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When an Algies Bay woodworker turned his hand to making urns in early 2020 he soon had plenty of time to hone his craft during the covid lockdowns – now customers both here and abroad seek out his work.
Welcome to Phil van der Mespel’s world of ‘Urncraft’, a business that offers handmade, bespoke remembrance urns.
Van der Mespel has a wood lathe set up in his garage with an inspiring view across Kawau Bay and says every urn he makes is “an individual artistic piece – there’s no two alike”.
“Wood is never the same. The variety of colour, grain, texture, and density all multiply the creative options. New Zealand native timbers are a particular favourite with customers – especially pohutukawa, kauri, rimu and totara.”
He often uses timber salvaged from around the area that would have otherwise ended up as firewood or left in a field to decay, and recently removed a pile of pohutukawa from a farmer’s property.
“It’s an incredibly creative process. I vary the shapes and colours of the urns, and the finish. I might use a blend of imported wood dyes, environmentally friendly oils or paint. Any blemishes are filled with resin and blended in. Then I’ll spray a light lacquer coat over it.
“A lot of them are inlaid with paua shell either in discs or have paua bands around them. Or I might carve a Pasifika or Maori motif into the urn.”
Van der Mespel adds that it’s also very technical work.
“I’ll get a branch of timber, turn it into the basic shape, core it out, and leave it thick. The ability to hollow out an urn through a small hole without seeing where your tool is inside, and without coming through the side of it isn’t easy.”
Part of what makes his urns so unique is the screw-top lid.
“Every urn has a fine-threaded wooded lid so it can be screwed down like a bottle top, which is very unusual – no one else in New Zealand is doing this. In fact, as far as I know, I’m the only guy that’s making them commercially,” he says.
Van der Mespel says he has a huge range of urn sizes, from half-a-cup all the way up to six litres, and has sold hundreds of his urns around the globe, from the UK and the Netherlands to Australia and the United States.
“What’s on the market in NZ at the moment are factory-produced wooden square boxes. If you go for a round urn, you get the imported aluminium, brass or ceramic that’s been bulk-manufactured overseas.
“Even worse is that some people are still reluctant to spend a few hundred dollars on an urn, which is far more dignified than Dad or Grandad in a plastic box at the bottom of the wardrobe.”
He says if someone is looking for a final resting place for their loved one’s ashes, they can pick an urn from the Urncraft website and can have it personalised further.
“Then we’ll set you up with a local funeral director, who will put the cremated remains inside.”
In general, Van der Mespel says he has always aimed for excellence in his woodwork.
“I have a Dutch background and was trained by Dutch and Swedish artisans, who were true craftsmen.
So I learned an attitude and a skillset from them and I’ve developed that all of my life.”
For more info visit: urncraft.com
