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On a typical working day, you’ll find Alicia in a classroom, busily supporting and guiding young minds with complex needs. But once the bell rings, it’s sawdust and the satisfying buzz of a hand-me-down bandsaw that brings her the peace she needs to process stress and find equilibrium.
You could say woodworking’s in her blood – she credits her metalworker and draughtsman dad with teaching her all the skills she wanted to learn from an early age, and her 70s-era bandsaw was gifted by her carpenter grandfather. “I was lucky to grow up with a handy dad, who was happy to teach me any skills that I wanted to have a go at – and quite happy to buy me whatever tool I needed to get things going! He’s a massive support, I obviously get on well with him and he’s one of my best mates.”
She also found an encouraging teacher in her high school’s Design and Technology department and stuck with woodwork throughout school as an “enjoyable subject that particularly helped me through the stress of ATAR.”
Alicia took a couple of years off woodworking after finishing school, but two pivotal reasons soon saw her return to it. The first? “Once I started my teaching career, I soon realised that I needed something beyond teaching, or I’d just focus on it 24/7… so, woodworking became my outlet. There were a few practical things I couldn’t afford to buy and wanted to make, so I just started doing those projects, starting with portable outdoor furniture sets and some other things – like a bed base for the back of my car!”
The second reason is an altogether more romantic one, even if born in practicality: as she got more comfortable with her tools and better at woodworking, and with her wedding day drawing nearer, Alicia realised that she could probably make a lot of the things a first home needed, but a tight budget wouldn’t allow for. Starting – of course – with building the wedding deck she’d say her vows on. “It was so exciting! We got married at my parent’s property, and I had to organise all the wedding-day furniture – but obviously building all the furniture for a wedding isn’t something that’s doable, unless you have a team of people, so I decided to pick one or two things and have a go. The deck seemed perfect – it was the spot where we got to say our vows, and later in the night people were giving their speeches and talking about us getting married on the deck that I built … It was just cool!”
Once Alicia and her wife, Kirsty, moved into their new home, things kicked up a notch. “My wife had a list of things that she wanted, but this being our first home, we couldn’t really afford a lot of it. I managed to sort of just work my way through the list and create as much as I could as well as I could to suit our space. And that’s how things really took off! At this point, we’re not quite in that intense budgeting phase we were in when we first got married, so I probably don’t need to be making things as much anymore, but it just brings me so much joy, being in the shed and winding down after the weeks I have.”
Solving problems – for herself and others – is most often at the heart of the projects Alicia takes on, whether that’s building a Hamptons-inspired dog ramp to assist her much-loved golden retriever, Charlie, with her hip dysplasia, or crafting a beautiful wooden puzzle-style whale shark to surprise Kirsty with a piece of wall art depicting her favourite animal. “I’m quite happy when people keep chucking woodworking projects my way! I usually choose my projects based on if someone around me needs something – and I’m particularly happy to create anything my wife would like. But I’m not very good at following orders – Kirsty knows that while she may give me the basic idea, it’s still going to come out how I build it…”
While some projects, like the dog ramp and Hamptons-inspired feeding station, require a bit of planning, and Alicia says she does do “some sketches occasionally”, everything else is mostly realised through “days of imagining – it really all comes out of my head. The whale shark wall art started as a drawing of a cartoon whale shark, and then just sort of morphed into something that was a lot more beautiful than I thought it was going to be. I’ve now created a similar piece of a sea turtle for myself, that will be the next project I’m posting on Workshop – it’s got about 30 to 36 pieces, quite a bit more than the whale shark.”
Alicia also draws inspiration from holiday visits to wood galleries in the southwest of Western Australia – “every time I go down there, I see a couple of things I just keep in my mind!” – and her and Kirsty’s deep love of the ocean feeds her creativity and approach to many projects. “We love the ocean, it’s everything. Our house is very coastal themed, and we’ve been up to Ningaloo multiple times to swim with the whale sharks. Anything ocean-related makes your heart happy.”
As for the decision to join the Bunnings Workshop community, Alicia sees it as a way of giving back after all the inspiration she’s drawn from other members’ advice and tips, especially regarding garden projects. “I was getting so much out of other people’s instructions and ‘how tos’ that I thought I could probably add my own woodworking projects, as a way of giving back. I’m always looking through Workshop and woodworking videos on Instagram to see if anything pops out, even just techniques, to learn as much as possible!”
