Page 58 - Australian Wood Review №103 2019

PROFILE
value of what we’ve got. I have
a very strong philosophy behind
my work. I love to indicate those
tensions between fragility and
strength in my objects and in life
itself. And it speaks to people.
On the more technical side of your work,
how do you draft a piece? On paper, on
a computer, or directly on the wood?
58 Australian Wood Review
I call it chasing the line. Just get one
line running and try to lock the feeling
that you’re trying to get across within
it. A little bit of music can really drive
where a carving is going for me, or a
group of words from a poem. With
those sort of things in the background
I’ll start drawing up an idea, most of
the time on large paper, and I’ll change
the size of my pencils as to how I’m
feeling and where I want the lines to
go, so it becomes a whole game.
I always start with a bit of drawing.
Sometimes if I’m doing a netsuke
I will draw it from several angles.
I will then make a model out of
plasticine which I keep in the
freezer. I’ll bring that out and make
cuts into it using chisels because
then I know I can replicate the cuts
in the boxwood.
And then there are other times like
the piece I’m working on right now
which is a representation of that
tension between strength and fragility
– I just drew two lines on a piece of
wood, picked up a chisel and off
I went, just trusted what I was doing.
But I never design on a computer,
it never happens.
Everyone seems to do it differently –
what’s your sharpening method?
I use a completely different
strategy when sharpening on a
flat stone. I lock the tool into a soft
jaw moving vice so I can see my angle
no matter where it is. I use a lot of
Spyderco slip stones that are about
120mm long, or 1200 wet and dry
paper on a flat stick.