"Raft" outdoor bench

I just completed this outdoor bench in seligna hardwood, steel and concrete (2450mm x 600mm x 450mm) for the refinery sculpture garden.

Wall mounted sculpture

A shot in the workshop of a recently completed wall hung sculpture in steel and hardwood 1200mm x 1200mm.

In-built wardrobe unit.

I just finished this job for a local family living in a small house needing more storage space. It incorporates decorative panels that they found (in the form of two sliding doors in a local op shop). 3.5 metres wide x 2.4 metre high.

New L.V.L. Lounge chair

A couple of shots by Jeanie Robertson of my new chair design.

 I'm setting up a few pieces, past and new, at The Corridor Gallery, 3 Haven road (Anne Rush's Gallery, Upstairs next to Arthouse architecture) today.

The exhibition will be up until May 13th.  Come up and check it out (and tell your friends!).

New LVL Lounge chair

Here's a design i just finished after having a bit more of a play round with the LVL used on the NMIT job. Might still paint the blue bits white, then get some good shots of it next week.

KiaOra Mag.

My Flat-packed stuff just got a wee mention in 'KiaOra', Air New Zealand's magazine. Choice.

NMIT Bench shot in Urbis

Cool shot of the benches i designed for NMIT in the latest Urbis design mag.

Preferences?

I've been working on a new lounge chair design of late. A bit more of a play round with the LVL I used on the NMIT job. LVL's a bit like using a modular construction toy, taking bits away and adding others to experiment with the layout and proportions.. Here's a few variations on the mock up for this chair.

 The form still needs a tweak and bolts covered over etc. I'll also paint the sides of each piece.

 It was pretty apparant to me straight away which one i was going to go with. Which is your pick?

Somebunks.

Hiya, Here's some bunks i recently made for a local family. I added another safety rail to the end. Miro was a happy camper!

New furniture for the VAM at NMIT (or Visual arts and media @ Nelson Marlbourough institute of Technology!)

Hi All and hope you had a great break! We've been making progress on the furniture job for NMIT and the first coat of finish has been applied today.

 Tim Gemmell, who graduated from the Centre for fine woodworking last year, was a great help last week and we got the bulk of the benches and tables cut out sanded and assembled.

 It was a lot of blocks (120) and bolts (310) but we got there eventually. A bit like working with Duplo! I'll post some pics when finished in a few days.

New Bench design for NMIT

Just completed this prototype for some benches I'll be making for the new NMIT(Nelson Marlborough institute of technology) Visual arts and media building.

 Constructed from the LVL (laminated veneer lumber) locally produced for this groundbreaking building design. They wanted some benches and coffee tables for the communal spaces in the building. Nice to reconnect with NMIT as it was where I trained in design under John Shaw. He's now running his own fine woodworking school here in Nelson http://www.centre-for-fine-woodworking.co.nz/

Short Circuit lounge table

Here's a table design i made for home last year. Constructed in laminated plywood and toughened glass.

New shots.

Here's some new shots a friend, Jeanie Robertson took of my flat-pack Table and stool designs.

David Haig: Bending Timber - videos - Fine Woodworking

Check out this link from my fine friend and mentor.


David Haig: Bending Timber - videos - Fine Woodworking

Mike's at the Nelson Market.

Hey Y'all,
I'm gonna be down at the Nelson market tomorrow from 8 selling some of my new slot together designs. Just outside the market side of the BNZ. Come and say hi. Cheers Mike

Some earlier pieces

Here is a few shots of two pieces that a made a while back. I employed the glass casting skills of friend Jim Mackay to make up the blue shelves and centre piece. The timber is locally grown Rata, which is extremly dense and able to be sanded and polished up to a nice satin sheen. The cabinet is polished stainless steel and the three materials combined to be a nice mix.

The Cabinet was made for a Nelson furniture collective show and was purchased by a friend, which is always nice! The 'Ebb section' sculpture below was made for an exhibition in Nelson. It hung around for a while in our gallery, but was subsequently bought by a dealer in Hong Kong.

 They sent me the photo below of how they displayed it in their gallery, on a lightbox, which i thought looked really cool. wish i'd thought of that... They sold it a little while later to the Korean wood museum. interesting trip on the whole.

Work for the Suter art gallery

Hi All,

Here's a couple of job's recently completed for Nelson's public art gallery-The Suter - Te Aratoi O Whakatu. Straight joinery jobs but satisfying to work on nonetheless. There was a bit of mathematics involved in the making the card racks accomodate all the different sized cards. i'm not ashamed to admit that a calculator was employed. The card racks fold together and lock to deter possible light fingeredness by theatre goers at night....

The Light cabinet is situated at the back of the gallery in a hallway and is being used to exhibit their ceramic and small sculpture collection.

Urbis article

Urbis recently featured a spread on Nelson art and design. I was lucky enough to be included and here is the piece on my work.

Dont read the final sentence as it doesn't make a lot of sense. I must have been talking to fast for the journalist or something! what it meant to say was that, Living in Nelson,  there wasn't the financial pressure with higher living costs that a place like Auckland imposes on you. Therefore you are not under as much pressure to produce products that are more commercially viable and cut corners on quality etc. Geddit? email me if you need more clarification...Haha. Thanks to Urbis for the cool article anway!

Nesting tables for the olds.

These tables were made for my parents in Wellington after a request from my mother who was getting jaded with her(darling) grandchildren knocking over cups of tea etc. on the lounge carpet.

 Made from 8mm toughened glass and some 30mm ply i had kicking round the workshop. Cheers for the job Mum!

Spacejunk - The Desk

Here's a couple of shots of a recent commission i did for some local clients. I designed them a large custom shelf for their hall/entranceway at the same time and so i wanted the desk to tie in visually.

 The detail is of the draw front which is made up from laminated ply to continue the look.