DAVID HAIG

FINE
FURNITURE
MAKER

Biography

I was born in Malaysia in 1955, where my father was a teacher in the British colonial education service, and my memories are of a lot of sunshine and smiling brown faces. But the family returned to England in 1960, and what with school and the British climate, things got a bit greyer for a while. I attended Winchester College from 1968 to 1972, and then completed a BA in Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1976. My family had emigrated to New Zealand in 1971, and I joined then there in 1976 as soon as I'd completed my degree. They ran a small organic farm near Nelson, and I was very much influenced by my mother's strong organic principles, and by the whole nascent conservation movement.

My wife Clare, who I'd met in England, came out to join me in 1977 and we married later that year, and had our first son Tom in 1978, and had two more sons, Jonathan in 1980 and Nick in 1983. I worked for a native-forest conservation organisation for a year, and then with a hippy builder, restoring old houses and making weaving looms. In 1981, I went back to the U.K. for six months and managed to get a job with an antique furniture restorer, Chris Booth, outside Farnham in the south of England. On returning, I set myself up as an antique restorer in Nelson, and tackled a huge range of furniture restoration work.

In 1983 and 1984 though, under the auspices of the then New Zealand Crafts Council, a number of leading international contemporary furniture makers, among them Jim Krenov and Alan Peters, visited new Zealand, and I was able to attend short courses with them. This opened my eyes to a completely new world for me, and I was deeply influenced to have a go at designing and building my own furniture. Selling the first rocking chair (not the 'Signature' design) I ever built on the opening night of the first furniture exhibition I had been in was a hugely affirming experience!

Shortly afterwards, I built a workshop at my home in Cable Bay, and started designing and building furniture on commission more or less full-time. In 1990, following a year out for the family in the Blue Mountains of Australia where I helped a friend build a large stone house, I built the first 'Signature' rocking chair. This quickly became my best known design, and became the backbone of my furniture making business. I have exhibited and participated in numerous exhibitions and shows since then, and have won several notable awards. I've also written a number of articles on woodworking topics, mostly in the Australian Wood Review magazine. (see Articles page.)

I have also become formally involved in teaching aspects of my craft and design skills since about 1996, when I became a part-time tutor at the Nelson Polytechnic's Craft Design course. In 2002, I was invited to teach a steam-bending course at the prestigious Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine, U.S.A. and have taught there now four times. In 2006 my brother-in-law, John Shaw, opened New Zealand's first dedicated woodworking school, the Centre for Fine Woodworking situated exactly halfway between Cable Bay and Nelson, and I was heavily involved in the initial curriculum development, and now teach there regularly.

I have also been invited to teach at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking outside Indianapolis , U.S.A. and at Irminsul in Sydney, Australia. Teaching is a way of testing whether I really know what I think I do, and there is a huge satisfaction when the lights go on behind a student's eyes who has seen what it is I'm trying to get across, and makes the necessary leap to get there.

I have had several assistant woodworkers helping me in my workshop over the past fifteen years, of whom Mike Hindmarsh has worked for me the longest; as well as being a highly skilled practitioner he also has as quick a wit and good sense of humour as anyone I know. I'm now a grandfather twice over, which is probably the best sort of parenting experience you can have, and I'm also incredibly fortunate to still have a wonderful and supportive wife and now co-grandparent in Clare.