A little about us

Woodland Centre

Woodland Centre is a family-run business that creates beautiful chainsaw carved timber sculptures. The finished pieces range in size and design from small, carry-away items to very large pieces weighing in excess of 1000 Kg.

The images in our portfolio below show examples of our work for private, public and corporate clients, created on-site and in our Woodland Studio in West Sussex.

Our work can be seen at Wakehurst Place; Kew Gardens; Westonbirt Arboretum; Marwell Wildlife; Egerton Park (Bexhill-on-Sea); National Trust locations at Sheffield Park, Nyman’s Park and Charlecote Park and various parks in Brighton as well as many public spaces.

You can also watch the artistry happening by going to YouTube. If you enjoy watching, please subscribe!

Timber

Our sculptures are produced either from sustainably-managed woodland under Forestry Commission schemes, or from ‘problem’ trees, some of which may be causing a danger to the public. Examples of the latter can be ‘wind-blows’, or trees that are shedding large limbs onto footpaths, houses, parks or gardens.

An example of a very large wind-blown oak can be seen above. Notice the crushed 5-bar galvanised field gate!
We love working with wood. It is a joy to discover the uniqueness of what is locked up within the tree.

HOW TO BUY: OUR PROCESS

We keep some sculptures in stock, and what we have changes from day to day, so please call before you visit us.

We will make to your brief. Tell us what, and how much you want to spend, and we’ll tell you what we can do and how long it will take.

For larger commissions, we’ll take delivery of your ideas and help you build them into a design. We’ll create a drawing for your consideration, and revise it as necessary.

WHY CHOOSE US?

Because we want to make you smile and tingle! Once you have looked through our portfolio gallery, watched some of our artistry in action and read our ‘customer comments’, hopefully you will feel you want to take the next step with us.

Whether for a one-off unique and personal present, or a large-scale public project, we would be delighted to work with you to explore possibilities. We hope you enjoy what you see. Thank you for looking and watching.

WHAT DO OUR CUSTOMERS SAY?

Donna Hall

It’s been an absolute pleasure working with you all on this project, a truly successful commission through all stages of design, creation and installation.

I was particularly impressed with the facilitation of your interactive and educational workshops, working with our schools during the design stage – as were the pupils and Teachers! The results are stunning, they are highly aesthetic sensory sculptures creating a beautiful trail, reflective of our parks flora, fauna and history.

From your portfolio we always knew we’d have something spectacular for our park, we are delighted with the results and we look forward to working with you again in the future!

– Donna Hall, Cultural Development & Events Officer, Rother District Council

Rebecca Owen

Woodland Centre Ltd was commissioned to create some timber sculptures for a new sensory garden in Egerton Park, a public park in Bexhill-on-Sea. We wanted the sculptures to have a connection with the park’s past and present natural history and heritage and crucially, to stimulate a number of senses, not just sight. An important part of the project was to engage with park users and the wider public from the outset. Woodland Centre rose to this challenge with enthusiasm and imagination delivering excellent workshops at local schools for children with special needs and an inspiring interactive talk on the project and the subject of chainsaw sculpture at Bexhill Museum.

The team at Woodland Centre were professional, creative, helpful and accommodating at every step of the way from initiation to practical completion, working with great commitment in order to deliver within the challenging timescales we set, capturing the interest of the public, adapting their design proposals in response to the ideas generated in the workshops and responding to practical issues affecting installation in the park.

The finished sculptures have been an instant hit with both the old and young, adding an extra dimension to the park and appearing almost instantly to be at home in their setting. As well as being beautiful to the eye, the sculptures stimulate the senses of smell (fragrant cedar), sound (acoustic dinosaur egg seat) and touch (variety of textures).

– Rebecca Owen, Parks Development Officer, Rother District Council

Astrid Krumins

Working with Woodland Centre is a joy. It’s rare to find such a talented team that can take our basic ideas and come back with exquisite drawings, which turn into fabulous play-space sculptures that delight our visitors, staff and volunteers again and again. They are masters of interpretation; through sculpting stories, surprising the senses and incorporating site-specific details. We adore working with Woodland Centre!

– Astrid Krumins, Wakehurst Place, RBG Kew