About Us
ecoCarve was founded by Keith in his shed in 2019. It is the happy byproduct of a lifelong passion for traditional craftsmanship, and a career forged in the digital age. It brings together a long-term carpentry hobby, and a trading perspective framed by many years working in online retail.
Like many blokes, Keith loves time in his shed! And probably more than most, he loves making stuff. Particularly stuff from wood! The shed has been Keith's quiet place; his source of relaxation and enjoyment for more than 40 years. Keith's dad had him wielding hand-planes, coping saws, spokeshaves and chisels long before he made it into secondary school! Evolving from neighbourhood bird houses, window boxes and rabbit hutches, through an English yew longbow and working scale cannons (a temporary metalwork phase), it’s surprising Keith made it to teenage years! But he did, and steadily added more tools, skills and home projects, before designing and building his own bespoke workshop (OK, big shed!) in the early 2000’s. He discovered computer-controlled routing shortly after, as a solution to a stalled 20-year project involving a 1936 fallen red gum slab, and a Significant Marital Event. From here, it was a short step to building and testing his own CNC Router, and opening ecoCarve in Melbourne!
Keith personally makes most ecoCarve’s products. He does it because he loves it, and because customer messages continue to amuse him, not as a meaningful commercial enterprise. Which is just as well, given he remains an unapologetic perfectionist, sometimes at odds with generating a positive commercial return! Keith has firm views on quality; in his own words, “There are craftsmen, and then there are those that use nails”
Keith’s son Max strongly believes ecoCarve should be called Keith’s Wood. We include this apropos of nothing, other than it amuses Keith, it will please Max, and it's a good link into Creativity :-)
Keith discovered too late in life a simple truth of his personality; if he can’t be creative, he gets frustrated. And he has long-believed there should be more retail offers allowing customers to express their own creativity and inspiration - particularly in gifting. The very best gifts are not the most expensive, the most fashionable, or even the most useful. The gifts people really treasure are the most personal. A heartfelt and memorable gift says “I really thought about it. And this is right for you, and you alone”.
The world has enough bland homogeneity. High volume “sameness” is cheap and easy for manufacturers and retailers. Mass production has ruled for more than a hundred years for all but the most luxury products, given limited means to capture, translate and respond to custom-specific needs at low cost. But now the internet is here, computer design translation and manufacture can be quick, and ecoCarve exists as a small bespoke offer.
Say what you want, and say it with style!
Wood is a wonderful resource - natural, diverse, sustainable and biodegradable, with every single piece unique. It is a truly beautiful working material - essential to civilisations for millennia, and practical and fashionable for centuries. It is only in recent decades that petro-chemical plastics have become ubiquitous, yet our oceans are already awash with millions of tonnes of plastic waste. Our air quality is declining, our beautiful flora & fauna are dying, and our climate is stuffed.
The world needs LESS plastic and MORE trees - the green lungs of our earth. Sadly, commercial interests will continue to trump environmental concerns while the two are in conflict. The answer is to build mutual benefit between industry and environment, and a practical approach supports the planting of more sustainable forestry. The equation is simple: if all the wood in the world comes from sustainable sources, and we make a lot more stuff from wood, that’s a world filled with a lot more trees!
At ecoCarve, we use wood only from sustainable sources, and we strongly support the Planet Ark "Make it Wood" campaign.