The theme for this year's Wootha Prize competition is ‘Planting the Seed’ and guidelines and application forms are here
The entry deadline is February 13, 2015.
Held in conjunction with the annual Maleny Wood Expo, the Wootha Prize continues to be one of the best themed and most richly rewarded national competitions for woodworkers to enter.
Just like its theme, this year’s Wootha Prize was literally an ‘open and shut’ case when it came to judging the winners.
Judges Ross Annels, George Gavaric and Carol Russell awarded the First Prize of $2,500 to Gary Fields from Alexandra Hills for his piece Tribute to Reclamation, hand carved from a red cedar burl and inlaid with recycled silver. Gary was also honoured with the Design Excellence Award for his sensitive use of the timber in conjunction with his theme interpretation.
Frank Van Brunschot of Geebung received Second Prize of $750 plus the Craftsmanship Award for his intricate Collector’s Cabinet, constructed from Tasmanian blackwood, camphor laurel, casuarina, eucalyptus burl, western red cedar, Victorian ash, silky oak and Huon pine. By the way, Frank’s piece is featured in detail as a ‘masterpiece cabinet’ in the December issue (#85) of Wood Review.
Third Prize of $500 was awarded to Richard Vaughan of Sumner Park for his Open & Shut Ring Box. The outer box, constructed of salvaged red cedar, housed an inner silver quandong box lined with kangaroo leather, and the handles were made from bunya nuts.
The exhibition was viewed by more than 7000 visitors at the 2014 Maleny Wood Expo. Over 1,000 expo visitors cast their votes for the People’s Choice Award, selecting Maleny’s Jack Wilms’ hand-carved red cedar Mermaid’s Treasure Box as the recipient of the $500 prize.
Entrants in the Wootha Prize must, like all Maleny Wood Expo exhibitors, use sustainably sourced timbers — either plantation grown, recycled, salvaged or weed timbers.
The Maleny Expo takes place May 2–3.
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