Ashburton carver Jim Benfell has taken a passion he learned as a child and developed it into creations of contemporary and traditional works of art.
This weekend the 67-yearold is showcasing his skills and teaching others at a fourhour workshop at Short St Studio.
His driftwood and limestone creations hang on walls, grace tabletops and highlight garden settings.
“I just started by mucking around, and then got better at it,” he said.
“I just love doing it.”
Some of his favourites take pride of place in his Ashburton home, including an intricately carved taiaha and shaped patu. They are forms which had their inspiration in Benfell’s youth.
His parents, the late Dave and Janet, were involved in the formation of Hakatere Marae. His mother was a kuia (female elder), and a former marae trustee – a role Benfell himself has also taken up.
“I’m honouring my mother and I love it out there,” he said.
“We were brought up out there. Mum and dad worked hard, and we worked hard.
“It was our life, out there every weekend doing stuff. It was like a big camp every weekend.”
As an adult he immersed himself in marae custom, and while at Hakatere worked under master carver Alex McLeod of Christchurch on the ornate koruru and poupou on the wharenui (meeting house).
It was a rewarding experience, he said.
“There has always been that connection with the marae and being able to help out Alex on those carvings was pretty special,” he said. Jim Benfell started beachcombing wood while living at Golden Bay about 10 years ago.
It was a chance to live out his dream.
He worked by day as a driver trainer with Fonterra, and carved in his downtime using wood collected from the beach. He has been with Fonterra for 25 years.
“Golden Bay is a magical place, very artisan,” he said.
“I lived up there for a couple of years. I was still able to live the dream and work the same job.
“I used to run along the beach, and I’d see something in a piece of wood and then I would shape it.”
He spent hours carving his vision into bits of native wood.
Many of them he has given away, or sold.
About two years ago, Benfell had reduced his work hours with Fonterra and sought a better worklife balance. He also planned to extend himself creatively working on commission pieces.
“I’m happy where I’m at,” he said.
“I don’t want to go bigger, or fancier. I’m just happy ticking along.”
When it comes to carving, he only has one rule. The raw product has to be liftable. He uses slabs of limestone, although in the past it was branches and sticks.
“If I can’t lift it, I don’t do it.”
He was keen to pass on his passion for design and carving at this weekend’s workshop.
He said it was only in the past two years he had taken up limestone carving using Oamaru stone.
Limestone, full of trillions of compressed fossils and shells, was lighter and easier to work with than wood, he said. Benfell took a workshop with fellow Ashburton limestone carver Peter Green and learned extra skills working with the new material.
He now has a variety of limestone sculptures in his garden including manaia carvings with the head of a bird, the body of man and the tail of a fish.
“It’s a Māori connection from sky, to man, to the earth,” Benfell said.
There is also a weather-beaten seafaring sailor’s head, and pikorua signifying never ending life, continuance.
Benfell said there were only about six Māori symbols he used. They were the koru, the manaia, the twist, fish tail and the hook.
Benfell sells work at the Ashburton Farmers Market.
“I enjoy the Saturday market here because I get to see people I haven’t seen for years,” he said.
