Uenuku

Uenuku means rainbow (four rays going up, with the three gaps, making the seven rays of a rainbow) and is a Maori God. Uenuku was a man in his life, and became a rainbow in the afterlife. He was inspired by the great 12thc. Tainui artefact of the same name who is housed in the Te Awamutu museum, which is close to where I was brought up. Ever since I first saw it, I've always loved it. As you can see, kids love it too. That's my gorgeous grand daughter, Ashley-Rose Linda Etu Marama Cooper.

Pania of the Reef

Well, here she is at last! I did a matau (fish hook) which I posted on October 28th. In it's raw state, I'd sawn it down the centre. I was going to do two the same - mirror images of each other, but this one then morphed into - this!

So she's a fish hook - beautiful, hooks men in. She's Pania of the Reef. We look out on this reef, and there's a local legend that goes wth it. Pania lived out there - in the ocean, then met a man and they fell in love. She came to live on shore, and they had a son. But Pania couldn't bear to be away from the ocean, so she moved back there. Apparently if you go out to the reef, you can see her on the ocean floor.

So I've done her as a mermaid. I think she must have been one, if she lived in the ocean and on land, and local Maori who I have shown this to (and I have another Pania who I've done as a mermaid) have told me - "Well, yes, she was!"

Koru Manawa

I split a whales tooth down the middle to form two pendants. Each one I carved with koru so they are mirror images of each other. Koru are fern fronds, meaning new life. If you put the two together, the opposing koru form hearts, or manawa. I then cut a red beech burr in half, and carved out spaces to insert the pendants into the base. On the lid, I caved a manawa (heart), and you can see how the two koru form the manawa. So we have two halves, new life forming a heart - the ultimate wedding gift.

It is at Otarere Maori Arts and Crafts, which is located at 577 State highway 1, just north of Otaki and is run by Cheryl, Coral and Henry. They're really nice, so call in and see them (look for the marae style building, with some wicked carvings) or phone them on (06) 3679317 or a/h on 027 736 6229. They also have a beautiful red beech burr bowl with a paua inlay of mine there.

New Matau

I've just finished a great matau (fish hook), and am putting the finshing touches on another. The matau is an old Maori symbol, which is in common use today, often as pendants. The matau is the symbol of prosperity and abundance (fish were abundant in those days!), and because fishermen were the hunter gatherers on the ocean, matau also symbolise courage and protection on, and near water.

At the top, I've put a koru, or fern frond, which symbolises new life, and the negative space between the shaft and the hook also forms a koru.

The matau is made from red beech, and has the most amazng fiddleback (shimmies) in it.

This sculpture, in it's raw state, was quite thick, so I split it down the middle. I was going to do two the same; mirror images of each other, but the second piece has morphed into something quite different, but it's not quite finished yet, so you're going to have to wait for that one.

This one has a very different texture on each side, as one side came from the outside, and one from the middle. The outside side, I've left much of it in it's natural state, but the other side really shows off the fiddleback amazingly.

I've put it on a stand, but left it so it can be removed from the stand, and I've applied felt to the inside of the stand so it doesn't damage the matau. Ive done all of this so that the buyer has the option of leaving it in the stand, or taking it out and hanging it on the wall, showing off whichever side they prefer. The stand itself is a beautiful piece of wood, made from pohutukawa.

I've just delivered it to Kura Gallery in Lower Albert St., Auckland Ph +64 (09) 302 1151 e: auckland@kuragallery.co.nz.

Antique Chinese Carving Restored

As with the aforementioned walking stick, I occasionlly buy other people's art work, some of which are broken, and I enjoy restoring them. This one I bought off the daughter of some missionaries who went to China about a hundred years ago. Now it looks like new, which is not great for antiques, but is better than broken!

If you come to my gallery, you will find a selection of other people's art work as well as my own, for sale.

Te Kehua

This would have to be one of the ugliest sculptures I've ever done - well, one that I've ever seen, even, but some people think it's great! and I didn't even do much to it! Mostly naturally sculptured, I took the top half off the beach & brought it home because I thought it was an interesing piece of wood, pyramidical in form, and kept turning it over to contemplate all sides, a few days or weeks at a time, and you can imagine my reaction when I discovered this! Aaaarrrgh!

