The Woodworking World
The purpose of this section is to provide all wood turners, cabinet makers or people who are interested in the subject with inspiration and insight to the woodworking world.
Woodworking Associations – South Africa
There are at least ten woodworking or woodturning associations in South Africa. Unfortunately, as far as known, only a few other associations also operate a website.
Witwatersrand Woodworking Association
Established in 1990, the Witwatersrand Woodworkers Association (WWA) is a non-profit organisation that exists to promote and maintain interest, skill and excellence in the working of wood.
Association of Woodturners of South Africa
The AWSA is a South African, nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of woodturning. Its mission is to provide education, information, and organization to those interested in turning wood.
East Rand Woodworker’s Association
Formed in June 2003 the East Rand Woodworkers’ Association (ERWA) has gone from strength to strength. Today it boasts over a 100 members drawn from all spheres of woodworking activity.
Skilled members, some with over 50 years of woodworking experience, are only too happy to share their knowledge and help other members improve their woodworking skills.
Western Cape Woodturners Association
The Western Cape Woodturners Association (“WCWA”) is a club set up by woodturners for woodturners, with an aim to promote and nurture the art of wood-turning in all its aspects, as well as provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and techniques
Woodworking Associations – International
The Association of Woodturners of Great Britain:
The AWGB is an international non-profit making organisation dedicated to the advancement and promotion of woodturning and consists of individual members and affiliated and Associated Branches throughout Great Britain.
The AWGB is currently made up of over 50 affiliated local groups of woodturners (branches) as well as individual members. Thee current membership is in excess of 3000 individual members. Some of their work can be seen at:
Loughborough Seminars:
The American Association of Woodturners
This international, non-profit organisation is now over 13,000 members strong. It is dedicated to the advancement of woodturning, a specialized form of woodworking using the lathe. The AAW has more than 300 local chapters in the United States, and over 13,000 members around the world. Some of their work can be seen at:
AAW Gallery of Wood Art:
Woodworking and Woodturning Gallerie
Centre for Furniture Crafstmanship:
The mission of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship is to provide the best possible education for people who want to design and build functional, beautiful, and expressive work out of wood to the highest standard of craftsmanship. At the heart of the Center’s mission is the belief that design and craftsmanship are deeply meaningful expressions of the human spirit. They contribute to individual fulfillment and, by extension, to the advancement of society
Professional Woodworkers
Botha & Barnard
Botha & Barnard was established in the heart of South Africa’s Garden Route in 1950. As sole proprietor since 1971, the third generation of the Botha family has well established itself as outstanding furniture manufacturers.
Being a family business is all about teamwork – the foundation of Botha & Barnard’s success story. Each employee strives towards a common goal: offering exceptional value for money and ensuring client returns. Botha & Barnard offers a fine heirloom, which future generations will be very proud to inherit.
Stickley
The Stickley brothers burst into international prominence in the early 20th century with their Mission Oak designs. These were based on the notion that furniture should be “honest”—a reaction against the fake joinery, unnecessary gaudiness, and shoddy workmanship of many of the pieces created in the early days of industrial furniture making.
The Stickleys used solid construction, what-you-see-is-what-you-get joinery, and the highest quality woods. But even more, they showed a genius for design, creating hundreds of new forms that were at once beautiful to look upon, practical to use, exceedingly strong and long-lasting, and perfect for the new ways American families wanted to live.
Brothers Dressler
Crafting furniture that explores material, process and purpose
David Haig
In an article in the ‘Australian Wood Review’ magazine reviewing the 2008 Studio Furniture Awards, the show’s awards judge, Neil Erasmus, an internationally renowned furniture maker and educator, wrote the following:
“it was satisfying to know that there are still those who know just how far they can push their advanced skills before they reach what I call the ‘98% tipping point’, that fine balancing point beyond which one’s work becomes irredeemably compromised through overworking….they know the precise moment when to back off and accept that it can’t get any better…..David Haig’s now famous Signature Rocking chair in sycamore demonstrates just this kind of control. Visually, it is imbued with the power to take one’s breath away, and a kind of therapeutic quality that calms and relaxes the senses with its mellifluous fluid curves…….”
Boxmakers
Andrew Crawford:
Fine Decorative Boxes
Kintaro Yazawa:
Kintaro Yazawa’s woodworking and design skills were initially cultivated by Monsieur Marc Garnier, a French organ builder who builds baroque style organs in a traditional way. The influence of the French country furniture and the British Arts and Crafts Movement are also clear in Yazawa’s work.
Brian Coetzee Wooden Boxes
South African maker of some very beautiful boxes.