By LUKE VOOGT
FUSION Cabinets apprentice Kate Elstone will head to Nepal for World Wood Day this month to show her skills to the world.
“I’m very excited – it will be interesting to see the culture,” she said.
“I don’t know much about Nepal so I don’t know what to expect.”
It’s the second World Wood Day for Kate, who competed in Turkey last year and won the local “Mayor’s Award”.
One her biggest challenges last year was learning to communicate with non-English speakers.
“It’s about finding ways to get your point across on what you want them to do,” she said.
The third-year apprentice will join 25 young woodworkers from 22 nations, at the Young Adults Furniture Making Invitational, which starts in Kathmandu on 21 March.
This time, rather than competing individually, she’ll lead a five-person design team of first-time participants.
They will have four days to manufacture a child’s seat and desk, which they will donate to a Nepalese school after earthquakes devastated the country last year.
The 21-year-old from Drysdale will add the trip to her long list of accolades.
In 2013 she won a WorldSkills Regional gold medal and went on to represent Geelong at the WorldSkills National competition in Perth last year.
She again won gold at the Geelong Competition this year and will compete in the WorldSkills National Competition in Melbourne this October.
She hopes to win there and become a Skillaroo, representing Australia at the 2017 WorldSkills International Competition in Abu Dhabi.
Kate said she loves the hands-on side of cabinet making and being to create furniture – from a concept to a functional product.
“It’s very good to able to make something and see what it looks like,” she said.