It was too good to ignore, though, so I found the base, and polished up a face on that, too. I reckon the base looks like a sleeping lamb, you know, with it's head to one side as they do. I contemplated many names for it. Of course many people have suggested "The Scream", but that's been done. "The Spirit of Evil" stuck for a while. The story I made up to go with him (I know you're supposed to do it the other way round, but too bad) is that he represents those who prey on others, and the lamb represents the innocents. He's protecting his prey, while revelling in the fact that he's claimed his victim, at the same time looking around for the next. He may be looking at you and saying "You're next". Recently, an old Maori man walked past our place, and stopped to look at the sculptures I have on my front lawn, and said how good he thought they were, so I invitied him to look at my other sculptures. When he saw this one, he exclaimed "That looks like a Kehua!" so now he's "Te Kehua" (the Spirit). Red beech, pohutukawa base. I've got NZ$1500 on him, but if anyone wants him, I'm VERY negotiable!

I'm going to be away in Thailand for a wee holiday, so I'll catch you later on in October. Meantime, check out my new web site my daughter Christie's done for me www.driftwoodsculptures.co.nz.

Cheers, Paddy.

New Whale Tail and Matau

I've just finished these two sculptures which are winging their way down to Te Huia Gallery in Arrowtown as we speak! The whale tail is made from NZ native Kahikatea, otherwise known as white pine. It's a LOT harder than what we normally think of as pine. In fact, it's one of the hardest woods I work with, but it does create a beautiful finish, and is very hardy by comparison. The matau (fish hook) is made from NZ native Beech. As you can see it has wicked grain in it. The "fiddleback" is amazing. That's those shimmies branching out from the middle of the hook. They have a haulographic effect as you move around it. You can see it in the raw piece before I sculpted it. They're created by stress on a branch as the tree tries to hang on. They're commonly referred to as fiddleback, as it's what violin makers used to look for to make the back of their "fiddles". Now I look for it to create my pieces.

Pounamu River Stone

I bought this Pounamu boulder from a woman in Greymouth who's in her 60s and had it for years. When her grandmother died, they found it in her shed, so it had been in the same family for three generations. Her grandparents had a gold prospecting license on a river around there, and used to carry the occasional other piece out. They must have got it when they were fairly young, as it weighs 51 kg and is VERY difficult to carry. For overseas people, pounamu is commonly referred to in New Zealand as greenstone, and is THE sacred stone to Maori. In fact, now Maori own all the pounamu left in the natural environment, and no one else is allowed to collect it. Because this was found and retrieved long before that law was passed, there are no probems with this piece though. It has been blessed by a local koumatua (elder).

This is a river stone, and, when it lies flat, you can see where a natural water course has been created in the stone over - who knows? Perhaps thousands of years. The water course actually forms a natural koru pattern, which you can see in the photo. The koru is a fern frond, meaning new life. I have certainly given this stone new life. I have polished it up (very sooth to the touch), and put it into a piece of totara, which is the main wood Maori use to do their carving. This totara was also naturally sculpted by a river, and looks itself a bit like a flowing river.

The stone does lie flat on the totara base, but both sides are so stunning, that all who see it agree it is best shown off by standing it on end.

The girl in the photo is my gorgeous mokopuna (grandaughter) Ashley-Rose Linda Etu Marama Cooper

It is for sale, so if you are interested, e-mail me at paddy.glyn@xnet.co.nz or phone me on +64 (06) 8366216

Old Walking Stick restored

I not only create new wood pieces, but buy and restore old ones. I've just finished an old Maori walking stick. Fabulous carving, but when I bought it it was broken in two places, and one eye was missing. Repairing the handle was easy, but where the shaft was broken, it was totally munted, with even some of the carving missing. So i had to gradually build it up using sawdust and PVA, and then re-carve it. It's not as good as the original, but most people have to look a second time to see where it is, and only find it because it's shinier than the rest. Hopefully in time, it'll all blend in together. I used a bit of recycled antique ivory for the eye, so it looks the age. I think it's about a hundred years old, and by the look of the style, may have been carved by Tene Waitere.

Dolphin

Here's how the dolphin progressed from the raw bit of drifwood to the finished product. I'll probably never get another one like it, as not only did the grain split to form the tail (by forming a new branch), but the grain on the back goes up and along to form the fin.

The dolphin is New Zealand Rimu, and it sits on a base of a red beech burr.

