Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Australian Wood Review

Making things by hand has become somewhat of a political statement. So many reasons can be thrown up as to why it’s not efficient, not sustainable, and in a world of consumer ‘abundance’ not even needed. And we’re evolving to a place where AI and CNC can do it better, right? Well, many of us don’t agree. Of course technology is there to be exploited on the ‘handmade’ journey, but more and more the things we make refute the arguments against. Designs can be customised for individual needs and aesthetics, materials can selected, reclaimed, recycled and importantly made to last. David Laird is New Zealand maker who thinks deeply about the whole life cycle of what he makes. Sourcing, drying and working with local ‘end-of-life’, fallen and salvaged woods, he…

with auto-renewal for just $8.80 PER ISSUE (print + digital copies) MAGAZINE The latest woodworking news, reviews and tips delivered to your door DIGITAL Instant access to each digital copy via Zinio SUBSCRIBE VISIT GREATMAGAZINES.COM.AU/AUSTRALIANWOODREVIEW OR CALL 1800 807 760 AND QUOTE AUTO-RENEWAL Conditions: This offer is only available to readers with an Australian postal address. By subscribing via auto-renewal you give Yaffa Media authorisation to charge your nominated credit/debit card account or direct debit bank account regular amounts, in regular instalments, as set out in the terms of the subscription you are purchasing, until you request it to be stopped, or your card or account expires. You may voluntarily stop your subscription at any time by providing Yaffa Media’s customer service department (subscriptions@yaffa.com.au) with written notice. For full terms…

Some of us do our best work away from others. The shed, studio, workshop, whatever you call it, can be a place of retreat, a bastion of endeavour and an antidote to worrying about all that stuff going on out there. But for others, it’s the community of others that fires creativity and sweetens the daily grind. Jonathan (Jono) Everett is one such. For the last 10 years he has worked out of The Soap Factory in Newcastle, a collective he set up with his partner Sophia Emmett. Currently there are eight other makers there, and incidentally they’re all women – it wasn’t planned that way. It’s a collective of independents but Jono and Sophia lead the way things work. There’s never been an official meeting and many of the…

At its simplest, stereotomy is a way of putting 2D drawings into 3D sections. It’s a skill that can be applied to constructions, large and small. It has been called the alchemy of solids and employs geometry in ways that date back centuries – some even claim it goes back to the building of Solomon’s temple. It’s manifest in historical cathedrals, temples and architectural structures throughout the world. ‘It’s a way of locking in your human Autocad or Sketch-up, and it’s beyond any tool’, says Patrick Moore, a Canadian carpenter who has undertaken over 10 years of accredited training and achieved the notable distinction of being the first person from the English-speaking world to be accepted as a Compagnon Passant Charpentier in France. Patrick went on to complete a Masters…

The newly created annual $1,500 Jan Pennell Woodturning Award is a generous bequest from the estate of the late Jan Pennell, a distinguished RAAF servicewoman who was also an accomplished woodturner.Jan Pennell was born in 1948 and grew up in country NSW, trained as a nurse and brought many babies into the world. She joined the RAAF in the Medical Core and rose to the rank of Wing Commander, equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel in the army. She was an expert skier and represented the Australian armed forces in skiing overseas. One of her pleasures was mentoring her staff and she spoke fondly of them decades later. During her service, Jan Pennell was involved with many exercises in managing local and overseas disasters. She saved many lives in the first 24…

Studio Woodworkers Australia (SWA) is Australia’s peak body for professional designer makers and artists in wood. The Art of Making is the association’s annual exhibition for accredited members and once again in 2024 was curated and presented by the Australian Design Centre in Sydney. In the ADC’s words, the exhibition is ‘a snapshot of Australia’s finest designer makers and artists working in wood today’. In 2024, the exhibition showed works by Rolf Barfoed, Ian Bell, Richard Coles, Phoebe Everill, Lou Harriss, Gray Hawk, Alby Johnston, Tony Kenway, Will Matthysen, Eliza Maunsell, David Muston, Darren Oates, Nick Pedulla, Ruth Thompson, David Upfill-Brown, Grant Vaughan, Warwick Wright and Peter Young. A selection of the work shown is presented here with selling prices included in the captions for readers’ interest. The Art of…

This vertical drilling guide works. With a standard ¼" hexagonal tool drive shaft it can be driven by pretty well any handheld drill or driver. Made from CNC-machined aluminium with stainless steel guide rods, the build quality is quite good. What appealed to me with this brand over others researched was the fact that is doesn’t tilt, so I wasn’t concerned about any slipping out of perpendicular in use. The keyed chuck will take 1.5–13mm shanks and therefore is able to work with even large forstner bits (as required for a recent job), but for this you’ll need to reverse the main head of the tool, which is quick and easy to do. The drill is guided straight down on two rods. One rod has a flat facet machined for…

