Rossi x Bush Journal - Apr 2023

The wood carver

Olivia O’Connor transforms flora into fauna. The 35-year-old wood carver specialises in making and restoring rocking horses. “I find my inspiration in the natural landscape and the animals,” she says. She works on the outskirts of Victoria’s Leongatha, not far from the home she shares with her husband Paul and their two dogs in Mirboo North, about 150 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. She has carved out a solid place for herself in a traditional niche, with customers around the country. “I figured out recently I’ve got a horse in every state or territory of Australia,” she says proudly.

Olivia grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, surrounded by horses, steers and sheep, not to mention “we always had dogs and cats and rabbits”. Her dad was a horse trainer—perhaps this fuelled her interest in rocking horses. “My whole life I’d thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool to make a rocking horse?’” she says. “It was always in the back of my mind.”

After completing a degree in furniture design and construction at Melbourne’s RMIT, she made the big move to Sydney to study prop making and scenic art for theatre and film, at the prestigious NIDA. Olivia lapped up the learning, but struggled in the big city. “I really missed having animals in my life,” she says. “I found that quite hard—apartment living, without much connection to nature.”

She made her first rocking horse in her final year of study. “I had never done any wood carving, but had always wanted to try it,” she says. She honed her skills in the traditional craft via a very modern teaching method: watching YouTube videos. “People often ask me ‘did your Grandad teach this to you?’” she says with a laugh. “They assume it’s been passed down a family line.”

After graduating, Olivia worked a stint on theatre and film sets in Melbourne and London, but turned her back on what she realised would be a very urban career. Returning to her country roots, she started her own business and hasn’t looked back. “Not many people earn a living from making, but I’m lucky enough to do so,” she says.

She uses Australian-grown Radiata pine to make rocking horses, and carves a menagerie of other sculptural, animal-themed pieces from various hard and soft woods, such as Huon pine, walnut and oak, “depending on what timber is going to suit the project”. Her favourite is local South Gippsland hard Blackwood. “It’s counter-intuitive but generally hard woods are better for carving… because the grain is tighter and more consistent.” She loves local wood because, “it creates a really nice connection, that the piece has been made on the same land that the original tree has grown.” And the life behind the material appeals to her. “I love that a piece of wood, before you’ve even started working with it, already has a history,” she says.

Olivia is honoured to make items that people will keep forever. “People expect a rocking horse to be an heirloom—when they buy a new one they’re excited because they say ‘I’m buying this for my grandchild, but it’s going to go to their grandchildren.’” And she bears the enormous weight that comes with restoring a prized possession. “People often bring in a photo of their granny riding the horse when she was two,” she says. “I feel like people are trusting me with something that is so precious to them, and that is a massive responsibility that I do not take lightly.”

In our modern world, where most homewares are mass-produced, Olivia believes there’s a place for handmade things. “I think people treasure it more,” she says. “They can feel the difference, and can really have a connection with an object.” What she loves most about carving is when the wood starts to take on a new life. “You hit this point when it all just suddenly starts to materialise, everything you’ve been working through the layers to get to,” she says. It’s when the flora becomes the fauna—the animal emerges from the cut branch. “I love that part of the process, where it all starts to come together.”