About us

Woodwings was born many many years ago, before our children were born in fact. I discovered the birds before I met my husband Dominic. I was at an Organic market and was utterly enchanted as I came around the corner and saw the mobiles for the first time. I was fascinated by the birds as I too carved and couldn’t believe the craftsmanship that was achieved with regular pine wood, a beautiful wood no doubt but one with varying densities and therefore very tricky to carve. Anyway getting back to Dominic and the birds, I saved up and bought my first bird but only met Dominic a few months later at another craft market and the rest was musical history.
I later brought colour to the birds and we ran this business together for a number of years but life changed and we had children and inevitably moved on to other creative projects and businesses.
We have had people over the years repeatedly ask if we could make the birds again, but as life got even busier it just didn’t seem possible........Fast forward twenty two years and due to Covid our existing business which has been reliant on tourism suffered a massive blow. After closing two shops it was not only possible but necessary to revisit WoodWings Creations.
So we have revisited this magical project and taken it for a bit of a walk or should I say flight. We have moved into our workshop, which was something we had wanted to do anyway as it is such a special place. However a move with our four children, four dogs and a cat seemed like a mammoth job and an impossibility before. So these are the blessings that come with the madness during these crazy times and the need to simplify and cut back.
We now live and work in a house on a hill in Kensington Johannesburg. Our special place was a monastery for 40 years  and before that a farm built by and Irish farmer over 100 years ago....
With a team of three in the workshop. Dominic the artist, and in my opinion somewhat of an engineer extraordinaire - I say this as the mechanics of creating such graceful birds out of pine is no small feat. Mike Dladla with whom we have worked for 28 years. He has been with us from the start and so he has truly experienced our journey back to Woodwings. Mike runs the painting department and helps with the hand sanding as well as jumping in wherever he is needed. As for me, I am in charge of coming up with a custom look for each specie of bird. I play around with various paints and techniques before handing over to Mike. I also run the business side of things as well as any other creative projects in the works.
I hope that you appreciate the birds as much as I did and do and that you will make one of these a part of your family and If I could be ever so presumptuous as to thank you in advance for your support!

With love 

Françoise