The Superstars
PRECIOUS METTLE
February 2006
Self-taught jeweller and former rockhound Pauline Bern was specialising in combining shells with gold and silver to create necklaces, rings, and earrings, alloying her own gold using an acetylene/air torch. Pauline said that New Zealand’s jewellery scene was much stronger than that overseas.
TREASURE TROVE
October 2016
Tom Clouston inherited his father’s shed, which featured in Dlokes ’n’ Sheds, plus a collection of vintage car projects and a museum haul of memorabilia. Former hot rodder Tom added another three sheds and installed automotive machinery that he taught himself to use to restore a 1906 Darracq and a 1905 Holsman Model 5, a true horseless carriage.
PLANE CRAZY
April 2011
Air New Zealand engineer Don Subritzky had a couple of jets in his shed — a twin-boom de Havilland Vampire and a 1951 Gloster Meteor — plus most of three Hawker Hind biplanes, the world’s only Vickers Vincent, and a rare Airspeed Oxford, a once-common trainer whose wooden body rarely survived. There were several more piles of parts and a couple of helicopters. Don and son Steve, “custodians of history”, always had something to work on as they tracked down and made parts for their aviation jigsaws.
DOWNSIZING
April 2010
Owen White had 43 vintage engines, mostly restored from rusty bits, but downsizing to a retirement home in Pakuranga meant selling them off. It also meant downsizing his hobby, so he began making model engines instead. Having made his own windmill generators, Owen also made model windmills and a 1.5m-tall model of the Castlepoint lighthouse where, after an earthquake, he once used an envelope to help scoop into a chamber pot mercury that had spilled from the light’s bearing bath.
PUZZLING IT OUT
December 2005
While with his GP dad on his rounds, young Richard Feltham had checked out a lot of sheds, including one belonging to a radio repairer. With the smell of flux still in his nostrils, Richard put his love of electronics to work in his big New Plymouth garage, programming a CNC router to make ‘proper’ wooden puzzles. A laser engraver did even finer work, cutting plastics and wood up to 10mm thick.
PAPER SAVIOUR
December 2007
Artist Mark Lander is best known for making the ‘Little Critter’, which makes paper pulp from cotton rags or plant fibres. The commercial Hollander machine weighs half a tonne and costs a fortune. Mark’s robust baby version is ideal for hobbyists and Third World schools starved of paper. At the time, Mark had made more than 200 of these from aluminium plate, with rollers cast from dog-food tins and plastic pipe.
COOPER GOES BARREL RACING
September 2019
The horsepower in this form of barrel racing comes from a 110cc go-kart kit. When your name is Russell Cooper, the body just has to be a barrel. Russell cut down and remade a French oak wine cask, which also supplied material for the bumpers, engine cover, and wing. The leather upholstery was saved from Russell’s Hamilton furniture repair and upholstery business.
TANNER DRILL PRESS SAVED
October 2014
Bryce Clifford bought a cheap new drill press thinking an old Tanner press could be made into a keyslotting machine, but the robust Tanner convinced him to reverse that plan. He fitted a new motor but the top plate was too heavy to move or rotate. He installed a Vazey table on a custom rotating mount on the top plate and a hydraulic jack to both top plate and table.
ANTIQUE EXPERT
October 2011
Whanganui antique and clock restorer and collector Alan Geary was still going strong at 95. Having replaced missing inlay and banding in a Hepplewhite table and made a new lid for a silver tankard, he was restoring a 350-year-old James Brindle carriage clock. Alan advised people to start with a course to learn basic skills, then “… whatever you decide to do, build a library of books on the subject”.
SHED HOSPITALITY
May 2021
For 40 years, Tony Woods’ garage in
