John Shaw - furniture maker
Nelson attracts woodworkers in the way that any active community does. This has made woodworking an identifiable strength in Nelson's creative community. The Woodworkers Guild, the Furniture Collective exhibitions and now the Centre For Fine Woodworking, New Zealand's first private fine woodworking school, have all emerged from this environment.

A great deal of the techniques, skills, and solutions used in woodworking, have, for the reason that they work, barely changed for thousands of years. This establishes an intriguing counterpoint to the contemporary pressure to be distinctive and unique.

a distance it's very easy to see it just as an engineering material but when you move closer and really engage and interact, it rewards you with endless variety and difference.

A woodworker's legacy is a group of objects that reflect you and your influences but also mean a great deal to those who use or possess them. Objects which hopefully, because of the way they are constructed, will endure longer than a human lifespan.

David Haig - woodworker
Woodworking has had a high profile in the Nelson region for many years. The Nelson Guild of Woodworkers, started some 22 years ago, helped to gel a sense of community among the region’s many woodworkers, and it's still one of the strongest in the country.

The latest milestone for Nelson woodwork is the advent of the Centre For Fine Woodworking, (www.centre-for-fine-woodworking.co.nz), the only woodworking school in New Zealand devoted entirely to teaching the art and craft of fine woodworking. It's a privately run school, with the principal tutors being the highly acclaimed contemporary furniture-maker, John Shaw, and myself, who between us have some fifty years of dedicated professional practice in this field.

The workshop is in a beautiful spot sited just 10 minutes from the city centre, and the set-up and equipment will be every woodworkers dream.

We’re hoping it will cement Nelson's pre-eminent position as the really vibrant centre for the contemporary practise and exploration of fine woodworking in New Zealand. .

Visit Profile of the artist

David Haig
Ann & Bob Phillips
John Shaw
Andy Waugh

Other Members

Tim Bleackley

Centre for Fine Woodworking

Roger Davies

Vickie Davis

Mike Hindmarsh

Phillip Osborne

Alastair Reevely

Nigel Whitton

Tim Wraight

Rare Creations

Katie Palmer

Safari Furniture