about
Nick Barberton was born in Cape Town and studied Industrial design. He has worked as a draftsman, a designer, a despatch worker, a teacher, a technician, an occupational therapist, a yacht carpenter, but always a maker. He has lived in Britain since 1979 and has been making furniture for most of the time. He refitted the vestry of Ringwood Parish Church, has work in Winchester Cathedral, Manchester Art Gallery, Sculpture at Goodwood, Artsway and several churches around the South. He is on the Crafts Council selected list and is a wood advisor for The Collection Gallery at the Surrey Institute in Farnham. He has recently returned from a residency at the Jam Factory in Adelaide. He is on the Craft council selected list and has shown work at Chelsea craft fair and Origin since 99. He is the chairman of Hampshire and Berkshire Guild of Craftsmen.
He started turning wooden bowls in 1988 as a bit of light relief from the furniture that he was making. He loved the immediacy of the lathe and could generate a bowl from a lump of fruit tree wood in a day. A table and eight chairs required drawings and weeks of work. He started carving his bowls when he was given some large pieces of Honduras Mahogany and the boringness of this obedient wood demanded the application of some texture. On his first trip to Chelsea he noticed that several of the potters were making flat pots (was Alison Britten the first?) This was a neat idea, one could fit more pot onto the narrow crowded London mantlepieces and window cills. There are not that many places for a 60cm.dia. wooden platter, hence the development of long carved wooden bowls with the rhythms of the chisel interplaying with the light and reflection and the grain of the wood.
He started turning wooden bowls in 1988 as a bit of light relief from the furniture that he was making. He loved the immediacy of the lathe and could generate a bowl from a lump of fruit tree wood in a day. A table and eight chairs required drawings and weeks of work. He started carving his bowls when he was given some large pieces of Honduras Mahogany and the boringness of this obedient wood demanded the application of some texture. On his first trip to Chelsea he noticed that several of the potters were making flat pots (was Alison Britten the first?) This was a neat idea, one could fit more pot onto the narrow crowded London mantlepieces and window cills. There are not that many places for a 60cm.dia. wooden platter, hence the development of long carved wooden bowls with the rhythms of the chisel interplaying with the light and reflection and the grain of the wood.