One thing that I really loved about Lisbon was the paving. All the side walks were hand paved, as a result the side walk surface was uneven to walk on. This struck me in a number of places that I went to in Europe. I think that you become more aware of the surface that you walk on. Also, the act of walking is accentuated. The surface is rarely consistent, some places dip, some have bumpy bits. This is what I like best about things that are hand made. When I first started making I wished that I could make things that looked 'perfect'. But I always found that my file would take off too much metal in one area, or that because I don't like following formulas, the edges never quite met the way that they were meant to. Eventually I accepted that this was and is the way that I like to work, it is always a process of discovery. Sometimes frustrating. Sometimes very funny and a bit dodgy brothers. But what I ended up with was always my own. My work looks like my drawings, in fact I think that I make my drawings. I prefer a hand drawn line to one made with a ruler. So the paving in Lisbon reminds me of my work. I like to think that some of the surfaces were uneven because, lunch may have stopped the work on one section and another person finished it. Or that the patterning was informed by the amount of tiles prepared for the day. When something is made by hand there is always a trace of the process, and of the maker.