I got into beekeeping because of my dad, I used to help him tend to his beehives when I was growing up in Cape Point. I've thus had a thing for bees from a young age; a liking which has only developed and turned into a favourite hobby over time. I now either own or look after a bunch of beehives scattered all over the Western Cape, checking that they're made up of healthy and happy bees, helping them get on with things and occasionally collecting honey.

For the past 5 years I have worked for Artescape - a leading company in large-scale festival art and decor. This job has taught me many things, and pushed me to learn more about construction and execution of building plans than I could ever have imagined. About 3 years ago I started my own journey in computer-aided design (CAD), which exponentially increased the quality of my work, and provided me with the freedom I needed to branch out and design things outside of the scope of my career, such as my home projects.

I started out fermenting things when I had an excess of honey from my bees, more than I could consume myself. I usually sell some jars too, but the idea of making such an ancient drink was exciting. After a few years of doing this, I'm still in the process of refining my mead flavours and recipes. During the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa, alcohol sales were banned, which led me to start fermenting apples to make my own cider. Using the same fruit, I also started making apple cider vinegar, and I have a few other fermentation projects in the pipeline. Basically all of what I know is self-taught, as luckily there is no shortage of how-to guides and books out there.

In Cape Town I attended a school that offered sailing as an extra-mural activity. I really enjoyed this, particularly the sailing knots one learns to do. Somehow this skill extended into tying knots and ropes that hold up bedouin tents, and next thing I knew I was employed to rig big tents all over the world. I've since moved beyond rigging simple stretch tents to erecting large-scale festival shade structures and stages with Artescape, executing Carin Dickson's (the artist) psychedelic designs with a crew of people who are unafraid of hard work and heights. Having done this for 5 years, I feel I can pretty much rig any sort of structure now, given the mad designs we've accomplished over the years.

Wood is, of course, one of the primary materials used when constructing something like a stage from scratch. Apart from this, chopping and burning it to keep warm or cook food with is also something I've been doing since I was a boy. I've worked with wood in some way or another throughout my life, and I've come to appreciate the beauty to be found hidden in the various grains, colours and even structural properties of the different types of wood. I've used wood to make all sorts of things with, ranging from jewellery to furniture to eating utensils.