Andrew Crawford UK
www.fine-boxes.com

Andrew Crawford is a craftsman with a reputation for creating beautiful, original and distinctive boxes for discerning customers around the world. His signature pieces are often characterised by the use of curved shapes, harlequin designs, fine veneers, coloured inlays, complex interiors and fine finishing.

Andrew is the author of 3 popular books on box making and he co-curated the popular Celebrating Boxes exhibition in 2001 with fellow UK box maker Peter Lloyd. He is currently writing a further title due for publication in 2011. In 2004, following a move from London to a much larger workshop on the Acton Scott Estate in the beautiful South Shropshire Hills, Andrew started to run box making courses. Many have since benefited from his knowledge and experience of this fascinating branch of woodwork.

"I didn't start my professional life as a box maker, or as a woodworker of any kind. My original training was as a musician, studying flute and guitar at the Royal College of Music in London. Armed with this unrivalled training in the field of classical music I left the college in 1976, forsook the flute completely and joined a rock band called 64 Spoons as bass player. This was great fun for a while but the band ceased to exist in 1980 for all the usual reasons. A posthumous CD called 'Landing on a Rat Column' was released in 1991. And it now seems as though we DID make it after all ... we're on Wikepedia!

I'm looking forward to my visit to the WA Wood Show in August - I hope that the Perth winter will be as good as it was when I last did the show in 2002 ..."

Mareene Aitken, organiser of the WA Wood Show, says: "Andrew has been to Australia three times before - two of his previous visits have been playing flute with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, including performances in Sydney Opera House and Perth Concert Hall. He was our special guest for the 2002 WA Wood Show and I have been working with the Fine Wood Work Association to make a repeat visit possible. I am now excited to announce that Andrew will again be our Artist in Residence for the 2010 show in August."

Andrew's display area will be located next to the Fine Wood Work Association area where he will be demonstrating and chatting with people throughout the three days of the show. He is hoping to bring a new jig that he’s been developing - a guide for aiding the squaring of the corners of router-cut grooves for inlay lines - and there will also be programmed talks happening everyday of which the full details will be released closer to the show.

The Fine Wood Work Association are also organising a master class during Andrew's visit to Perth.

Check www.fwwa.org.au for further information.