Mark Lander goes to bed thinking about ‘‘nuts and bolts’’and how an empty fruit can could be used to soften flax.
His little workshop in Amberley is evidence of his creativity which has seen his paper making pursuits, using the humble harakeke/flax, taken to the world thanks to his Kiwi ingenuity.
Recently he was surprised with a visit from His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, of Samoa, who served two terms as Prime Minister and was head of State from 2007 to 2017.
He was in Christchurch and headed to Amberley, with master craftsman, Steven Percival, to Mark’s little workshop ‘‘in a humble garage’’, from which a paper machine had been crafted and sent to a non›profit organisation where young Samoan people can learn crafts.
They have now added paper making to their regime, using vibrous plant material which Samoa is rich in.
The enquiry had come three years earlier, but became a reality when the money arrived in Mark’s bank account. It took a year to make the machine, but it is now in industrious young hands.
Flax, harvested throughout Canterbury, became Mark’s friend as he learnt the art of paper making using his Little Critter Hollander Bater paper making machine he invented.
Heavy metals were out, and light metals were in, as Mark shared his Little Critter machine with the world › 650 of them to date › after he managed to make it small enough to send around the world, practically and economically.
Using recycled aluminium, old bits and pieces, including bits of an old sewer pipe, he tinkered and crafted components for his little machine.
‘‘I reduced a 3 tonne machine down to 25kgs, which can pack into a carton,’’ he says.
His latest machine was sent to Tanzania, and it is all on YouTube thanks to DHL who help the Little Critters wing their way to their destination which includes universities, schools, charity organisations, and book binders. Art is Mark’s main love, but making machines kept the wolf from the door. ‘‘There is a small wage component. I haven’t sat down for years. ‘‘It is amazing what you can achieve with nothing,’’ he says. His Amberley studio is carpeted, with an 1890 grand piano standing to one side, a cello in front, and the walls behind graced with his works, using his own handmade paper. ‘‘I started to learn to play the grand piano three years ago and just loved it. ‘‘ It is the only creative thing I do that doesn’t make a mess,’’ he says.
He has since added learning the ukelele and the cello to his musical pursuits.
He bought the cello to add its distinctive sound as background to a YouTube video on his latest invention the Swamp Critter. It is soon to get packed up into his bus to head north to Rotorua.
After making and sending paper machines around the world, Mark’s work is now in demand on the domestic scene.
The Swamp Critter softens flax, via a roller crafted from an empty can of fruit. It saves hours of softening flax by hand for weavers. But the Critter also strips flax, to make rope, a necessary ingredient for a Rotorua funeral home who is offering burials using paper produced by Mark to wrap bodies in, and which is tied with flax rope. Mark has swung in behind the venture with the Swamp Critter and his paper making prowess.
He says he tried retiring, but it came to nought. But he has now taken on a couple of apprentices.
Now all he needs is to lie in bed and not come up with any more inventions.
