Fascinated by the world of lutherie after a trip to a local luthier at 16 years old, I later went on to follow my passion; first as an apprenctice to Harpsichord maker and restorer Maestro Fergus Hoey, and later at the violin making school at Merton College London under the exceptional Master maker Keith Graves. After focusing on repair and restoration I went on the win a fellowship from the Winston Churchill Trust for my work which allowed me to travel to Florence to work alongside a group of remarkable luthiers and study the Tuscan style and history of violin making with Maestro Francesco Algieri. My great love of baroque music and history led me to train and specialise in Baroque builds with Maestro Fabio Chiari. I make instruments 'from models' and like to use my intuition and personal taste guide me while making and varnishing. I have exhibited all over the world at all the major industry events from Shanghai Music China, BVMA London to Reuning in New York and Cremona Mondomusica. I am proud to have my instruments played by remarkable professionals and work in collaboration with award winning artists such as Leonardo Frigo, Federico Guglielmo and Thorgy Thor. I am also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, The Churchill Trust and a recognised artisan of Homer Faber where I also exhibited in 2022. Since 2018 I have lived in Florence, Italy, as a resident and am proud to have a workshop in the city that serves our outstanding local musicians from both the conservatorio and also the Maggio Musicale aswell as also maintainting a workshop in my homeplace of the North of England where I work by appointment during the year. I was delighted to welcome Dario Nardella the Mayor of Florence to try my violins in an official visit and honoured to be one of only 16 artisans whose stories were told in the beautiful book Crafting Excellence by Francesca Polizzi celebrating artisinal excellence in the rennaissance city. In 2021 I began to offer training and masterclasses to promising female indentifying luthiers and will shortly begin my new teaching position at Scuola di Liuteria Toscana Fernando Ferroni. In 2020 I joined a team of women to help develop and build the international community Women in Lutherie – a grassroots community of female identifying crafstpeople in the industry for support, an annual Fellowship programme and conference all dedicated to making the world of lutherie a more equitable place. I regularly contribute to publications such as The Strad aswell as keep up consistent media appearances in the press and television and work to promote lutherie to a wider field using social media, workshops for schools, lectures and speaking engagements including a lecture series at Palazzo Tornabuoni, Homo Faber and the Savile Club . The violin “Il Veneziano” I created with hand designed gondola inspired soundholes was accepted into the Museo della Musica in Venice making me the only living luthier with an instrument in the collection. My social media presence as @palutherie is a valuable opportunity for me to engage with millions of musicians, artists, history and nature lovers around the globe and has helped me find my own very specific niche in the industry making and promoting my 'anomaly' violins which are reimagined instruments which are painted, decorated or have modifies sound holes, often inspired by nature.