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Rene Baxalle
New Zealand Fine Art Woodturner

I began woodturning in 2001 when I was given a wood lathe. All I knew about woodturning at that time was that you could make banisters, and table legs, etc. I joined the local woodturners club and very quickly discovered the creative potential of a lathe. I have always been attracted to wood and have very fond memories of carving little figurines with my pocket knife when I was around 10. I didn’t choose woodwork as a career but instead opted for the electrical trade. This might be the reason I so love working with wood now. I grew up on a farm in the south west of France, in an area called the Dordogne. I came to live in New Zealand in 1991. Coming from an old country filled with tradition and strong ideas about how things should be done to a newer, younger country where people were far more willing to accept new ideas and not worry about tradition was so liberating. Subsequently staying at home to look after our two children, now aged 9 and 7, was a turning point in my life. Spending time with young children can be such a rich experience, one that makes you see the world with different eyes. Early on in my wood turning journey I started experimenting with woven wood inlays because I like the intricacy of weaving and the way each strand blends and connects with the others to become one. I like the idea that each strand can represent an experience in someone’s life and the resulting woven form is the person’s mind or soul. Another design I use is overlapping pieces of wood like the cladding of wooden houses or the sides of wooden clinker boats. This has the same idea with all parts supporting each other to become one. I do not use synthetic material and will not use glue if I can avoid it because I want the different parts which form a piece to want to be together and not be forced to live together.

The hull of a boat is like the shape of one’s life. Life is a journey. You embark at the bow and progress along the hull, which widens like a growing body. The rings on the hull are the marks of time, the weaving lining the boat is our being, unique and different, simple and complicated. The further we advance through the rings of time, the more our woven soul blooms and widens in the limits we create for it or that society around us places on it. At a certain moment of our life, our body and our spirit will tire and decline until the fatal moment at which we disembark the stern of life’s boat. Behind each boat is a wake, just as behind each life there is a story. Some will engrave it in the rocks, others will draw it on the sand and others just leave it lapping in the waves. To each being, his boat, his weaving, his wake.

Le Voyage de la Vie/The Journey of Life Rimu and Ebonised Walnut ENQUIRE NOW

Rimu Corded Bowl Rimu sold	Shallow Rimed Bowl Jarrah ENQUIRE NOW
Large Rimu Bowl NZ Rimu ENQUIRE NOW	Puriri Box with Woven Pohukutawa Lid ENQUIRE NOW
Gecko Vase Sheoak, rimu weaving plus ebonised walnut ENQUIRE NOW	Commission NZ Rimu plus Handblown Glass (Venus Hot Glass)
Pohutukawa Bowl Pohutuawa with Tawa woven Lip ENQUIRE NOW	Lidded Box Rewarewa (NZ Honeysuckle) plus Jarrah lid ENQUIRE NOW
Volcanic Cone Pohutuawa ENQUIRE NOW

Rene Baxalle
New Zealand Fine Art Woodturner

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