Brief profile of Mark Biggelaar, Earthwood Ltd’s founder, wood-finishing expert, and furniture restorer
Mark Biggelaar, who has 45 years experience in furniture restoration and wood-surface finishing, is the founder of Earthwood Ltd. At fifteen he joined his father’s furniture making business, NZ Woodcreations Ltd. At that stage Woodcreations employed ten people and was beginning to grow into the 53% export manufacturer it became. As a result Mark learnt all aspects of surface-finishing and manufacturing of wooden furniture.
After setting up his own business in Silverdale to take over the surface-finishing for Woodcreations, in 1985 while on an OE, he worked for two years spray-painting cars in Australia. When he came back to New Zealand, he completed his learning of the car-painting trade. In October 1991 he set up Earthwood Ltd in Silverdale. 
Today Mark specialises in wooden furniture restoration, from daily dining tables and nightly bedroom suites to antiques (his favourite), musical instruments, and almost any other imaginable wooden project, including commercial. Many years behind a spray-gun, now in a spiffy purpose-built booth, have made him a ‘gun’ with the gun. They’ve also made him a specialist in coatings and their applications, from old-fashioned French Polishing through to modern resistant surfaces such as liquid glass. 
