Charles Tepasse’s first experience with furniture making was making a framed and panelled pine chest with a family friend and carpenter aged 16. Along a many- winding road, he received a scholarship at the Royal Drawing School where he refined his draughtsmanship and was awarded the Machin Art Foundation award for excellence in figurative painting.
The appreciation, study and deconstruction of great art made by the cultures of the world - housed in the British Museum, National Gallery, and Tate Modern - has enormously informed his creative process. This is a process which upholds the primacy of the process itself, and the discovery of truths revealed whilst exploring an idea.
Through a teacher of his, artist Ann Dowker, he met the designer/maker Bim Burton - a Parham College alumnus - whom he apprenticed under. This was an act of pure generosity and kindness by Bim which set Charles on the path of a skilled trade. Bim instilled in him a true love and understanding for solid wood, its incredible properties and the beautiful trees that it is sourced from.
Charles has produced many fine pieces of bespoke furniture for architects, designers, artists and private clients, and has completed restoration work with Sands & Randall.
