The Tao of Woodcraft

photo: Doug Thost

Among the woodcraft luminaries coming to the Australia Wooden Boat Festival in 2019, the latest to confirm is Jim Tolpin, an acclaimed woodworker, teacher and author who has published a dozen books and sold 750,000 copies world-wide. Jim is co-founder of the Port Townsend School of Wooodworking and a member of that thriving community of shipwrights, sail makers, artisans and craftspeople in the Pacific Northwest. Jim takes a naturalistic, reflective approach to shaping wood to a purpose and his beautifully crafted projects are a joy to the eye.

photo: Doug Thost

The connection to Tasmania and the Australian Wooden Boat Festival is clear – our island state is home to some of Australia’s finest boat builders, restorers and furniture makers, and to quality centres of learning including the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Tasmania, Alex Jerrim’s Wisdom Through Wood south of Hobart and the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin. Coupled with a long history of heritage skills and craftsmanship, Tasmania has a great deal in common with North American centres of excellence like Port Townsend.

Australian bush joinery at the AWBF with Alex Jerrim

The Australian Wooden Boat Festival (AWBF) is committed to preserving traditional wooden boat building and to passing on the skills that make it possible. Even for the amateur enthusiast, there will be a feast of woodcraft on the program at AWBF 2019. And best of all, these presentations are entirely free to the public. Stay in touch through the AWBF news blog to get the earliest news of what you can see and do at the festival, February 8-11, 2019.