What do Sir Chris Bonington, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Sir Tony Robinson, Dame Judi Dench, the Hairy Bikers and Julia Bradbury have in common? They are all the proud owners of a walking stick hand-crafted by me.
My name is David Roberts and I served in a Welsh Infantry Regiment for seven and a half years. In 1997 my life was overturned when I was medically discharged from the job I loved. The transition to civilian life was hard – I had a couple of low paying jobs until 2000 when I became unfit for work due to mental health issues stemming back to my army service.
A few years ago I started messing about in my shed making stuff. I started out by crafting candle sticks out of deer antlers. It was my wife who suggested I make walking sticks and the first few were rubbish, but they started to get better and better with practice.
The first stick I made was for Julia Bradbury. From then on I started to email the agents of some celebrities offering their client a walking stick in return for a couple of photos and a short video message just giving me feedback on their stick.
All the photos and videos are available to view on my Facebook page. I do take on commissioned work, so if you would like more information then please call me on 01646279716 or email me at: droberts8641@gmail.com
David Roberts