Simon was originally planning to become a set designer working in the theatre but, at the age of thirteen, inspired by a BBC documentary about the Japanese national treasure Shoji Hamada he started building kilns in the garden and making pottery.
There followed a chance encounter a few years later with ‘handmade glass’ and the drama of intense heat and fire, combined with the dictates of time constraints, revealed his calling. When creating glass you only have seconds to get it right and this imperative is what inspires Simon.