Meet our Members: Pip Haydon

1. Introduce yourself – where are you based, what do you do and how long have you been a VWA member?

I’m Pip Haydon, the new VWA Secretary, a newborn intensive care nurse and in every spare second I carve green wood cooking, serving and eating spoons. The wood chips fly in a Shed called Shirl in my Coburg backyard. I’ve been a VWA member since starting at the School of Woodcraft in John Dioretes’ Saturday morning class around 2008. 

2. When did you first get into your craft/practice and what was your journey to it?

I came to furniture class in the years after completing a Masters of Fine Arts. These had been fun years of exhibiting paintings made from thousands of Anzac biscuits and cooked and uncooked bread dough. Furniture class resulted in a red box and Victorian ash striped table and a blackwood tambour pantry cupboard that are still the kings of my kitchen.

The spoon making began as a way of using up offcuts from these projects. Spoon carving was also a way I could continue ‘woodworking’ at home and with minimal tools. A visit to The Lost Trades fair in 2014 introduced me to ‘greenwood’ spoon carving and this is what takes up most of my making time now. It’s a wonderful process that uses mostly an axe, a small straight carving knife and a hooked hollowing knife. After a storm or on hearing a chain saw I’ll be out scouting for that ‘green’ timber. 

3. Current top three music tracks you listen to or all time favourite song/artist

All time favourite artist is Mavis Staples and her album, Live: Hope at the Hideout

Follow Pip on Instagram here.