Whether it’s a blind cord, light pull, fan pull, or something rather lovely to hang on the Christmas tree, John’s hand-turned pulls have a surprising number of uses. We’re fairly sure people have invented a few we haven’t thought of yet.

Each one is completely unique. John works with locally sourced branch wood and native timbers, as well as interesting reclaimed and found materials including, on occasion, old piano keys. It turns out there’s quite a lot of life left in a piano once it’s finished playing music.

Over the years, John has turned an ever-growing assortment of designs: lighthouses, chess pieces, little human figures, globes, raindrops and all manner of wonderfully tactile abstract shapes. Some are carefully planned; others are simply a case of seeing what the particular piece of wood wants to become.

They’re small, useful objects, made slowly by hand and intended to bring a little character to an otherwise rather ordinary piece of string.

You can find a large (and constantly changing) collection at John’s display in Charlestown, or have a browse through the latest pieces in his Etsy shop.