by Joe Coshan

Bikes, barbecues and coffee machines - all things people from across the world have asked a talented Strood artist to decorate in gold.

Rob Mitchell works on his extravagant creations in his studio located in the back of his father’s garage on Cuxton Road.

The artist is sent regular household items from people living in Canada and Australia so he can jazz it up with metal plates.

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“People from all over the world, Australia, Canada and America send me car parts, motorcycle parts, basketball hoops, barbecues and a coffee machine to decorate," he said.

“Now there’s not a lot of things I haven’t gold-plated in 14 years.”

The Kent-based creator set up his 24-carat plating business more than 10 years ago and has attracted the attention of major firms such as Red Bull, Harley Davidson and Lamborghini.

“Every day I love coming to work and I think that's what attracts the bigger companies to what I do," he said.

“Especially with the art side of things, I build things to what I want it to look like and I’m just fortunate enough there’s a lot of twisted and weird people who like my style.”

Rob learnt his trade by attending a training class on how to gold plate 14 years ago at Chatham-based Gold Solutions.

Founder Terry George, said: “Every kit comes with half a dozen pieces of metal and a plating manual on how to plate those - it’s very simple.

“All you need is some discipline and then you can start to work up to some of the bigger items that Rob works on now.”