A Shropshire woman is celebrating her first year in business as a bespoke furniture designer and maker.
Jane Handford (pictured), who established Shrewsbury based Jane Handford Design in 2016, holds a first class BA (Hons) degree in furniture design and make from Wolverhampton University and an NVQ level three in carpentry and joinery.
She spent ten years teaching GCSE product design and B/TEC construction at secondary school level and was eventually appointed head of department.
Prior to that, she was the first ever in-house product designer to join Richard Burbidge, a leading UK manufacturer and supplier of staircase balustrade, decking and decorative mouldings. She secured the position after winning a competition set by the company to design a new shelving unit and ended up working on innovative product designs. She has also spent time as a blacksmith and welder.
She said: “My experience and knowledge enables me to be the single point of contact throughout all stages of the process, transferring my clients’ requirements and ideas from the initial consultation into design, production and final installation.
"I also enjoy creating furniture from a mixed material format, using new and recycled wood, such as oak, plywood or MDF, combined with forged metal or sheet steel and rapid prototyping methods.”