Two of Australia’s master woodcarvers will kick off their first collaborative teaching venture next month, bringing their three-day More Than A Cup workshop to the Illawarra Woodwork School in Woonona.
Launceston native Carol Russell and Aotearoa-born Griffith resident Hape Kiddle each journeyed into woodcraft through furniture design, before veering into woodcarving and the teaching of their craft. But while their career paths may be similar, their creative processes are, in many ways, quite different.
Where the line work on Hape’s curved, mobius sculptures is refined and elongated, Carol works in smaller spaces, and the lines on her wooden utensils and netsuke-like animals and rowboats are simplistic and rough, and a little less structured. They say it’s the demonstration of their diverse interpretations that will be most beneficial for workshop students.
“[Hape] has very strong conceptual ideas before he starts and his work comes from a very soulful place, there’s a lot of meaning in his work, and you can see that when you see his pieces,” Carol said.
“The thing that really strikes you when you look at his work is just the technical brilliance – it is beyond the pale – and I don’t know anyone who works to such a high level of technical brilliance, it’s the flawlessness of it … and the lines that he creates.
“For me, I almost specialise in things just being a bit wrong.
“A wonderful artist, Mathew Simms from Tasmania, told me that you can get things wrong, but you’ve got to get the right things wrong, and that really resonated because some things are just wrong and then other things, by distorting them, they actually almost emphasise the personality.”
Hape says that, a lot of the time, Carol discounts her own maker’s intelligence.
“She’s very modest about it, and she thinks that her work is more haphazard than it is,” he said.
“There’s something that’s quite naive about it, and yet within that simplicity is this great complexity, [and] the hardest thing to do is a simple form and do it well and she does it straight out of her hand without realising that most people could never do that.
“Often I’ll leave my workshop and I’ll be working on a particular piece, and that piece, despite the fact I’ve left work, that work hasn’t left me, it just stays inside, and Carol’s fairly similar that way so we connect nicely, and I think we’ve got a mutual admiration and respect for each other and each other’s work – and we have fun, she laughs at my jokes, which is incredible.”
Over the three-day class – from July 14 to July 16 – students will be immersed in the practical and creative process of making a drinking vessel, learning design, timber selection, tool selection, and carving and finishing techniques. Carol and Hape hope all students, from beginners through to experienced carvers, come away with a deeper understanding of their own capabilities and artistry.
“The more we can encourage the designer, the maker, the hobbyist to speak from their own self, the more interesting it is, the more vibrant our making environment is,” Hape said.
“People will come to class, and they’ll often say to me, ‘Oh, I’m not very creative’ … but as the process evolves and they forget to be critical of themselves, they often don’t know what’s in them until they start to give something a go,” Carol said.
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