When it comes to lessons learned, Alicia’s earned her stripes – particularly with the table saw: “it’s very useful, but the kickback on it is wicked, and I’ve probably had a few of my closest calls with it. It’s a dangerous tool! When I first started doing woodwork, I’d wear my joggers and some sport shorts … I quickly levelled up to safety boots and glasses and stuff, especially after dropping an electric planer on my foot and badly bruising my big toe. I think the biggest thing I always need to look out for is that I’m a bit of a clumsy person, so my hands probably cop it the most, I’ve had a few nice chunks taken out of my hands and picked up burns from the sanders. But honestly, I’m just so much more careful the next time I use that tool – it’s all part of the process!”
Her favourite tool is her grandfather’s old band saw, and a belt sander and planer from the same period: “it was so satisfying cutting out the small shapes of the whale shark with the band saw, and being able to make the turns easily … These old tools haven’t got all the flashiness of the new tools, but they do the job, which is amazing! There’s so much history in pieces like this, I think people often take old tools for granted, but they’re still extremely useful and they never break, it’s fascinating.”
Woodworking’s become more than just a practical outlet for Alicia – she finds kernels of ‘life truth’ in it, too. “I spend a lot of time in my head, and I used to look down on this habit of mine quite a bit. But I now realise that that’s just how I process things. I’ve learned that whenever you’re in any sort of sticky situation – in woodworking and life! – just step back and have a look at what your options are before you act. This seems to have served me quite well in both my career and woodworking. It allows me to be a very patient person and makes sure that I’m always making decisions that are perfect either for the students I work with or the projects I’m building.”
Alicia’s never experienced negative pushback to her choice of hobby, only surprise at what she can create. “I’ve had a lot of comments from people that didn’t expect things I made to come from someone like me – and obviously it’s completely unrelated to my day job, so it does come as a surprise to people I work with, when they find out! But everyone’s been very supportive, which has been amazing. I’m just creating things for the people I love, which is the whole point.”
Would she ever consider turning her woodworking into a business? Perhaps … if the stars align. “I’m always open to opportunities, and if it steps into that space, I’ll lean in – as long as I can still create things I want to create and get the love out of it. But I think woodworking and teaching are both huge passions of mine, and the beauty of them is that I get to share them. So, for now, it’s all about the love and the switch-off. I think there always need to be areas of your life that you do just because you love it. I’ve always been someone that’s quite happy to wait for all the good things to come. I’m not in a huge hurry. I love my life, I love everything I do, so I think I’m just happy most of the time!”
“A new jigsaw, because my old hand-me-down jigsaw never seemed to have the right angle. But my first proper tool was one my dad bought me: a new drop saw to replace the rickety old one I’d been using (and my mum had been using to cut firewood with, it was in bad nick!). That drop saw’s been a godsend, it’s the best.”
Favourite wood to work with?“Pine, because being a soft wood it’s much easier to work with. But if you’re looking to finish something or elevate the look of it, you can’t go past jarrah – it finishes beautifully but is also difficult to work with. Every cut takes twice the amount of energy and it’s very difficult to drill into, which for a small girl like me can be quite difficult.”
Best woodworking tip you ever got?“Put effort into sanding and prepping the surface before you seal it! I always thought you could give something a light sand and be done with it, but as I’ve progressed, I’ve learned that putting in the effort to sand – and it does take hours! – makes a huge difference to the finish. The best projects I’ve finished are ones where I’ve spent a lot of time on the sanding just to get it to where I wanted it to be. Much like life: you’ve got to put the effort in if you want the reward, right?”
To see more of Alicia’s projects, visit the Bunnings Workshop community. You’ll find projects including a beautiful whale shark wall art, a Hamptons-style dog feeding station as well as her fantastic Hamptons-inspired dog ramp.
Asbestos, lead-based paints and copper chromium arsenic (CCA) treated timber are health hazards you need to look out for when renovating older homes. These substances can easily be disturbed when renovating and exposure to them can cause a range of life-threatening diseases and conditions including cancer. For information on the dangers of asbestos, lead-based paint and CCA treated timber and tips for dealing with these materials contact your local council's Environmental Health Officer or visit our Health & Safety page.
When following our advice in our D.I.Y. videos, make sure you use all equipment, including PPE, safely by following the manufacturer’s instructions. Check that the equipment is suitable for the task and that PPE fits properly. If you are unsure, hire an expert to do the job or talk to a Bunnings Team Member.
