The Kerikeri 200 year anniversary celebration
Tuhono Kerikeri was an event scheduled to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Kerikeri. Several local artists were invited to create art pieces for an exhibition as part of this event. Unfortunately the event never took place because of Covid-19.
For the event I created this piece, titled Tuhono. It is a vase made from Black Maire, the hardest New Zealand native timber, European Ash and epoxy resin.
- The Maire represents the Maori culture,
- The Ash the European culture
- The resin river runs through all our lives
- the river is the actual shape of the Kerikeri river
- The ring of the ocean at the top represents how the ocean binds us all together.
What is really special about this piece is that I managed to align the grain of the Maire and the Ash, no small feat I assure you.
The journey of creation of the Tuhono vase
I wish I could say this piece worked first try. It took a couple of efforts before I could get the math right and figure out the puzzle pieces and grain alignement to get the river running down the middle of the vase.
Two pieces of very different wood were selected for this project. I took a picture of the Kerikeri river from the map and then transferred this to each block. Some careful bandsaw work to cut out the rough shape of the river and then the river was carefully hand carved.
The two pieces were puzzled together and put into a sealed frame for the resin pour.
Once the resin was set the turning began and Voila!
