Tasmania has a proud history of craftsmanship, creating objects with passion, care, and attention to detail with a quality that is honed, refined, and practiced over the course of a career, or a lifetime.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to come by authentic, beautiful objects in a world where a premium is placed on speed, and things are made to be disposable. Crafted objects evoke a story. We believe if you intend to harvest a tree to use the timber, you should build something useful, something beautiful, something capable of lasting as long as the tree itself.
This craftsmanship is exemplified in Furniture Production, Joinery, Boat Building, Instrument Makers and Smaller Craft and Production Items. Tasmania’s global reputation is demonstrated through exhibitions, major galleries, international fit outs and through momentos carried home by visitors to the state. Bespoke furniture, boats and musical instruments are sought out by people who want to use the best available.
People come to woodcrafts with many motivations, enriching the diversity, creativity and innovation that are available within wooden objects for people to use, enjoy and pass-on. No matter the motivation, there are common values of respect for the timber and its origins, making best use, crafting for quality and ensuring it is sustainably harvested and utilised.
Meet the people behind the product. Tasmania is full of makers doing amazing things with Tasmania’s Special Timbers.
Enjoy the videos and articles below, highlighting the people, their crafts and importantly how they apply these values in day to day practice.
Peter Laidlaw
Peter Laidlaw is the classic tale of “one who came to Tasmania to build a wooden boat and stayed”. 25 years later, he teaches traditional wooden boat building, repairs and restores wooden boats. Headquartered at the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin, Tasmania, Peter is President of the Living Boat Trust.
Peter Laidlaw
Peter Laidlaw is the classic tale of “one who came to Tasmania to build a wooden boat and stayed”. 25 years later, he teaches traditional wooden boat building, repairs and restores wooden boats. Headquartered at the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin, Tasmania, Peter is President of the Living Boat Trust.
Linda Fredheim
Linda Fredheim is a designer/maker who is motivated by Tasmania, its places, forests and people. Linda’s furniture and objects are linked to Tasmania through respect for story, sense of place and materials.
Consistently inspired by the landscape and the history of Tasmania, she uses text, images and maps to tell the story of an event or person within the object. Her commitment to using Tasmanian Special Timbers strengthens the narrative of the object.
Jon Grant
Jon Grant has a lifelong love of handcrafting wooden objects, preferably using traditional tools. Jon has travelled far, learning and passing on the skills to others. At the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking School he was introduced to chair building, in particular the Windsor Chair, a traditional chair that has been adapted and evolved throughout the world, featuring in Tasmania as the “Peddle Chair”.
Jon Grant
Jon Grant has a lifelong love of handcrafting wooden objects, preferably using traditional tools. Jon has travelled far, learning and passing on the skills to others. At the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking School he was introduced to chair building, in particular the Windsor Chair, a traditional chair that has been adapted and evolved throughout the world, featuring in Tasmania as the “Peddle Chair”.
Tasmanian Native Timbers
Rob and Nelson Bird hate sawdust; “it’s a waste of good resource”.
Committed to best recovery, father and son, Rob and Nelson Bird own Tasmanian Native Timbers. In their words the business is ‘committed to the preservation and promotion of Tasmania’s unique environment…we obtain our range of saw logs and craft logs from a variety of sources… This allows us to mill logs that would be bypassed, destroyed, turned into pulp or used for firewood.’
Kyries Tasmanian Timber Products
Andy and Rayne’s ethical, respectful use of a resource combining “thinking” about how it can be transformed into something of value – both useful and as part of the Tasmanian story.
Andy McLorinan and Rayne Kingston bought Kyries Tasmanian Timber Products some 17 years ago after changes in their careers. Building upon their previous skills, they design and craft products for their Salamanca Market based business, with some production for other tourism businesses reflecting their specific offer through timber mementos, utility and decorative pieces.
Kyries Tasmanian Timber Products
Andy and Rayne’s ethical, respectful use of a resource combining “thinking” about how it can be transformed into something of value – both useful and as part of the Tasmanian story.
Andy McLorinan and Rayne Kingston bought Kyries Tasmanian Timber Products some 17 years ago after changes in their careers. Building upon their previous skills, they design and craft products for their Salamanca Market based business, with some production for other tourism businesses reflecting their specific offer through timber mementos, utility and decorative pieces.
Mark Gilbert Handcrafted Electric Guitars
A persistent partner and a chance encounter with a renowned Blues guitar artist at a Lauderdale pub provided the catalyst for Mark Gilbert to start making guitars seriously and fulfil a life-long ambition.
Originally a primary school teacher, Mark later moved into graphic design. Some 17 years ago he established his own design/promotional items business but a lifelong interest in music and guitars is where he saw his future.
Brad Moss
Brad Moss works in a traditional woodcraft – turning – but that is where the link with what in Tasmania is preconceived as woodturning ends.
Brad overflows with ideas, these translate into designs around shape, surfaces, weight and balance creating objects that combine art and functionality. Many have ideas, few are able to transform them into unique, intriguing and beautiful objects, Brad is one of them.
Brad Moss
Brad Moss works in a traditional woodcraft – turning – but that is where the link with what in Tasmania is preconceived as woodturning ends.
Brad overflows with ideas, these translate into designs around shape, surfaces, weight and balance creating objects that combine art and functionality. Many have ideas, few are able to transform them into unique, intriguing and beautiful objects, Brad is one of them.
Simon Ancher Studio
Steeped in making, Simon’s philosophy and approach is that design and making are inseparable, judging design through your hands.
With a career evolving through furniture making, studying, teaching and back into designing, Simon produces interior fit-outs and furniture to complement architectural design in some of Tasmania’s premium tourism and hospitality offers. Through this focus, Simon has developed a unique perspective and positioning in the market. He is inspired by the day to day life and the impact of a piece of furniture on its user.