Furniture hand-made — with love

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 16

Furniture hand-made — with love

If you are looking for nails, or screws, or bolts, or anything nasty like that in the work of James Pocock and Carin Wilson, you are unlikely to find any. Nails have their place, says Carin Wilson, but not very often in their furniture.

These Christchurch craftsmen are turning out handadzed furniture from their Sydenham workshop to meet an increasing demand for individual workmanship. Some of their pieces are now on display at the C.S.A. Gallery.

The pieces are not cheap, but the tables, chairs, and dressers could become the antiques of the future. Carin Wilson says people buy because .hey like the furniture’s looks and its practicality, and because they • know it is durable enough to 'pass on to their children. “We get a response from quite a wide section of the i community, all ages,” he i said yesterday. “Not everylone is interested in buying, but they want to know [about our work, and they are pleased to see the reviIval of the kind of care we put into it.”

Their work is determined first by the timber. To ensure it is sufficiently seasoned they keep it in their workshop for months. Then they begin to carve it into the shapes that suit best — rather like sculpting — using tools specially fashioned for the job by James Pocock.

Sometimes they work on a piece together, sometimes alone. James Pocock is a craftsman of long experience, with a family tradition of furniture making. In Carin Wilson’s opinion he has a particularly remarkable skill in wood turning, an art mastered by few.

The kauri dresser in the C.S.A. wood, wool, and clay exhibition, is an example of the men’s combined talents. It was Carin Wilson’s design — a long, narrow dresser, its lean lines off-set by carved drawers, and its five legs, beautifully turned by Jim Pocock. Part-Italian, part-Maori, Carin Wilson has the designer’s ability to visualise. For him the greatest challenge is to see his concepts evolve into the finished product. And one can never be quite sure how it will all turn out.

Each component is worked on separately, then pegged and hand-dowled together to form the whole. Then the men both stand back and have a good, critical look.

They believe in constructive criticism, in being honest. Such interchange of ideas already shows, they believe, in the improved quality of their work. JOINED FORCES

He began working with wood several years ago, starting with a room in the Artists’ Quarter. Both he and Jim Pocock kept an eye on each others’ work, finally deciding to join forces late in 1974. Initially they worked from a tumbledown old house, settling into their studio-workshop just a year ago.

Looking back on his start, Carin Wilson wonders now how he survived his first year. “With a wife and two children it was kind of selfish of me to persevere, because they had to bear with me while I got myself established. Things are much better now, and we can start to live like a normal family,” he said. The furniture is retailed in • several city shops. One of i the speciality furniture i stores in particular has encouraged them, giving valuable practical and “moral” support. Much of their work is done to order. They cannot afford to advertise, but word gets around. Designing to fit the needs of individual clients is a special job for Carin Wilson.

And he has been surprised to find how adaptable the furniture is, fitting into not just older homes, but also into modern settings. MIXES WELL “The trick is not to overdo it,” he said. “One or two pieces will fit in well, but a whole room would be overbearing. And we have found that it mixes very well with very modern pieces.” Their style is indefinable. It has something medieval about it, but it owes much deference to later centuries too. Carin Wilson attributes his preference for flowing form to his Maori heritage. And when he has a practical problem he turns to Jim Pocock for the solution. “His craft and artistic background shows every time,” he said. Often their pieces include hand-tooled leather work. They commission a leather worker whom they regard as particularly talented. Considering his work, Carin Wilson remarks how exciting it is that New Zealanders can now find an appreciative outlet here for their talents. This is the first time he and his partner have had their wok in an art exhibition. “We feel very humble about it,” he said. “It shows that furniture making is beginning to be regarded as an art form again, like our other crafts.”

And is a fellow going to make a fortune in this line? “Oh no,” he smiles. “If we didn’t love it we wouldn’t be doing it.”