Below are links to the first of a series of videos introducing some of Tasmania’s craftspeople, their motivations and passion for the sustainable use of Tasmania’s special timbers –  their values, skills and practice ensuring woodcraft continues to be a valuable part of Tasmania’s story.

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.

The respect for the timbers and their sustainable use is reflected in Linda’s goal to design and make precious pieces, built to last; future heirlooms.

Linda’s minimise waste philosophy means “off-cuts” from one piece then become a small objects job.

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 uses traditional tools and methods to make these chairs; beginning with harvesting and splitting logs with traditional tools.  The chairs are crafted using these hand tools, steaming and turning, fabricating to the delicate finishing off tasks.  The process and product are intertwined as a demonstration of the intangible heritage on which such products are based.  The story is important.

Jon’s desire to see traditional skills and knowledge to be passed through generations as the basis for meaningful activity is reflected in his current role as a guest teacher at the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking School.

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.

His love of traditional wooden boats, the Tasmanian Special Timbers and their variety of characteristics and uses within boats is strengthened by his view of timber as the “ultimate renewable resource” the thousands of years of wooden boat building and their use in exploration, trade and contribution to Tasmania.