September Exhibition

There's a great exhibition on in Hastings for the month of September. It's part of the blossom festival (Yeh! Spring!). Three entries from each exibitor are allowed. I decided to put the dolphin that's he feature sculpture on my web site in, my most recent large red beech whale tail, and a red beech burr bowl. I didn't have a suitable bowl made, but had a really nicely shaped burr in my den (the hermitage) that, by the colour of the outside, had to be red beech. We had to enter the dimensions, so I measured the burr, and sent off the application. Then some time later, after it was too late to change the enries, I thought I'd better get it done. I ripped into it with the chainsaw, and was cutting it on greywacke. The shavings coming off were the same colour as the greywacke! It wasn't a red beech burr at all! In fact, I'd never seen a burr of this colour at all! Not only that, but when I'd finished it, it was not only grey, with some little red burr dots showing through, but the whole thing has a ghostly silver sheen to it, with a holographic effect! (This burr bowl is available from me Ph. +64 (06) 8366216). I think it's a puriri burr. It's about 50x40cm by 12.5 cm deep. Real munty sized fruit bowl.

So then I had to go out and find a red beech burr of the right size. Luckily I found a suitable one, which has come up stunningly, and because it's still wet (having just washed up on the beach) weighs pretty heavily.

The opening was on Monday evening, and a good time was had by all. The other works exhibited are also of a really high standard - I was pretty impressed. The exhibition is at the Hastings Art Centre in Russell St (ph. 8789447) and runs until the 26th.

Red Beech Burr Sun Disc

I had this great red beech double burr (burl if you're American) which I had been procrastinating on for some time. In the past I'd had two similar ones, and had made two No. 8 Infinity bowls out of them. The first sold for almost 2 grand, and the second is for sale in Kura Gallery in Auckland (details on my web site), but I had this yearning to make a burr disc, similar to the greenstone ones you see in the tourist shops from time to time. I know if I cut the big one off, it alone would make a $1000 bowl, but I didn't have any other decent burrs to do my disc with, so it was with my heart in my mouth that I firstly cut the big burr off, and then put the chainsaw straight throuh the middle of it! Howver, it all worked out (trust your intuition!) as, I think you'll agree, it not only made a pretty good disc, but I got an amazing platter, and a wicked bowl (that I've added a bit of paua to) off each side.
I got a phone call from Delvine Wallace in Arrowtown. She and her husband Bruce already own a few shops there, and are currently setting up a new gallery. They had travelled the length of New Zealand, and had seen my pieces in Kura Gallery. They said that they hadn't seen anything else like my pieces, and wanted some for the new Gallery, which is to be called "Te Huia".
So I've sent them these three items: the disc, the bowl and the platter, and am currently working on some more pieces for them. It's going to be at 38 Buckingham St. Ph (03) 4421355. If you're in Arrowtown any time, check them out. They should be open very soon.

Finally got it - and Wow!

This is a photo of my daugter Tash taken in March 2005, when she was pregnant, sitting on a piece of red beech driftwood I tried to get off the beach for about 5 years. This was one time we tried to get it. Another time, I took my brother-in-law down to try and get it, and we actually towed it along the beach, but it was just too heavy to get it up on to the trailer. It weighed a ton! Finally, earlier this year, I met another man was a woodie, and as he was off work, and getting bored, so next time I was going fossicking I asked him if he'd like to come too. He jumped at the chance. We came across this piece again. It's amazing how a piece so big and heavy shifts around the beach so much. Those waves are very powerful! You an see in this photo it's high and dry. This time it was down at the water's edge, but was at least on the hard. We got some other bits of driftwood and levered it up until it was high enough to winch it on board. At last! Another stroke of luck is that he happened to have a brother with a portable mill, and he lives in the country, so we set it up in the paddock next door, and after water blasting to get any salt, sand and stones off it, we managed to cut it into five slabs. He got two and I got three. It has wicked grain in it. I have made a coffee table out of the middle piece. The little girl in the photo is my gorgeous grand daughter Ashley-Rose, who Tash was pregnant with in the first photo. She's now 3! The end slab I was going to make a dragon coffee table out of, but I decided to turn it around and make a whale, "The Guardian of the Deep". So I still have another raw slab to play with at a later date. The coffee table and the whale are for sale now. Contact details on my web site.