A close-up look at Geoff Tonkin’s
Ukelele Baritone showed an instrument
that was crafted exquisitely and made
me wish I’d stolen the opportunity
to strum it. As complex as making
musical instruments is, Jeff Freeman’s
elegant Coffee Bean coffee table spoke
of the kind of ‘simplicity’ that it takes
a skilled designer to conceive. Two
hand dovetailed frames with subtle
tapers were positioned to support a
glass top for a table which would suit
modern interiors.
Another piece with subtle detailing was
Blair Ossendryver’s jewellery cabinet.
Decorus Jocale was a small drawer chest
with butterfly shaped pulls and sides
that opened out to reveal other spaces
and handcrafted drawer slides.
Did the array of pieces reveal a Sturt
style? ‘Even though the makers are
all established artists we took a punt
with this’, explained Mark Viner,
Head of Sturt. ‘We were unsure how
it would all relate...but what I see
is a consistency in quality, a mix of
contemporary with classical attitude
to furniture, and an extraordinary
level of quality of finish’, he said.
Aside from undisputed technical
mastery that sat within a divergence of
styles, the works shown also managed
to reference a common history of
learning and inspiration that paid
homage to the formative years these
makers had all spent in what many
people regard as a very special place.
Photos: Linda Nathan, Indra Deigan.
Learn more about Sturt School For Wood
at http://www.sturt.nsw.edu.au
http://www.woodreview.com.au 65EXHIBITIONS- John Gallagher, Equilateral Coffee Table,
New Guinea rosewood. Triangular forms
were matched to variations in the wood,
flame red veneer for the top with brown
and pink tones on the base. - Warwick Wright’s Tower of Drawers
was made from highly figured
Tasmanian blackwood rescued from
a logging operation. - Geoff Tonkin, Ukelele Baritone,
blackwood, spruce, osage orange,
Brazilian rosewood, walnut. - Stuart Faulkner, Writing Desk, blackwood,
silver ash, leather.
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