Designs

I spend a lot of time on design, on my own ideas, adapting designs found in libraries and working with customers to achieve their own designs for them to carve or made to order.

My influences come from a mixture of my own roots with the Celts, Vikings and traditional English carving (my grandfather was a "chip carver") and from the amazing Maori designs here in New Zealand. If I can achieve a competent blend of these two great traditions in my lifetime, it will give me (and hopefully others) great pleasure. I also experiment with contemporary design and even quite bizarre and unusual stuff, especially my multi-media creations. Again, my motto is "Carving Unlimited" and I enjoy many a good joke through my work.

My styles and influences are too varied to be listed here but the photos of available or previous pieces can give you a broad indication. Send me a challenge!

However, I include a summary of Maori design styles and their meanings so that you can better interpret work you may come across or that you may want to have made for you.