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The theme for the Garden of Delights 2005 was 'delightful furniture' and my proposal to create anthropomorphic furniture was accepted for this annual art/music/theatre festival event in the centre of Manchester.

I got the idea from a sculpture given to me many years ago by a student friend (cheers, Craig!) that was an old dining chair cut up and reassembled with crossed legs, so it appeared to be more human. Craig had done this many years before Sarah Lucas got the idea! I liked the concept of chairs in a seated pose, quite appropriate actually, reflecting also maybe the personalities of the humans who would use them.

I had to stick with wooden/cane chairs as my carpentry skills, though basic, are better than my metalworking skills. I did have a lot of fun making them though, it was a bit of light relief from my stone-carving which seems to take so much longer!. Each of the sculptures only used bits from the original dissembled donor chair, so you could maybe guess the original form and style. They were painted in bright colours to stand out in the park environment and also to appeal to children more, but I think you could translate the concept to a gallery setting and get away with chairs that retained their original colour and finish, just with an altered form.