Our Facilitators

As an artist, I’m a firm believer that it’s my job to create the work  – it’s the viewers job to decide if they like it or not.  

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It's been an interesting road to get to this stage and there is plenty more to happen.

 

Living in Holland over 20 years ago was where I started art classes.

 

Until recently, I was mainly self-taught, attending classes when I could.  For the past few years, I made a bigger commitment and completed more formal education. I can now also add facilitator of Art Workshops to my CV.  

 

I work between Wellington and my studio in North Otago, amongst some of the most interesting landscapes of NZ, experimenting with a wide variety of mediums and genres. 

 

The ongoing challenges and learning with art keep me motivated. There's no rules.  It's going into the unknown for me.  I love finding out what other people see and get, especially when someone finds a piece so intriguing, they will have it. 

Dana - a celebrated local photographer - comes with a patient and kind nature fitted with a confident creative mind have given her the ability to capture the essence of whatever she is documenting in an unobtrusive and nurturing manner makes any lens shy person come to life. 

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With industry knowledge and experience from a background career in sign-making & wide format print, along with photography and graphic design, no project is too big or too small.

 

Dana's flexible approach to capturing her subjects - whether a pencil drawn artwork of your pet, photographing for Air BnB or wedding, or helping to capture your business brand in images - makes for authentic, beautiful, and artful results.

Laura is passionate about movement, food, and wellbeing. With over 10 years experience in movement and pilates, she also offers Pilates (group & 1:1 sessions), Herbal Medicine consultations, custom herbal tea blends, Postpartum Care and Tea Ceremonies, and now runs a business bringing pilates to rural communities.

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Over the years, she's grown, stumbled, lost, and found herself again.

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Grounded, real, and deeply connected.

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By stepping away from social media and allowing her skills, passion, and genuine care to speak itself, she finds everything has started to align naturally.

Following a fourteen year studio career in South Canterbury, Tim let the wild and remote places of Central Otago lure him.

 

Just as he had when the Southern Alps enticed him to move to New Zealand - and spend the next eight years as a mountaineering instructor - in 1980.

For Tim, the built-in variety of working with new people, plus re-acquainting with loyal clients, and the natural environment across all of Central Otago and out into the wider South Island made photography hard to put aside. Photography has been his full-time job for the last 20 years.

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When he’s not taking photos he can usually be found riding his horses in the hills around Bannockburn.

Briar is a multidisciplinary artist working under the name Fruit Bowl Studio, crafting a vibrant smorgasbord of jewellery, art, and objects from her cottage in Queensberry.

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A born maker with an instinctive approach to materials, Briar is guided by process and play and will turn her hand to almost anything: jewellery, sculpture, painting, sewing, printmaking, and photography.

 

Across all media, her work consistently explores themes of pattern, organic forms, the human body and vivid colour. 

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Alongside her own practice, Briar has spent a number of years teaching others how to work with wax to create cast jewellery. She finds deep satisfaction in nurturing creativity in others, helping people build confidence in their ideas and bring their own imaginative visions to life.

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Based in Wānaka for over 20 years, Briar has deep family roots in Central Otago. She is a member of Artē Collective in Luggate and her jewellery is stocked in a handful of art and design stores around Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Geoff Korver is a woodcarver living in Oamaru where he works from his home studio. 

He has carved for many years, alongside his career as an engineer, and now that he is retired he is able to devote much of his time to carving and wood turning. 

Geoff has always been interested in the craft aspects of woodcarving, exploring traditional techniques with a focus on creating objects of practical use.

 

He undertakes commissioned works, 
specialising in carved sign and nameplates. 
Geoff teaches woodcarving and has been associated with the Centre for Fine Woodworking in Nelson for many years, running beginner and advanced carving classes there.

 

He is a member of 
the Canterbury Guild of Woodworkers and the Waitaki Woodturners Guild.

Sabrina began her career as an Environmental Engineer, and after moving to New Zealand in 2016, became a professional gliding instructor., where she spent several years teaching people from all over the world to fly safely in the Southern Alps.
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In 2023, she decided to change careers again—this time to align my personal healing journey with my professional path. Since then,  she has pursued a Diploma in Psychology and Counselling, a Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training, and a Trauma-Informed Yin Yoga Facilitator Training, which she now combines with thousands of hours of teaching and facilitation experience..

​With a lifelong love for the outdoors, she is rarely inside on a sunny day — whether it’s snow, water, or wilderness.

 

These days, her daughter often joins her on adventures.

Bethany McCone is a writer, filmmaker in training, and a caretaker of stories.

 

Her work has included a variety of forms in storytelling from biographical work, marketing endeavours, and poetic short films.

 

As a current student in University of Canterbury’s Digital Screen programme, she has become an advocate for new mediums of storytelling that help people engage with the world and communities around them. 

Janine fell in love with leather at a young age and while visiting a tannery on a family road trip, and has been enamoured by leather craft ever since.

 

She learnt the skills and traditions of leather working in a convent of all places, where she ran the community leather shop - making belts, sandals and many other leather goods to sell at markets. 

 

Since returning to Aotearoa she has continued the practice and loves using the raw edges and imperfections of the hides her my work.

 

The way smell, feel and the intangible quality of slowing down, working with your hands, learning a new skills and creating such a beautiful, useful and qualitative product is what motivates her to continue to refine her craft.

 

She is passionate about sharing my knowledge and skills and looks forward to sharing her love of leather work with the South Star Community. 

An Aromatherapist, dedicated holistic health 
practitioner, and teacher of Qi Gong with 30 years’ experience working with essential oils and complementary wellbeing practices, Sharyn blends ancient wisdom, intuitive insight, and practical holistic tools to support people’s physical, emotional, and energetic wellbeing.

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Her journey into natural healing began early in life, sparked by a deep fascination with anything aromatic. This childhood interest blossomed into a lifelong passion, leading Sharyn to formally train in aromatherapy 
and explore a wide range of holistic wellbeing practices from other cultures, including Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine concepts.

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Sharyn considers herself fortunate to have received teachings from some amazing teachers worldwide., and knows the best teachings of all have been her own life experiences.

 

They taught her to take care off herself, and to make wellbeing top priority.