Creative Collection: Timber Tales

Crafting a career in woodwork for more than 20 years, artisan Rob Loughlin has put his stamp on the industry.

- Holly Byrne

ROB LOUGHLIN’S first foray into woodwork can be traced back to high school. “I wasn’t the best of students, but woodwork was the one class I would actually buckle down in – I loved it,” he recalls. So much so that in Year 11, Rob traded in maths and English lessons for a cabinetmaking apprenticeship on the Central Coast of New South Wales so he could pursue his passion as a career. “I started working for a local business in Gosford, learning all aspects of the timber industry, right from the very basics,” he says of those early years.

Ten years later, when Rob had honed his skills and developed his own sense of design, he decided to take a leap of faith and go out on his own with the full support of his wife, Jess, who was working as a legal secretary at the time.