November 29 - December 5, 2023
Tim Schloss – toymaker ◆ HEIRLOOM FOCUS: Craftmaker of unique wooden toys Tim Schloss shows imaginative play with a hobby horse while looking down the barrel of a Ned Kelly rifle at a recent heritage trades festival. PHOTO: Coral Cooksley
NORTH East heirloom toymaker Tim Schloss fell in love with woodworking as a 10-year-old putting his dad’s old tools to good use sanding and crafting aged wood on the farm where he grew up in Queensland. “I was making all kinds of play tools on the farm until I got to high school and as soon as I studied woodwork and metalwork I excelled,” he said.
By CORAL COOKSLEY Tim turned his creative hand into furniture making with an apprenticeship after leaving school until a request by chance to make a Lord of the Rings toy set him on the path as a toy-
maker using largely recycled timber and pallets. In the business for more than a decade, Tim has a passion for creating imaginative play for youngsters with his ecofriendly wooden toys among them hobby horses, Kelly guns, battle axes and shields that can be handed down through generations.
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