I am a self-employed craftsman, specialising in the repair and conservation of historic buildings and traditional signwriting. I am Scotland's only producer of roofing shingles (handmade wooden roof tiles).

After living in Austria and apprenticing in shingle making, I came to Scotland to get busy producing shingles. But I very quickly found a forestry culture addicted to low quality timber, prohibitive bureaucracy and an absence of the widespread forest literacy found in Austria. This has led me to question why this is - where has the knowledge gone? In a country rich in trees, something is wrong if roofing shingles are imported en masse.

In trying to establish any rural craft business, there are a great many challenges. There is a large capital outlay for tools and machines, insurances, training and affordable places and spaces in which to live and work. Funding is hard to get and advice often begins with a conversation about becoming shackled with debt. Having seen another way is possible in Austria, I want to discover the other best practices existent in Europe and bring this wisdom back to enable more diverse, devolved and resilient livelihoods to be made from craft work.