Meet a Maker: Edition 24

Meet Steven Oxley

Learn about his wood-graining and marbling practice.

1. What is your craft and how did you get into it?

My craft is woodgraining and marbling. I first became aware of the craft whilst doing a sign writing course at Chesterfield College when I was 25 in 1982. The work was being done by decorating students as part of Level 3 NVQ. When I showed an interest in the subject I was met with: ‘No! You are doing sign writing’. I later attended a course run by Bill Holgate and badgered any local decorator who had knowledge of the craft. In 1997 I discovered that Sheffield College ran an evening course which I attended for three years – only missing two sessions despite it been a 100 mile round trip from where I lived in Brighouse.

2. What is one interesting fact about you?

I am interested in the visual environment and how we perceive it. What we think we see and what we actually see can be totally different. I have done some talks/videos which can be found on my School of Decoative Art Facebook page.

You might be interested to know that most people call me Bob, even my wife (only my mum calls me Steven). I’ve been know by this sobriquet since my teens when every second male seemed to be called Steven. My liking for Bob Dylan earned me the nickname Bob. However, I am still know professionally as Steven.

3. How long have you been making?

I have been making things most of my life. When I was eleven my brother and I made a go-cart, locally know as a ‘bogie’, from bits of wood and old pram wheels. We had to improvise when it came to tools. We didn’t have access to a drill to make a hole for the steering bolt but we did have an open fire and a poker. So we heated up the poker until it was glowing red hot and burnt a hole through the wood instead. Unimaginable in today’s health and safety ridden environment. I started to earn a living when I began sign-writing professionally. My first graining and marbling commissions were in the 1990s.

4. Who are your favourite makers?

Thomas Kershaw (1819-1898) is acknowledged as the best. His exhibition panels are in Bolton Museum. In my opinion, Tim Salandin is an outstanding current-day practitioner. The work displayed on his website is exceptional. I must also mention my old mentor Bernard Colgan who taught me so much. Like many of his generation, Bernard saw woodgraining and marbling as just another part of his job and left no legacy, other than the knowledge he passed on to me.

5. What is the most challenging skill/technique you learned in your craft?

Producing convincing ‘quartered oak’ is a technical challenge, requiring a high level of skill. I think it would be fair to say that a grainer would be judged by his peers on his ability to produce a good quartered oak panel.

6. What is your favourite part of your craft?

I think the favorite part of my craft is the reaction one gets when a person is told that the huge marble column or expanse of wood paneling before them is not real but has, in fact, been created by paint and a skilled craftsperson. I have not only experienced this with my own work, but also on various tours of stately homes. Unless the guide points out the wood-graining and marbling (which they rarely do), the public think it is the real thing. This, however, is part of the problem in promoting the craft, as it does not get the recognition it deserves.

7. What project are you most proud of and why?

I have done many projects over the years, ranging from stadium roves to interior walls in mosques, but the thing I am most proud off was establishing the School of Decorative Art which ran for five years before having to close as a result of the pandemic. I think it was the only school in the country at that time dedicated full time to teaching signwriting, and woodgraining and marbling.

8. If someone who knows nothing about you and your practice could know one thing, what would it be?

In environmental terms, it is a fantastic opportunity to counter the effects of whole sides of mountain’s being quarried away for marble, and exotic timbers cut down for expensive joinery projects. A lot of this could be faked or better put, reproduced by woodgrainers and marblers at a fraction of the cost, which was its original purpose. The whole thing could do with reinventing for a modern context and application.