During a 3 year posting in Malaysia with the RAAFTerry Gordon learned how to wood carve and how to use wooden planes with a local cabinet maker. In essence, he discovered that the planes that this particular Chinese cabinet maker was using were superior to the Western planes. Therefore, he had decided to make his own. Other people appreciated them and the rest is history.

Mr. Tyler is an internationally known sculptor of birds in wood. Having grown up on Maine’s coast, shorebirds and oceanic birds are Tyler’s most consistently chosen subjects. The designs and proportions of Tyler’s bird sculptures are generally reflective of the actual birds and their behaviours.

Originally a jeweller, Susan Wraight belongs to a western revival of an eastern tradition of miniature sculptures named Netsuke. Japanese in origin, Netsuke were originally used as toggles and were worn between the Edo period 1615-1868.

Since the mid 1980’s Rafael has been an avid amateur photographer, which soon led to the learning of picture framing in Warnambool. He has continued to work in this field in Melbourne ever since.

Matt Kenney grew up making things like tree forts and skate ramps from wood. Now he’s a furniture maker who’s passion for the craft drives him to share his knowledge and experience with other woodworkers.

As a regular contributor to the Australian Wood Review since June 1996, I have watched fine woodworking evolve from the fringe hobby of a dedicated few, into a substantial industry spread around the world. For me, spoon carving completes a circle, because the very first things I ever carved, way back in 1980, were a spoon and a bowl.

Peter is a former research scientist who has been designing and making furniture for the past 20 years after retraining at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine.

Hugh is a retired anaesthetist with a life-time interest in woodworking. His professional career, spanning some 40 years, was spent mostly in a major teaching hospital, involved in the anaesthesia and management of trauma, and the teaching of anaesthesia trainees, medical students and nurses.

Matt specialises in crafting steam-bent Middle Eastern frame drums and these are played by professional musicians around the world. Matt was an artist-in-studio at Montsalvat artists colony where he also taught students to craft their own drums.

Eddy is a qualified furniture restorer with 16 years’ experience. While he specialises in French polishing furniture of all styles and periods, he has a particular interest in English, French, Italian and Australian furniture of the early and late Victorian period.

Jon’s strong sense of place comes from several generations of his family living in Tasmania. He holds a deep connection with the landscape of his island home and an affinity with the beautiful and unique timbers that grow in the cool temperate forests.

Simeon Dux is a fine furniture designer and maker from Melbourne, who specializes in crafting unique one of a kind pieces.

Garrett Hack taught at The Guild in 2013. His earliest memories were of sawing and hammering, so naturally after pursuing civil engineering and architecture at Princeton over forty years ago he became a furniture maker. Fundamental to Garrett’s work are hand tools, for the polish of surfaces they cut and the subtle variations possible working by hand and eye rather than machine.

Peter taught at The Guild in 2011 and has also taught at numerous craft schools around the USA, including the Penland School of Crafts, the North Bennet Street School, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Kelly Mehlers School of Woodworking, Highland Woodworking, the Arrowmont School of Crafts and The Port Townsend School of Woodworking.

Christopher Schwarz taught at The Guild in 2012. He is a long-time woodworker and writer who has spent over 20 years encouraging woodworkers to embrace more handwork in their shops. He built his first workbench when he was 11 and was introduced to handwork when his family built its first house on an Arkansas farm without electricity.

Steve Latta makes both contemporary and traditional furniture while teaching woodworking at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and Millersville University in Lancaster County, PA. For the past several years, Steve has been a contributing editor to Fine Woodworking magazine and has released several videos on inlay and furniture construction.

Tom Fidgen is a designer/maker author, musician, living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Tom has written for Fine Woodworking Magazine, Popular Woodworking Magazine, Canadian Woodworking Magazine, Furniture & Cabinet Making Magazine, British Woodworking Magazine, as well as the Lee Valley Tools Newsletter.

Matt Kenney grew up making things like tree forts and skate ramps from wood. Now he’s a furniture maker who’s passion for the craft drives him to share his knowledge and experience with other woodworkers.