Artisan and Director of Peter Weldon Iron Designs Ltd.www.peterweldon.co.uk I was born in 1967 in Malawi, East Africa. My father was an Englishman working as a farmer in Thyolo and my mother’s family had settled in Africa a couple of generations before. Although I was just a little boy of seven when my family moved to England, it was my early years in Africa that gave me an adventurous spirit in business, design and travel.We moved to Leicestershire, England, in 1974 where I spent the rest of my childhood. I graduated from Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1989 with a first class BA (Hons) in Ceramic Design. For the next few years I worked in the ceramics industry, honing my design and modelmaking skills, before starting my own business in 1994.After seven years’ successful ceramics manufacture, I decided it was time for a new venture and sold my business to Theodore Alexander, a leading manufacturer of 18th & 19th century reproduction furniture and accessories.I was contracted to relocate the factory to new premises in Vietnam so in March 2002 I moved to Ho Chi Minh for 12 months with my wife and daughter.While in Vietnam, my eye was drawn to the wealth and beauty of ironwork - a legacy of French colonial days. I found the Vietnamese to be skilled steel fabricators and both friendly and hardworking. The seeds of a new enterprise were sown and I set up a new business designing and manufacturing period ironwork from bases in Staffordshire and Vietnam. Manufacturing continued successfully from Vietnam until 2010. I then took the decision to relocate to Bulgaria and now manufacture with Aquairon, a family-run ironworks.I am now based in Carmarthen, South Wales, and am personally responsible for all design work. My wife Louise, a skilled pattern designer, works alongside me producing fine ironwork design and drawing, photoshop work and pattern visuals.
Listed skills include Construction, Architectural Design, Project Management, Sustainable Design, and 15 others.
