“Resilience” – Hand-Crafted Paper Birch Wooden Vase by Guy du Toit

“Resilience” is more than an artwork — it is a meditation on survival, fragility, and rebirth.

Turned from a freshly cut Paper Birch tree that fell in a storm, this vase has a wall thickness of just 2.5 mm, making it astonishingly delicate. Into its surface, artist Guy du Toit carved and pierced images of poppies, butterflies, and new shoots of grass — symbols of life rising from the ashes of the battlefields after World War II.

Each image was carefully hand-painted using layers of dry-brushed acrylics and Indian ink, applied and sanded back again and again to create the subtle grey tones of ash. More than 60 hours of work went into shaping, carving, painting, and refining this one-of-a-kind vessel.

As the piece dried and settled into its organic form, some of the finest carved elements naturally broke away. Rather than restoring them, Guy chose to embrace this transformation:

“As in war, wounds are healed, broken bones are set, and pieces of ourselves are lost. The same is true of this work of art.”

This fragility is not a flaw but part of its story — a reminder that resilience is not perfection, but the strength to endure and transform.

Created during ANZAC Day 2020, while New Zealand was under Level IV lockdown, “Resilience” is deeply personal to the artist. With 6 years of military service and 16 years in the police, Guy connects his craft with remembrance, sacrifice, and the human spirit’s ability to rise again after adversity.

• Medium: Paper Birch wood, acrylic paint, Indian Ink

• Technique: Turned, pierced, hand-carved, layered painting and sanding

• Time Invested: 60+ hours

• Artist’s Statement: “As the poppies rose from the ashes of the battlefields after the war with great beauty and resilience, so too, we as a people, shall rise after adversity.”

This is not simply a vase. It is a collector’s artwork, a vessel of meaning, fragility, and resilience.