In 2015 I graduated a mechanical engineer with a master’s in automotive engineering. I was in Shanghai on my first job assignment and one evening I found myself in a restaurant with simple but beautiful, rustic lamps hanging from the ceiling, made of thick hemp rope with light bulbs at their ends. I didn’t manage to find anything like it back home so with a simple YouTube search I built one myself. That was the start of my creative journey. I became completely absorbed with building lamps, using fallen branches and logs in the forest as well as upcycling old car tyres and bicycle wheels. When the handsaw in my parents’ garage didn’t quite cut it (pun intended) I found a friendly furniture carpenter in my neighbourhood who offered to…

Curator’s Notes: ‘Tom Samek was a pure creative personality – with his practice always reflective of his passion for food, art, wine and everyday life that always had an element of wit and humour. Tom worked in many mediums, including drawing, printmaking, painting, mosaic, casting, tapestry and wood relief carving. He leaves behind a unique and prolific body of work.’ Over the summer, the QueenVictoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) in Launceston featured Making Space, an exhibition that showcased an array of carved objects; both historical and contemporary. Some of the pieces were drawn from the gallery’s extensive collection, whilst others were on loan from artists and collectors throughout the country. Not all the artists were Tasmanian, however most have either lived there or have a strong connection to the…

A dust extractor is a pretty standard tool now and this one will fit the bill for Bosch cordless owners. Once you pick a brand for your cordless power tools you are stuck with it however, as most battery systems are not inter-changeable unfortunately. Out of the box this cordless dust extractor is pretty well ready to go to work. Snap the four castors onto the base, fit the hose and slide in a Bosch 18 volt battery. It is rated L-class for dust, meaning light duty filtering of expelled air, so it is not a replacement for high volume extractors in very dusty workplaces. An M-class is better for most professional woodwork. However, this is a light tool and with battery only weighs about 5.5kg (depending on battery fitted).…

When I first arrived in Australia and started looking for a job as a furniture maker, I found that only a few companies seemed to work with veneer. Veneering was a significant part of my trade qualification and very common among furniture makers in Europe, so I was surprised at apparent supremacy of solid timber work. Don’t get me wrong – I love a sharp-looking dovetailed drawer or a well-fitted through tenon, and I think Australians are very skilled, and lucky with the diversity of timber available to them. What is veneer? Veneer is simply thin sections of wood that can be applied to solid timber or substrates such as plywood and MDF. Commercially sawn veneers are around 0.6mm in thickness, while shopsawn veneers are generally thicker and from 3…

Sourcing, jointing, stack laminating, shaping and sanding is hugely labour intensive work. What does all this mean to you and how do you make ends meet? I think with what I do you really have to love the process, the material and the end result. Most days I get up and look forward to getting into the studio. Although I have a wonderful community in my partner, family and friends who are invested and love to help me out, mostly I make these works entirely on my own, and at this time there is no studio assistant and very little outsourcing. It is a very personal process which heavily involves the artist’s hand. Why have you chosen wood as your main medium? There’s something about wood I find really warm.…

Diary listings are free. Email to: linda@woodreview.com.au Note: Listings are correct at time of publication but may be subject to change. It is advisable to check details with the organiser before visiting. 23 MAY–2 JUNE 2024 Melbourne Design Week ‘Australia’s largest annual international design event’ presenting innovative and engaging projects across an 11-day program. https://designweek.melbourne/ 23 MAY 2024 Australian Furniture Design Award (AFDA) Exhibition opens. The AFDA is a biennial award that fosters Australian designers and makers presented by National Gallery of Victoria and Stylecraft. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ 1 JUNE Hand Tool Event All-day tools and technique demonstrations with Lie-Nielsen Australia, HNT Gordon, Ironbark Tools, Australian Wood Review, 10am–4pm, free entry Damion Fauser Workshop, 4/14 Buttonwood Place, Willawong, Qld http://www.damionfauser.com/ 7–9 JUNE Q-Turn ‘A weekend of woodturning and skill-sharing for all genres…

My newest body of work, titled Passages (those that carried us), consists of vessels created from reclaimed wood crates gifted to me by Wing On Wo & Co (W.O.W.), the oldest continuously operating storefront in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The shop, now in its fifth generation of ownership under Mei Lum, is renowned for selling Chinese porcelain ware imported from Asia since 1890. How it came about Mei contacted me at the end of 2022 letting me know they had a large quantity of wooden crates they were looking to gift to a woodworker. I gladly accepted their offer and sensed a duty and responsibility to honour these heirloom crates, recognising their role in safeguarding fragile goods. My idea was to transform the crates into the vessel forms they would have once…