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General presentation

I work alone in my workshop in The New Forest (UK). I design and make furniture and turn and carve wooden objects. I try to use local European hardwoods. I make smaller things from my offcuts. Last year I was given a fallen Walnut tree. It is now planked and stickered and drying in the shed next to the friends Ash tree and my old Cherry tree.

Nick Barberton was born near Cape Town in 1946 and grew up in a seaside village. After school and Military service (South African Navy) he went to Johannesburg College of Art where he gained a diploma in Industrial Design. He started work as a Designer and Draftsman for a firm making Wireware and point of sales display items, but soon started working for himself making wooden furniture. In 1976, now married with a small daughter, the family moved to France and then on to the Netherlands where he found work building traditional Dutch Sailing Barges. In 1978 they moved to Christchurch in Dorset to build yachts but were unable to get a work permit. The following June, with the necessary permit, he took a temporary job as a Craft teacher followed by part time work as a technician and then as an Occupational therapist, when he started working in wood again.

The Stations of the Cross at Sarum St Martins1983-84. From 1987 he was a full time self employed woodworker making furniture and undertaking carvings to commission, turning wooden bowls for craft shops and Galleries.

His work is seen in several churches mainly in Hampshire, Winchester Cathedral, a garden seat at Sculpture at Goodwood and the gates at Artsway.
He took part in Chelsea Craft Fair 1999 to 2005 and Origin 2006-07 showing long carved vessels and was selected by the Crafts Council in 1999. He has exhibited at The Crafts Council, Scottish Gallery, Oxford Gallery, New Ashgate Gallery, Artsway, Rufford, Craft Study Centre and several provincial Galleries. He has three pieces in the Handling Trail for the blind and partially sighted at Manchester City Art Gallery.

He is a wood advisor for The Craft Study Centre. He was an Artist in residence at Schovenhorst in the Netherlands for the ‘Boom en Beeld’ wood carving festival in 2003. He was
resident at the Jam Factory in Adelaide in 2007 where he developed the ‘Splash stool.
He has shown at ‘Chelsea’ Craft Fair, Origin, Made and Art in Action.

Building a boat.

Nick Barberton Because of Covid lockdowns I have had reduced chances to sell my work.…

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