Following university James developed his stone carving skills by working alongside a Stone mason. The carving and restoration work was solely on churches. James found that the architectural influence of working as a stonemason became restrictive upon his work and the final result too preconceived. As a move away from imposing upon the stone he attempted to better respond to the material by letting the sculpture evolve and develop as it was carved.
This new liberated working methodology allowed James to revisit his skills in modelling more plastic materials such as clay. Having developed mould making and casting skills at University James began using these in the process of bronze casting. He now works primarily in bronze and has spent the previous three years developing every part of the process from within a foundry.
Over the past few years James has developed his work more organically alongside the bronze casting process. By focussing on using an individual lost wax process James is able to use source materials for his sculptures with an ephemeral nature. He has in many instances cast directly from the natural material, simply burning out the original item and making it a truly unique cast. The physical nature of these materials and the processes involved in the transformation is fundamental to the devolvement of his work and has played a large part dialogue each piece holds.