My crazy idea had been running around my head for a number of years and came about in early 2000 when talking with my best friend who was a fashion artist at the time in London a new way to get art onto bespoke furniture items and especially upholstery as this was what my family business did and we both thought leather would be the way forward for the luxury end of the market so I set about finding different methods to print onto leather I tried printed methods out there which looked ok but would not last and was frustrated at every turn but I carried on and started the Wish Interiors Website with our normal upholstered sofas and chairs while we worked on the printing methods which I knew would work as technology moved forward.

I was working on a 3d rendered model of sofas that we could wrap artwork around which was not done anywhere else this way and way ahead of what you see today on most sofa websites and looks great but back then the quality was not amazing but we carried on and was getting to the point of production models in fabric but the large leather panels was still the issue as nobody had created a method as yet to print on larger panels that actually worked.

Eventually I was speaking to a company that used a certain printing transfer paper in the uk and they mentioned a name of a person that invented this paper and method and said he would try and email him and see if he can help me in the quest to find a suitable printing method.

I had seen t shirts and bags with prints on but only small areas of printing and larger items where screen printed on leather jackets etc but I wanted full digital printed items and large panels which where not available.

I lost some hope but still had sample tests done from different places and was getting more frustrated with it and was starting to look at leaving my crazy idea until around 6 months later I got a phone call from the the "guy" he said he had heard about what I wanted to do and loved the new website and the rendered sofas designs and had something new to show me not many people had seen around the world and was in the uk next week and wanted to visit me - obviously I said yes and will get the kettle on.

The day arrived and the guy arrived with just a laptop bag and a long tube in his hand and we started chatting about what the vision was I had and he was able to answer all my questions with positivity and things where looking up.

He then got down to the leather printing and unrolled this huge piece of printed leather with an amazing colourful printed artwork all over it - just what I wanted to see - the first thing he said was , try scratch it off - here get a coin or something and have a go, so I did and it was not coming off and then he said ,you got any bleach rub some on and see if it melts it - leave it for 10 mins, which I did and it didn't damage the top surface.

I was amazed at the product and finish and my mind started racing what else we could do with this product....the leather he had produced was soft to handle and had the leather grain running through the surface - it was the what I needed to move this idea into reality..

We did a deal on exclusive rights to uk for upholstery and furniture and fashion items and started printing small 4 inch squares of leather and sending to different artists - fashion house and even car and yacht makers.

The first chair I produced was the Poker Chair and Two Birds and are still available via the website.

I spent days doing lists - emailing potential clients and posting samples - i got some replies pretty quickly one being Aston Martin and lotus that where keen to see the product at this point but before this I was discussing a project with uk artist Paul Karslake he had been on the phone wanting to have a meeting with me after I saw his artwork of Heath Ledger as the joker from the the dark Night film in the Sunday times magazine laid on my dads dining table so I sent him a sample in the post and he loved it and the idea to do a limited edition run of artwork chairs using his best pieces and I had free range on designing the chairs - Paul was full of life and I loved the passion and his stories of travelling with his sister Jo Wood when she was married to Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones and all the other famous people he had done art for - his wall in the studio was full of photos of people and guitars, vespas etc he had transformed with art over the years.

We quickly started the art chairs and I was invited to a few events with Paul to showcase some of the chairs we even had one in a gallery just off Oxford street in London where a Banksy was sat next to it - it was surreal.

His award winning airbrush technique resulted in iconic portraits of notable figures including The Rolling Stones,Princess Grace of Monaco and many more.

And has raised over £100,000 for charities since 1985.

Then car companies started to call as this was something of interest to them and while on a few days holiday on the coast with the kids I got a phone call on a Friday afternoon while on a walking trip up a huge hill we where trying to get down from the mobile was ringing and my wife was saying ,your on holiday leave your phone, but it kept calling back so I picked up and it was man from Aston Martin at Newport Pagnell to ask if I could be there Monday morning for a meeting with the leather samples to discuss the product further.

Wow that was a shock and down that hill we came and drove home early to organise samples.

The meeting was the first time I had been to a large company to showcase a product and when I arrived to the board room it was like the apprentice and was a bit nervous when 10 suited men and women arrived to look at the leather panels so I just rolled them out on the huge boardroom table and said ,what do you think ,they all looked at each other and smiled and started talking and touching it and asking questions it was one of them moments you never forget..I got a tour of the car plant and discussed doing samples for car seats etc which we then got featured in their monthly magazine that went worldwide.

Then we where asked to come along to one of the Aston Martin car shows with them and we had a setup next to their trimming department handing samples out and showing clients what we could offer as we could do any custom design they would require including patterns like carbon fibre and bespoke patterns and we also had art from Paul Karslake on show.

Things where slow over the next few years and eventually it faded out as most clients where thinking if I customise the interior to how I want it I may struggle to resell the car to a new owner so this was a problem we faced.

I focused back on the fashion companies as we could offer where cut shaped panels including any print so it was easy for them to order and then resew to make the product and was of interest to some high end brands and the ball got rolling with a few.

While walking around London handing out sample packs to potential clients I had leads from previous emails and I got a meetings with bag makers Mulberry and Cambridge satchel company and a meeting with Alexander Mcqueen which was approx 1 minute long - he liked the idea and would be in touch.

I then got a call from fashion designers Basso & Brooke who where uk digital print fashion designers  and won the 2004 uk fashion fringe award and have gone on to design dresses for the Michelle Obama in 2009.

They had an idea to work with Cambridge Satchel on some new bags that needed to be full digital high resolution printed leather and we could help them we set out a plan and got onto doing the separate panels ready to make up - time was tight but we pulled it off and the bags hit the London Fashion week in 2012 cat walk and where the first bags of its kind and went down a storm in the press.

 A few years passed and the printed leather was getting harder to produce due to certain chemicals used that where being banned and costs to produce smaller numbers and started to look at fabric printing again and while in London I had seen Dan Gold at his Monsters of Art studio and loved his artwork and can remember him from the London Ink days on the Tv where he was starting out his tattoo career and knew it would work well with my ideas and started to discuss with Dan the Bowler chair and cushion ideas and we started off using printed luxury velvet which looked amazing and the detail was sharp and clear so we have stuck with this method including a new vegan faux leather we use for printing on as vegan options are more popular and eco friendly.

The chairs where getting good online presence and where featured in tattoo magazines and blogs and where shown at a uk motorbike show dan was featured at when painting a Honda bike live in front of 1000s of people at the show.

Dan Gold has been making street art and tattooing rock stars for more than two decades. He is one of the very few Tattoo artists to also successfully transition into the contemporary art world and Dan has set up his new tattoo studio and shop in Oxford Street in London and has some of the exclusive chairs and cushions on display and you can pop in for tattoos or buy some cool merch from his range of t shirts ,caps , hoodies etc.

The range will have new items added too over time and we do offer a bespoke art service from Dan if required.

The bespoke upholstery world changed from this point on and I was on a mission to create pieces people would talk about for years to come.