FROM a young age, Dessie Gamble has had an eye for design. However, as a teenager, his hopes of embarking on a career within the field were dashed following the discovery that he was colour-blind.

"I did A-Level art at school and I intended to go to Jordanstown to do design. A week after I had my interview in Jordanstown, the school nurse arrived in and it was discovered that I was colour-blind," said Dessie, who went on to explain how this diagnosis impacted his future.

"That completely changed my whole career pathway, and it closed doors to an enormous amount of careers that you just couldn't go into if you were colour-blind. The army, police, electrician, plumbing – it just closed the doors.

"But then again, the one thing that was available to me was teaching, so I went into teaching then."

Working as a craft, design and technology teacher for 30 years, Dessie was always using his hands and working with materials as he supported his students with their creative endeavours.

Now retired, he is focusing on his own creativity. "Whenever I retired, it was an opportunity for me to develop that work and keep being creative," he said, noting how "there's nothing better" than making something yourself.

Using the garage at his Lisbellaw home as his workshop, Dessie has been experimenting with different creative processes.

"I stocked up my garage with equipment and machinery and I started creating things.

"I basically take things that people have thrown out and change them into something else," he said, adding: "I can turn them into something that's [aesthetically pleasing] and they can use in their own homes."

Explaining how he fell in love with 'upcycling', Dessie said: "When I moved into my house here, I made quite a bit of the furniture myself – bookcases, blanket boxes and lamps.

"Then I got into collecting things, old Tilley lamps and things, and cleaning those up just to have in my house.

"That later led to me putting electric [bulbs] into them and people liked those. They would bring me them and I would turn them into table lamps for them."

This affinity for upcycling and reinvention recently earned him an appearance on the first episode of RTÉ's 'The Big DIY Challenge'.

Dessie also enjoys drawing, but not in the traditional sense.

He explained: "I do pyrography, which is burning on wood. Because I am colour-blind I have trouble with painting.

"In order to counteract that, I do my drawings with a needle that heats up, so I do the drawings with a special pen with this needle.

"I do the drawings as burnings, basically. It enables me to be creative and still to draw and make things without having to worry if the colours are correct."

Noting how he finds that pyrography helps him to relax, Dessie said: "Because you are working with a pen with a hot needle, you have to concentrate that you don't burn the wood, but you burn it enough to create a pattern or shape.

"That's so relaxing, because you're so focused on that – you forget about everything else and that's why a lot of people like art.

"The worries of the world just go away and you are just focused on being creative," he added.