The Work

One-of-a-kind pieces

A selection across both crafts — from native-timber turning to engraved artwork. Most began as someone's idea, story, or a material that mattered. More added as pieces are finished.

Turning & resin

One-off vessels in native and rescued timbers, resin and inlay.

Pierced turned vessel lit from within, the openings glowing and throwing their pattern onto the wall behind, with an inlaid band at the shoulder

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Pierced, and lit from within

The timber came off a pile headed for the fire and has never been identified — nobody thought it worth keeping, and I still cannot tell you what it is. The pattern was taped round the blank as paper and every opening cut through by hand, until most of the wall had gone. The groove for the inlaid band was cut after that, with the wall below it already opened up, and the band went in with the piece still on the lathe. Lit from inside, the openings stop being gaps.

Commission a turned piece

Bamboo-skewer vase — chestnut set with ~3000 bamboo skewers

Turned apple — lignum vitae, from an old fella's lawn bowls

The turned apple opens into a small lidded bowl — …and it opens into a bowl

Acacia lidded pot — turned from a friend's garden tree

Turned acacia bowl on a small foot, close rings running round the wall and a band under the rim where the timber shifts from dark to pale — Acacia bowl, the grain shifting from dark to pale under the rim

Pōhutukawa salt pig, lid off, with a hand-carved spoon — Pōhutukawa salt pig — with a hand-carved spoon

Greenheart bottle vase: dense wharf-pile timber, hand-turned with a round neck and a squared, faceted body — Greenheart bottle vase, a wharf timber turned fine

Plum and resin hollow form: rough-turned plum flooded with mica-tinted deep-pour resin to fill its voids and cracks, then finish-turned — Plum & resin hollow form — the voids filled, not hidden

Live-edge oak bowl, the radial cracks filled with green resin, bark edge left on — Oak and resin — live-edge bowl, cracks filled in green

Swamp kauri vessel with resin, the figure shifting light across the grain — Swamp kauri vessel — chatoyancy in the figure, shifting as the light moves

The same swamp kauri vessel turned to show the pearl-white resin face — The same vessel, turned to its resin face

Tall vase in greenheart and maple with blue resin banding and a blue resin rim — Greenheart, maple and resin — blue resin through the banding and the rim

Segmented vessel in greenheart, maple and walnut on a turned pedestal foot, with stepped maple inlay — Segmented vessel — greenheart, maple and walnut, stepped inlay

Carving

Relief carving by hand — no lathe, no laser.

Carved ammonite — a walnut ammonite set into a maple rock, like a fossil in stone

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Ammonite, carved by hand

A walnut ammonite carved into a maple “rock” — two timbers worked into one fossil, so it reads like it was lifted straight out of the stone. About two weeks with a gouge, start to finish.

Commission a carving

Trophies, awards & tributes

Commissioned for a club, a school or a workplace — their story, co-designed and made by hand.

Battle of the Bridge trophy — engraved Auckland skyline in a shadow box, flanked by two lawn bowls — Battle of the Bridge — Bowls Auckland's North-vs-South trophy

Giant Jenga championship trophy for a university department — stacked timber blocks on an engraved base — Giant Jenga championship — a trophy for a university department

Above, the Bailey Cup, a silver two-handled cup tied with red and yellow ribbons on a turned base ringed with engraved winners' shields. Below, the original two-tier base beside the new tier turned in rimu to sit beneath it — The Bailey Cup, Ellerslie AFC: a new tier turned in rimu for its base

A team tribute — an engraved portrait ringed by a whole workplace's farewell messages, each in the writer's own handwriting, framed in kauri — A team tribute — sample layout

The original was made for one person, with his image, his colleagues’ names and their handwritten messages engraved on it. Memorials, tributes and personal gifts often aren’t shown publicly; if yours is one of those, it stays private.

How a commission works

Furniture & boxes

Chairs, tables, live-edge and inlaid work, bandsaw boxes and joinery.

Kauri dining chair, hand-made — Kauri dining chair

Kauri console — live-edge kauri on a steel base

Chestnut and kauri octagonal side table — Chestnut & kauri octagonal side table

Adirondack chair, hand-made in solid timber — Adirondack chair

Kauri bandsaw box: five curved drawers sawn from one block, with squared pūriri handles — Kauri bandsaw box — five curved drawers, pūriri handles

The kauri bandsaw box with its drawers pulled out, showing the felt-lined interiors — …every drawer felt-lined inside

Engraving

Original and co-designed artwork — led by Aotearoa.

Engraved glassware & gifts

Personalised pieces on glass and ceramic — one-offs and small sets.

Engraved wine glasses — tears of my enemies for the white, blood of my enemies for the red

Colour-reveal engraving

A different technique from the line work above: I paint the canvas the colours I'm after, seal it under a black top layer, then laser-etch the image to reveal the colour beneath. Two-colour pieces are the hardest — and every canvas comes out one of a kind, even from the same image.

Pīwakawaka in flight — teal fantail with green koru, painted then laser-revealed on black canvas — Pīwakawaka in flight — teal fantail and green koru, painted then laser-revealed on black canvas.

Auckland skyline and its reflection — Sky Tower and harbour, revealed in silver on black

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Tāmaki Makaurau, mirrored

The Auckland skyline and its reflection — Sky Tower, the harbour, the city — painted and then revealed in silver on black. A piece of home you can hold: on an office wall, or packed in a suitcase by someone who's headed overseas.

Enquire about a skyline piece

Four birds — kea, tūī, kiwi and coot — painted then laser-revealed — Aotearoa in four — kea, tūī, kiwi and coot

Red rose with dew — painted then laser-revealed — Red rose — painted then laser-revealed

Three owls — a two-colour reveal in amber and blue — Owls — a harder two-colour reveal, amber & blue

Laser-cut maps

Layered relief maps of the places that matter, cut, stacked and finished by hand.

Layered laser-cut relief map of Auckland: native ply suburbs stacked in relief with the harbour poured in blue resin, in a timber shadow box

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Auckland, in layers

Tāmaki Makaurau built up from the coastline: every suburb and street laser-cut from ply and stacked in relief, the harbour poured in blue, the exact coordinates engraved along the base. It can be made for any place that means something: a hometown, a harbour, a farewell for someone leaving it behind.

Commission your place

Culturally significant work (tā moko, Māori portraiture) is made by commission, not shown as stock — see Commissions.

Let's start

Let's make yours

If you've got a piece in mind — or just the beginnings of one — I'd love to hear it.

Start a commission