Edition 5504, March 15, 2012 - Department of Defence

PERSONNEL March 15, 2012
Scraps to
sculptor
Hobby becomes work of art
Cpl Nick Wiseman
WORKSHOP scraps may not ordinarily make the best
farewell gifts for people but one young sailor from
HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin is making gifts that do
just that.
A marine technician of eight years, LS Chris Bailey
found he wanted to keep busy during lunch times and
breaks and started tinkering around the workshop with
left over scraps.
“I don’t like having breaks, I get bored to easy,” LS
Bailey said.
“After I finished my lunch one day I picked some
scraps up and started playing.”
Made from scraps such as offcuts, broken bolts and
washers his works of art are so carefully crafted that his
skills have been called upon to create memorable gifts
for leaving COs.
LS Bailey said he had been asked to make a coffee
table as a presentation and farewell gift for the former
HMAS Coonawarra CO.
“I initially made one for a mate who was leaving and
it just went from there,” LS Bailey said.
“It’s great to get recognition for my work.”
His works have even started catching the eye of
the community with people offering him money for
his work which has made him think about turning this
hobby into a business later on.
After a year of creating these works he has now put
together a portfolio featuring photos of little insects,
furniture, animals, birds and even a large wedge-tailed
eagle.
Unable to focus in one area in particular, LS Bailey
enjoys learning new skills to expand his repertoire furthering
the type of creations he builds.
Once he decides on a particular idea he researches a
little to ensure he can create the idea in his head, often
with only a single photograph to go from.
The time spent on these projects varies from only
a couple of hours through to more than a day worth of
accumulated hours.
A by-product of doing these projects is that he keeps
his skills up and often encourages the more junior sailors
to try similar projects to expand on their own skillsets.
Always keen to expand his ideas and talk about his creations,
LS Bailey is keen to hear from other like-minded sailors and can
be contacted on chris.bailey@defence.gov.au.
Safe hands
RARELY BORED:
LSMT Chris Bailey
(pictured right and
bottom) with some of
the works of art made
from scraps at HMAS
Coonawarra in Darwin.
Photos: Cpl Nick Wiseman
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