Alex MacFarlane

Alex is the Dunstone Design Workshop Manager. His exceptional organisational ability and three-dimensional thinking is behind some of our most creative workshop innovations.

Alex always knew he wanted to be a craftsman. He joined Dunstone Design as a teenager in 2006. His passion for making is infectious. He is a natural chair maker, and has brought many of my chair designs to production-ready.  Alex makes Dunstone Design’s more complicated pieces, including the wickedly challenging Cascade Rocking Chair. No design is too complicated nor jig too daunting for Alex.

Although Alex is a multi-award-winning-craftsman, he’s not particularly interested in the woodworking “scene”. Alex is in competition with himself and he strives to be the best possible maker in a very internal way. Alex is totally driven by results and has no romantic view of technique or tools. Either the work meets his standards, or it doesn’t.

Alex designed the MacFarlane Bowsander, which is named after him. He also designed the TC Scraper. Alex maintains and fine-tunes all the Dunstone Design machines. He also makes most of the jigs and templates that we use for our repeat designs. We drive him bonkers by not putting everything back exactly where he tells us to.

These days, Alex does most of the in-house training. He has mentored both Owen and Aditi through their apprenticeships and sets exacting standards.

Alex Lives in Captains Flat. He has renovated most of the house himself.