Tim Stead: Magician With Wood

“I started time-sensitive filming, confident in the belief that the film would get commissioned. Wrong! During that time, the market for single documentaries had really changed. Three years down the line, I had some of the best material I’ve ever filmed but no screen industry investment. So I launched a Crowdfunder to raise completion finance. Over 200 people contributed and their generosity enabled me to complete the film and market it, including many people from Argyll and Lochaber.  It really demonstrated the power of a community of interest to make things happen.”

This screening at the Highland Cinema is an opportunity to see the film on the big screen whilst it is being independently distributed across the UK to enthusiastic audiences. 

“It’s not just the inside of a house,” says Rory MacLeod, former Chair of Borders Forest Trust. “It’s somebody’s life, somebody’s beliefs, somebody’s passion.
Somebody’s thoughts. Each bit of wood has a reason for being there. There’s
massive stories in here.”

“To allow the wood to be itself, and enjoy its own qualities, you always come up with something which is exciting,” says Tim in restored archive material.

“Tim was amazing at doing that,” says Eoin Cox, of Big Tree Society. “And taught me a lot that way as well. To look at something just slightly differently and to make honey out of hen shite, basically. He used to always say that it was easier to go out and buy a tonne of heroin in Galashiels than buy a tonne of Scottish hardwood. It
was just so difficult to get.”

“And how do you create something that has got so much love in it?” says Julian Spalding, former Director of Glasgow Museums and Galleries who commissioned Tim to create the Peephole at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. “It’s about purity of form, but form of growing, form of nature, form of loving, physicality.”

“You know the Danish expression ‘hygge’?” says forester Donald McPhillimy, current Chair of the Tim Stead Trust. “It’s got heaps of hygge and I think that kind of makes people feel comfortable but challenged at the same time. So I think it’s a great place to come up with original thinking. And thereby make the world a better place.”

“I’ve just seen the chair I want to sit in for the rest of my life” said John Fletcher, deer farmer and author, when he bought the first chair Tim ever sold.

“The only explanation is they used to be two wild bears in the same forest in their previous lives,” says Tatyana Jakovskaya about the friendship between Tim and Eduard Bersudsky.

“It was in his guts,” says Julian Spalding. “A really engaged full three-dimensional, heart-mind involvement with wood and creating something that is about life and about feeling and all sorts of things, about death.” 

“In our current global situation I can’t think of a more important area to focus on: the relationship between humanity and that which surrounds us,” says Giles Sutherland, “Because we are nature. And nature is us.” 

Contributors Include:

Maggy Stead – Tim’s feisty widow who battled hard to find a way to protect the legacy of Tim’s work. She has retired to the French Pyrenees to be near her sister.

Sam Stead – Tim and Maggy’s son who grew up in The Steading and is now a Trustee of the Tim Stead Trust. Sam is an artist in his own right. 

timsteadtrust.org/

Eoin Cox - close friend and collaborator with Tim Stead in creating Wooplaw Community Woodland and Wood School. Eoin continued to work with their ideas and set-up and successfully runs Big Tree Society and Buy Design Gallery from Tim’s original workshop at Harestanes. 

www.thebigtreesociety.co.uk/
www.buydesigngallery.com/

Nichola Fletcher - former Chair of the Tim Stead Trust and close friend of Maggy and Tim. Nichola led the Trust to ultimately raise enough money to buy The Steading from Maggy.

Iain MacKenzie – former photographic technician at Glasgow School of Art, where he met Tim, who founded Café Gandolfi and commissioned Tim to create all the furniture.

Giles Sutherland – art critic and academic. Giles wrote and edited two books about Tim Stead’s work.

Julian Spalding – author and former Head of Glasgow Museums & Galleries. Julian commissioned several of Tim’s public works, including Skara Brae and the Peep Hole at the Gallery of Modern Art.

Donald McPhillimy - forester and current Chair of Tim Stead Trust, Donald was involved with Tim and Eoin in the formation of Wooplaw Community Woodlands.

Tatyana Jakovskaya – Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, Glasgow. Tim and Maggy helped Tatyana and Eduard Bersudksy move from St Petersburg to Scotland. Tim and Eduard collaborated on the Millennium Clock at the National Museum of Scotland.

sharmanka.com/

David Lightly – David was an apprentice of Tim’s and continues to make furniture inspired by Tim’s designs in the workshop at The Steading under the brand of the Wood Neuk. thewoodneuk.com/