John Robertson of Wood and Chisel crafts beautiful wooden homewares from his Ōtautahi Christchurch family home. His work is a response to the absence of beauty and meaning in modern day mass production. His mission? To create beautiful and useful objects with unique pieces of reclaimed timber, to bring moments of joy as we go about our everyday activities.
A small but dedicated salvage team based in Christchurch, The Silvan started out life as an art gallery and café. When their building was lost in the 2011 earthquakes, the team came back fighting, shifting their focus to saving and repurposing beautiful timbers, hand salvaged from damaged buildings. Founders Debra and GT believe in minimising waste and reusing everything they can to make pieces that are practical, beautiful, and full of soul.
Bay of Plenty designer Sarah of Remnants Jewellery seeks out damaged, unwanted china and ceramics, and gives them a new lease of life as unique statement jewellery. She shapes the salvaged remnants into their final form and applies jeweller’s lead-free solder to frame and intricately embellish the cut ceramic.
Reclaiming Style: using salvaged materials to create an elegant home
By Maria Speake and Adam Hills · Reviewed by Jo Drysdall
The title and cover of Reclaiming Style are promising: a clever storage space is finished with panels of reclaimed weatherboard, their timeworn surfaces creating a characterful finish and promising, with the superimposed text, a treasure-trove of ideas for outfitting your home in repurposed goodness.
Rekindle Wood Collection Day,
11am–3.30pm Saturday 11 August, Christchurch
Rekindle is a social enterprise that makes furniture and other useful objects by diverting wood from landfill to reuse.
Gather up any dry planks of hardwood (i.e. cladding, flooring, tongue and groove) and take them along to the Rekindle Wood Collection site at 272 Worcester Street in Christchurch on Saturday 11 August 2012 between 11am and 3.30pm.
Jewellery Making in Christchurch, April 1, 2 and 3
Caroline and Joanne, the lovely ladies of Smash Palace, make gorgeous jewellery from broken china and for the first three days of April, they’re gifting their services to Christchurch.