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Masters of the Craft

Steven Kennard: Turning Blackwood Boxes

Jon Binzen, senior editor

44 users recommend

Kennard's boxes were featured on the back cover of Fine Woodworking #220. This example shows the complexity of his engravings, which are achieved with a rotary tool fitted with jeweler's burrs. All the work is done freehand and without laying out the design.

Photo: Steven Kennard

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Steven Kennard is not an easy man to pigeonhole. Born and raised in England, where for many years he built furniture and restored antiques, he also lived for nearly a decade in France, where he turned wood and took photographs. Now he and his Canadian-born wife, Ellie, live in Nova Scotia and work in a renovated barn on their property. 

Kennard's earliest woodworking included building sets for theatrical productions. Along the way he also built kitchens, French-polished pianos, and ran a successful business building portable tables for physical therapy and massage. In the late 1970s he bought a lathe so he could replace broken parts on antiques; within a few weeks he had turned his first box, and since then, he says, amidst the wide array of work he's done, one constant has been his passion for turning boxes.

These days, in addition to photography--a blend of fine art photos and shots of work by other artists and craftsmen--Kennard devotes much of his time to box turning. In this slide show, he talks about turning and presents several dozen of his remarkable boxes.

Kennard's work was featured on the back cover of Fine Woodworking #220.

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Comments (1)

Ihsat writes: Very beautiful, I should be so lucky to be able to do this.
Has anyone anything with Bacsia Nut from Australia? It is practically impossible to cut, and seems to ruin the bandsaw blade.
Posted: 7:17 am on June 4th

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