The House that Bob Made!

Quite soon after I began my unexpected stay in Auckland, a wood worker called Bob, contacted me.

Bob

Bob has a blog with the rather intriguing name, perception panels and he has been quietly following my progress for a little while. When he read of what had happened to me, Bob kindly got in touch and offered to take me out for a few hours and show me some of Auckland.

Central Auckland is watched over by the iconic Sky Tower.

Iconic sights like the Harbour bridge, and the Sky tower, slid past the car, and the bustle of this small, sun washed city, was cheering and colourful. Auckland is blessed by being near water. You can't help but be aware of the sea, as it seems to appear around every corner. People love water here.

A bay full of bustle. P class dingy sailors return to dry land.

The harbour bristles with cocktail stick-like masts of sailing boats. Sandy bays bustle with children learning to sail 8 foot long P class dingies.


Further out at sea "real" yachts race against each other, and large container vessels, and fishing boats slide across the water.

Bob's handiwork is simple, useful, and elegant.

I asked Bob if I could see some of the work that he does with wood. Some crafts people make work that almost shouts... "look at me... I am hand made!" Bob's work is quieter, and is all the more impressive for that.

In use, but still with some finishing to be done on the draw,
this lovely table is patterned with wood veneer.

Slowly it dawned to me, as Bob showed me around his house, that the furniture, book case, small tables, even the frame around a painting, were all made by him. The house too, as it turned out!

A six sided table with three slender legs.

The legs taper and have a subtle change of thickness from top to bottom too.

Bob's furniture had clean, simple lines, and fitted into the sunny, contemporary spaces that he had created. Bob often enhances what he makes with veneers, and I am interested to discover that he is a craftsman that designs by making and looking at what is being made, rather than making from a design.

The patterned drawer is awaiting varnish.

The inlay of veneer on the top of a cabinet or table, may have suggested itself after living with a newly made piece for a few days. Living in a city where boat building is a major activity, Bob has access to some rather exciting timbers, offcuts from the boat building trade.

Bob also has been developing a process for making fibreglass panels, with raised designs. These, he incorporates into doors, or makes them as artwork to hang on a wall.

The Panel is made from fibreglass. The fibreglass is coloured with metal oxides.

He described the process for me, and some of the challenges that he had to find solutions to, and I was impressed. To get to the point that he is at now with the fibreglass panels has taken him four years.

Bob arrived in New Zealand the same year as I did, 1976, and it was fun to find many things in common. I was really touched by Bob's thoughtfulness in getting in touch with me, and we had a very enjoyable few hours. Who knows, I might even get him interested in Linux operating systems!! A subject that I dropped into conversation over coffee!

You might like to see more of Bob's work at his blog, Perception Panels.