School in King's Lynn - where his pupils included the future hockey Olympic bronze medal-winner Kath Johnson, his gift remained a hobby. Richard Chapman decided to turn to full time woodturning in 1993 and since then he has carved himself a unique niche. Current orders include repairs to the antique tools, which are now sought by international collectors. With 600 designs of hammer alone, and thousands of axes, there is a vast variety here. Richard also produces ball, sausage or dumb-bell shaped pieces of wood to exacting standards, which are pulled through drains and pipes to measure or clean them. Such crafty examples of precision engineering have been such in demand lately for pipes below Stansted Airport and on the Jubilee line extension to London's Underground.

 However, Richard Chapman'sgreatest claim to fame is in the beautifully turned wooden vessels - such as platters, bowls and urns - which are exhibited in galleries in East Anglia and London.