It's the first thing that hits you. The cosy, warm, reassuring earthy whiff of wood. Stacks of it. All sorts. Kauri, Tasmanian blackwood, Norfolk pine, macrocarpa.

Planks, beams, blocks, staves, the works, all the way to the roof. And that smell, in itself, is worth the $20 admission price to the Sheds & Studios Ramble across Katikati and Waihi Beach this Saturday, April 29.

In fact, a whopping 16 individuals and organisations are throwing the doors open to their studios, sheds and projects from 9am-3pm tomorrow, April 29, for visitors meander through on the self-drive ramble.

Back to Brian. It's said the smell of wood is next to Godliness, so no wonder Jesus was a carpenter...

'I have always had wood,” says Brian. 'Always been keen on wood.” ‘Keen' is a delightful understatement because Brian is a man consumed by his passion for wood and wood turning.

And his ‘shed', as he calls it, is in fact the proportions of a factory. It's 295m2 of timber, wood turning machine and tools and showroom for his creations. That's nearly twice the size of the average new house build in the Bay of Plenty. So shed?

First lathe

Brian's late wife Jan bought him his first lathe in 1980. It was a present. And since, the size of his ‘sheds' have grown commensurately with his knowledge and hunger for woodturning.

One third of this behemoth Main Rd ‘shed' is full of a lifetime's collecting of wood. Bits here, bits there – beams from roofs blown off in the wind, wooden fenceposts, a tree bowled just down the road in Katikati. The other half is like a scene from a modern day Pinocchio – Geppetto the woodcarver's workshop.

There's a very organised chaos of machines – the saws, sanders, lathes. The tools – skew chisels, chucks, spindle gauges, parting tools, hollowers.

Brian is sharing his love of woodturning at his Katikati shed in the Sheds & Studios Ramble.

Fifteen minutes up State Highway 2 at Athenree, neighbours quite often see the lights go on in Colleen Tetley's cute stand-alone studio about 4am. 'A lot of my work is done before 7am.”

Collen's studio walls are crammed with works. 'Every one tells a story. Like the life and death of a rose. You start with the buds, then the flowers, then the withered petals.”

Colleen's urge to paint began about 50 years ago. 'I did something you aren't meant to do but I didn't know any better. I painted a picture off a calendar – I think it was willow trees along a river bank. It turned out really well, but I haven't done it since.”

Back to school

Then 25 years ago the artist went back to school. 'I did Sixth Form certificate art with the kids at Raglan High School.” It goes without saying she was by far the oldest in class. 'I added to my knowledge, put it that way.”

Works by Colleen, husband Bill and June Young will feature at her Athenree studio on the ramble.

There are 16 unique collections and creative spaces dotted across Aongatete, Katikati, Athenree and Waihi Beach. Buy tickets for $20 at The Arts Junction, 36 Main Rd, Katikati; phone 07 549 1658 or visit: www.katikati.org.nz

Brian Barton, the artisan, with a lifetime's collection of wood.