After a year’s absence due to COVID-19, woodworkers on Gabriola Island are once again coming together to show off their wares.
On Aug. 21 and 22, the Gabriola Woodworkers Guild presents its third group exhibition, the Wood Show, at the Gabriola Arts and Heritage Centre. The show has been taking place annually since 2018, but was unable to proceed last year due to the pandemic.
Fourteen of the guild members will have work on display, including wood carvings, furniture, doors, a kayak and intarsia images, which are intricate pictures made from woods of different colours.
“One nice thing about the show and the guild itself, the variety of woodworking is amazing,” show organizer Rob Maynard said. “None of us could do all of what is shown and also the skill level is out of this world.”
Maynard, a guild member since 2018, will have a coffee table and hanging bird mobile on display, all made of out arbutus, his signature wood.
“I’m sort of Mr. Arbutus on the island,” he said.
Maynard has been woodworking most of his life and got his start early when his father showed him the basics while he was growing up. When he started a family of his own, Maynard turned to woodworking out of “financial necessity.”
“I would go into Ikea and take measurements and build bunk beds and tables, chairs. I built all sorts of things,” he said. “Basically I can build nice furniture for less than it cost me to buy it and I do enjoy making it.”
WHAT’S ON … The Gabriola Woodworkers Guild presents the Wood Show at the Gabriola Arts and Heritage Centre, 476 South Rd., on Aug. 21 and 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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