About Ian Varley

How a rope-access climber found his love of wood

Ian's route to carpentry was anything but direct. It took in skyscrapers, redwoods, the Eden Project and Glastonbury before bringing him home to Leicestershire.

1. Mid-1990s

   Where it all began

   An interest in rock climbing, mountaineering and wilderness camping led to life-changing travels to South Africa in 1995. There Ian spent a year as an industrial abseiler, dangling by rope from a 36-storey glass skyscraper in downtown Johannesburg.

   
2. 1995 – 2007

   Travel and work

   Years of rope access contracts followed, sleeping in vans and doing hard manual work, mixed with trips to remote mountains and connections with inspiring people and places.

3. Ten winters

   Santa Cruz, California

   A climbing trip to California lit the spark. The giant redwoods and old Victorian timber houses of Santa Cruz made a lasting impression. Helping his friend Mike's carpentry business, starting with re-shingling a roof in cedar, led to ten winters working wood in Northern California.

   
4. A turning point

   The Eden Project

   As part of the ‘Sky Monkey’ team helping to build the Eden Project, Ian knew he had to stop drilling steel and concrete and start using his hands more creatively. He still counts it as the most important job he has ever worked on.

5. Every summer he can

   Glastonbury

   Ian is now a regular at Glastonbury Festival, taking his green woodworking workshop to the festival whenever he can.
6. Back home

   The village carpenter is born

   Waiting on a Thames-side rooftop for the wind to drop, Ian read a Permaculture Magazine article: “A week in the woods: learn how to make a piece of rustic green wood furniture”. He enrolled, and that first acorn grew into Rustic Carpentry. Today it's his life: timber, tools and traditional techniques. As he puts it, he has serious ‘grain on the brain’.