By STEFAN BRADLEY

 

OLIVIA O’Connor, a full-time professional woodcarver for more than a decade, creates contemporary sculptures and rocking horses using traditional techniques and hand tools.

A resident of Mirboo North, she travels to her studio in Leongatha, often working on her own for hours at a time. But she loves creating wooden works, and she’s successfully made it her career.

“It’s a very niche business and you’re often told not to go niche. But I think niche can also be fantastic, because if you’ve got that one weird skill and people want that one weird skill, they will come for you,” Ms O’Connor told the Express.

Ms O’Connor’s day-to-day life is quite varied. She described one morning she was preparing a “roughly 100-year-old” rocking horse for a paint repair. And then that afternoon she was working on sketches of a new wood engraving and preparing the timber needed.

She has spent the start of 2025 carving many rocking horses, but much of her work is contemporary art.

Places Ms O’Connor has taught at include Melbourne, Ballarat, Leongatha, Mirboo North, Kyneton, Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, and Latrobe Regional Art Gallery.

She is excited about her current exhibition at Bernineit Art Gallery on Phillip Island, which began on January 31 and runs until Sunday, March 23. One of her prints is now part of the East Gippsland Art Gallery’s permanent collection. She also had one of her prints hanging at the Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale as part of their printmaking prize and exhibition.

“And that was just really thrilling to have my work in such a beautiful space (in Sale) that I have respected and admired for so long,” she said.

“I’d love to do even more work around Gippsland. The wider Gippsland region is the inspiration for most of my artistic work, because a lot of it focuses around the local landscape and animals. So that all ties in beautifully with living in such a gorgeous area.”

How does one get into this line of work? Ms O’Connor’s favourite subject in high school was woodwork. She studied furniture design and construction at RMIT University, which she found was not for her.

“So I left and studied prop making for theatre and film at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) in Sydney. I absolutely loved that work but it wasn’t a good long-term fit for me,” she said.

“In my final year at uni, I made a rocking horse for my masterwork and really loved that. I really wanted to leave living in the city, so I moved to South Gippsland with the intention of setting up my own business, making and restoring rocking horses, and here we are.”

Her workshops range from one-to-five days long. Her most popular workshop is a three-dimensional animal carving where she teaches a complete beginner over the course of a day.

“At the end of the session, they leave with a three-dimensional animal they have carved, which is really sweet. It’s all hand tools and using gouges and mallets,” she said.

“I only run workshops a handful of times across the year, and I do really, really enjoy running them because normally I work by myself, so it’s nice meeting people. And one of my big loves in life is woodcarving, so it’s really special to share that with people.

“And students of mine who have come along to a beginners class are still carving years later, which is very cool.”

Head to Ms O’Connor’s website to learn more at: oliviaoconnor.com.au/