History

 

 

When Craig was about 10 his Dad bought a woodturning lathe and some other wood working machinery to start a hobby, but Craig soon joined in and became interested in woodworking. They learnt from a few older gentlemen who offered to teach them woodturning, then joined a woodturners club. Craig also taking woodwork as an elective subject at school.

Craig dabbled a little bit in selling some of the items he made at markets and in a florist/ gift ware shop his Aunty owned.

In 1992 a young 18 year old Craig decided to turn the woodturning hobby that he and his dad had enjoyed for about 8 years into a full time business.

That was the start of CRAIG MATHESON WOODTURNING.

He began turning items like veranda posts, stair case balustrades and finials for building companies along with smaller items like bowls, vases, clocks and pens that was stocked by a few shops.

In 1993 Craig met Rebecca and when she wasn’t working at her job she helped out with selling things at markets and delivering orders to customers and shops.

After a few years Craig became interested in making timber furniture and began making small pieces until he learnt enough skills and saved up to get more machinery to start making larger items like dining tables, beds, wall and tv units.

In about 1995 a gentleman that had moved into a house 5 doors up asked if Craig could teach him some basics of woodturning and in return offered to teach Craig how to repair and restore furniture ( as when this gentleman grew up in England before coming to Australia, he did his apprenticeship and worked in the Royals workshop repairing, restoring and maintaining their vast collection of furniture and horse carriages )

Craig learnt a lot off this gentleman and was always not far away when Craig got a piece for furniture that he needed advice on how to go about restoring it.

The business has grown over the years with new and bigger machinery being purchased and the workshop expanded two times.

With Rebecca & Craig now having three daughters and Rebecca a stay at home mum, they decided to purchase a small laser engraving machine for Rebecca to make small items to complement the business. This was the  start of CRAIG MATHESON WOODTURNING AND BEC’S LASER ENGRAVING. Bec soon out grew the small laser machine and a bigger one was purchased and just recently a third even bigger laser machine was purchased.

In 2024  after attending some business coaching workshops, it was decided that a shorter more suitable name for the business may be better. So  MADE BY MATHESON was decided upon to be the perfect joining of both our names and as everything we offer in our business is hand made by us in our workshop. 

Opening day in 1992, Craig outside the workshop.