It’s an imaginative entrance bench that is beautifully designed and made, but which also tells the story of a day in the life of a dog.

Rachel Faulkner from Newcastle originally served in the Merchant Navy but, as someone who is both artistically gifted and supremely practical, is now on our professional course retraining to be a woodworker.

The dog, Skipper, a golden retriever, just happens to be hers, and three different parts of Skipper’s day are painted and pyrographed onto the bench’s three visible sides.

The bench itself is made from sycamore and elm, with two drawers and two cabinets, the latter also having leather interior pouches for anything from papers or magazines…to dog treats.

The carefully drawn images are taken from photographs of Skipper waking up, having a swim in a Northumbrian river, and then having a well-earned sleep.

The images have been built up using stained wood filler as a base, then painted with water colours and etched using a pyrography pen – a technique that comes from the Greek for “painting with fire.”

Although Rachel had no formal experience in woodworking, she has built simple pieces of furniture and for some years has owned a pyrography pen and been fascinated with the technique’s artistic possibilities.

Rachel hopes to make woodworking her career, and intends on moving to Scotland after graduation and setting up in business in our Myreside Studios, incubation spaces that the school provides for graduating professional course students.

She’s now busy working on a colourful and intricate logo for her business which she is going to call The Creative Woodsmith.