Through them he met William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, with whom he worked on a number of projects, including the Oxford Union murals and the decoration of Red House.
He left Oxford to train as a civil engineer in London in 1860, and in 1861 become a founder-shareholder and shortly thereafter financial manager of the decorative arts firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., along with the Pre-Raphaelite artists Morris, Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as engineer P. P. Marshall, and architect Philip Webb.
[1][2] Faulkner participated in the firm's early design commissions including painting the chancel roof of St Michael's Church, Brighton.
[1][3][4] Two of Charles Faulkner's cartoons or design drawings for stained glass, part of a series depicting the story of Dives and Lazarus, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
[7] One of the first acts of the Oxford branch of the League was invite Morris and Eleanor Marx to a meeting at the Holywell Music Room.