Staff Spotlight – Ashley Hill
October 2023
We recently caught up with Workshop Manager, Ashley Hill on his time at Mtec
How long have you been with Mtec and what were you doing before?
I’ve been at Mtec for over nine years now. After passing my NVQ level 2 I went into fine joinery, progressing to loft conversions and extensions before changing my field of work. I wanted to do something different, Mtec was a challenge and a big difference to working on lofts and extensions.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
The variety of cases, making standard cases for shipping around the world, to making bespoke plinths. They’re all different, from cases made for art exhibitions outside the City of London, compared to those for the likes of events such as FRIEZE Art Fair.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Probably the first time making a bespoke plinth for a large and heavy sculpture.
What has changed in your department over the years?
The quality of stencils used to be a bit of a pain, we worked on introducing a new method that made the crates and stencil work look neater. As a department, we’ve developed a great team of staff in Packing and Crating. I most enjoy the fact that we all work well collaboratively, that really enables us to find solutions and meet tight deadlines.
What has been your most exciting or successful project to be involved in and why?
The most exciting projects for me I’d say is whenever I have to make a bespoke plinth. Each one is different, it’s all the forward thinking involved to create plinths to different shapes and sizes, from circular plinths to irregular pentagons.