About Gavin

After a successful career as a professional photographer, Gavin has returned to his first passion: working with wood. His work incorporates woodturning and woodcarving to produce a diverse range of bowls that are a pleasure to look at and an experience to hold.

Living on Kawau

Living in an isolated spot on Kawau Island helps to give him the time to focus on the creative process. He knows just how lucky he is to live there: Kawau is one of the few places where the forest flows all the way down to the water’s edge. “We are so incredibly fortunate with the location of our house and workshop: sitting on a small headland, it is both in the forest and surrounded by the sea.”

Their remoteness, with only boat-access to the property, also sees Gavin and his wife living an off-grid existence, in a solar house they built in 2008, a way of life that most of us only daydream about.

His process

The process of creating his wooden bowls starts with his early morning walks with the dog. Not only is the time to think and dream so important to his bowl design but this is the time when he finds trees that have been brought down in storms – coming back with a chainsaw to harvest and carry home the wood for his next bowl or artwork. This windfall timber can be seasoned for years before being turned or, more likely, turned while still ‘green’ to work with the movement and personality in the wood.

Back in his woodturning studio, he uses a wood-lathe and an assortment of hand tools. “Truly mastering these tools is a life’s work”.

Starting with a large block of wood, the process sees him rapidly removing 95% of the timber to reveal the shape of the bowl in a process that is quite dramatic to watch.

“The real challenge is to slow down long enough to visualise what sort of vessel is waiting inside a particular piece.”

He tries to approach every bowl with the mindset that it will, one day, become a family heirloom. This, he says, frees him up to spend the time necessary to achieve just the right shape, balance and finish that each piece deserves.

The combination of his love for the wood that he works, his strong environmental awareness, along with his eye for form, really set his wooden bowls apart.

Artist statement

Please read my Artist statement for more on what motivates my work and what’s important to me as a maker.

Environmental statement

Making bowls which are actually good for our environment is really important to me, please take a moment and read my Environmental impact statement.

What is ebonised wood?

The black ebonised look I have on some of my bowls is actually a very old traditional technique to darken wood. Ebonizing got its name from its traditional use: turning wood black to appear more like ebony, a rare, dense and durable, naturally insect resistant wood...

Kelton Carver’s Jig

I am passionate about buying well-designed quality tools that will last a lifetime. The Carver's Jig by Kelton Industries is a perfect example of such a tool. I bought this carver's jig around five years ago and have progressively used it more and more as more of my...

What makes a good fruit bowl

What sort of fruit bowl looks good? Does the type of bowl affect how long fruit lasts? Or is it just a simple question of deciding what size fruit bowl is right for me? There're lots of questions and plenty of ways you can look at it but the best one I know of is...

The perfect Made-in-New-Zealand wedding gift

Looking for a wedding gift that’s a little more unique and personal? (not just another gift from a big box store) Each of my wooden bowls are handmade here in New Zealand from sustainably sourced NZ native timbers and "far from boring".Made to last (like a good...

Bowl Art Gallery & Turning Studio

Gavin has his home, turning studio, and bowl art gallery on Kawau Island. Their house and gallery, called Tŷ Pren (“Wood House” in Welsh) is just that: made of wood - a combination of hardwoods, macrocarpa and plywood. Everywhere you look is wood with wooden floors,...

The process of making a wooden bowl

Finding the wood... I'm incredibly lucky that I live on an island covered in native trees: with the coastline dotted with Pohutukawa, hidden valleys of Puriri, and Kanuka as far as the eye can see. I find most of the wood I use after big storms have brought down...

Kawau Island Attractions & Transport

What's special about Kawau Island? A lot of people are interested when I tell them I live on Kawau Island. Kawau is one of the many small islands that dot the east coast of the, much larger, North Island of New Zealand. We have some 90 permanent residents, which makes...

A family heirloom in the making

What will you give your kids? Hopefully, your time and your love but, like photos from your childhood, there's a place for keepsakes too. For each of us it will be a different thing: a lovely wooden chair or a casserole dish, but it’s something we will really cherish,...