Robert Heard and his dolls houses

Robert Heard, Artisan

Following is the text from The Creative Process page of Robert Heard’s website. Click on either Bough House photograph for more great pictures of Bough Houses.

“Once I start creating, I do not know where the structure will end.”

Detail of tree limb core and the spiral staircase of a Bough House

The wooden sculptures take shape in a music-filled workshop at the bottom of Rob’s garden. Each one can take up to four or five hundred hours to complete, including time spent just sitting and staring at the pieces, musing about how they are going to develop.

Inspiration usually starts with a bough of woodcut from local trees or found lying in the fields close to Rob’s home. The form follows the shape and twists of the branch, informing the design. There may be sketches, but no firm plans and the Bough Houses develop a sense of how Rob wants the journey within that sculpture to feel, or the way in which he would like one to be able to travel between different areas within the form.

The individual elements of the sculptures are hand-cut or carved and fixed using pins and glue – right down to the last roof tile. Rob’s attention to detail and meticulously accomplished workmanship mean that the structures are deceptively robust. They are not delicate, they are intended to be played with and are as strong as they are beautiful.

In effect, these are the real deal, not models, but accurate a very significant scale. Rob’s children love to play with the Bough House that he built for them, and the quality of workmanship has stood the test of time – but they are more than a physical thing – you can spend hours wandering the walkways and turrets and paths in your own mind. These are truly inspirational pieces of art.

Susan Downing, with Patrick Owens