Robert Hopkins

Robert has worked as a cabinetmaker and furniture restorer in and around Llandeilo for 28 years; in that time he qualified as a wood machinist, and is a keen woodturner and carver. He welcomes commission work.

His main choice of timber is Welsh oak, primarily for its characteristic ‘wild’ grain and for its density which is lacking in imported forest grown timber. He therefore buys as much local grown timber as possible. He also executes work in other timbers such as ash and elm, and is currently working on a deuddarn for himself in wild cherry wood from the Llandeilo area.

Lovespoons are a new venture, he follows designs of the 17th- early 20th Centuries rather than the ‘tacky’ tourist examples commonly found in retail outlets today.

Robert’s furniture designs are influenced by the traditional oak furniture of Wales and is currently researching the Victorian furniture designs of the Aberystwyth area for publication in the Cardiganshire historical journal ‘Ceredigion’

Away from woodwork, Robert is a specialist in Roman pottery, specifically Gallic samian ware of the early Roman Empire, and spends much of his spare time researching pottery in British, Spanish and French museums. He has published several papers in national and local academic journals, and in excavation reports, including the samian pottery from excavations at Pumsaint for Lampeter University, and more recently a ‘love token’ from Llandeilo in The Carmarthenshire Antiquary. For the Study Groupfor Roman Pottery, Robert compiled and edited an important University pottery collection on CDROM; his most recent paper was published in 2012. Future research projects involve the cataloguing of decoration from the factories of central Gaul