The Poynton Retirement Village on Shakespeare Road provides a wonderful lifestyle for its residents. I know first hand as my mother lives there and just loves it all. The facilities, the people, the lifestyle.
A key element at The Poynton since it was established is its first floor arts and crafts gallery. This is an area where items produced by residents are displayed, with regular art and craft exhibitions having been held over the seven or eight years. Often these are dominated by the womenfolk at The Poynton.
The monthly arts and craft exhibitions are organised by resident Anne Buckley.
Most recently though, The Poynton Gallery has been taken over by the men who have created a great display of craft they have been responsible for. It’s called “men and their toys”. The display was so good that resident Jan Ellin contacted the Channel Mag team and said we must do an article on it.
One of the most impressive parts of the exhibition is the display of wooden models and items crafted by Ted Herbison. These are intricate scale models of vehicles and machinery as well as a rocking horse. Ted only moved to Auckland three years ago from Invercargill in the deep south. He was a builder for 39 years and a stationer for a decade. When he retired, building these models became a passion. Then he moved on to building rocking horses for his family. Ted’s work is truly amazing with lots of detail and skill. The timber for most of the items Ted has on display came from the beaches at Fouveaux Straight.
Graham Grant collects caps while on his travels around the world. He has 66 on display in The Poynton Gallery exhibition. He’s been doing it for 19 years and has one rule – he won’t pay any more than NZ$10 for a cap.
Model car collecting is a hobby of Barry O’Donoghue. He started back in 1983 and over 30-plus years has collected a good number of them, many are on display alongside his first radio he purchased when he left school. It’s a cool design that has stood the test of time with replicas being made very similar recently.
Warren Hutchinson’s hobby is wood-turning. His display includes a lovely range of wooden bowls, utensils and boxes he has created, mostly using a lathe over a period of three decades.
Jim McMillan’s display is the range of tools he still has from his apprenticeship he completed as a youngster in Glasgow (Scotland) 65 years ago.
A variety of crafted items made by John Murray are features of the exhibition. These items include a dolls' house he made for his grandchildren, a bookcase shaped like a boat, a shadow box and a scale model of a schooner that includes the drawing plans he drafted. John was a shipwright apprentice then a draftsman who started making stuff like this when he retired.
So the pressure is really on the women now to reclaim their space with something special for the next exhibition at The Poynton Gallery!
