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Oct 05, 2023

Eketāhuna artist finds enjoyment in a different medium

Share this article Callum McNiel with the fantail piece. When Callum McNiel’s wife bought him a Dremel for Christmas, he found a new way of creating works of art. A Dremel is a power tool often used

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Callum McNiel with the fantail piece.

When Callum McNiel’s wife bought him a Dremel for Christmas, he found a new way of creating works of art.

A Dremel is a power tool often used for carving or engraving, and in Callum’s case, glass etching.

It took him a little while and a few instructional videos before he could get the “gist” of using the tool, but is now using it to create glass etchings.

It’s not as easy as it looks on a video, he says, although it also depends on the thickness of the glass.

Callum, who lives just out of Eketāhuna, was working on a honey bee design for a friend who is an apiarist, but after about three hours, his work came “crashing” to a halt when a stone underneath caused the glass to break.

“It comes down to getting used to the machine,” Callum says.

“I was making mistakes, damaging stuff I’d done.”

It’s definitely not straightforward and would take quite a bit of patience, but he has so far etched pictures of a fantail, a tūī, a falcon and even an excavator, among others.

He has also been working on a larger one of a stag.

He also completed an Anzac-themed work for a man who was in the army.

“He was in tears when he got it.”

Callum has always been interested in art, but he admits he failed the subject in what was then School Certificate (which would most likely be NCEA level one now).

“I did art back in the 80s,” he says.

In his school certificate year it was all abstract.

“I’m not an abstract person. I’m a realist. Back in those days I was doing watercolour.”

He says he failed art “because I couldn’t get my head around things that weren’t normal”.

He’s experimented with other media, but etching allows him to do a lot more, including using an image downloaded from a free website which he can then use on his work.

While it is a hobby, Callum is self-employed and says he would like to spend a little more time working on his hobby as he finds it relaxing. He is looking at trying to sell some of the work through the local market.

“There’s a lot of work in it, but it’s relaxing work.”

Callum and his wife, Joy moved from Auckland to Eketāhuna 17 years ago, prompted by a rise in local crime.

“[It] was getting quite bad,” he says.

It was something of a culture shock coming from Auckland to Eketāhuna, but he loves it.

“It’s a cool little town. It’s come a long way in the last 17 years.”

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