For 50 years, Owen Mapp has spent his days quietly whittling beautiful designs into ancient bone.
His pieces reside in some of the world's most famous museums and with the Japanese royal family.
Now, the 74-year-old from Paraparaumu has been made a Companion of the Order, in this year's New Year Honours list.
Full New Year 2019 Honours list
New Zealand's 2018 Arts Honours
For Mr Mapp there's beauty in death.
He's been turning materials such as whale teeth, cow and moa bones and even mammoth ivory into art for 50 years, and now he's been recognised by the Queen.
"I was completely blown away really, it's a great surprise," Mr Mapp told Newshub.
He's had an interest in ancient things since he was 14, when he helped out Canterbury Museum with an archaeological dig.
At 18, he left the family farm in Marlborough and worked in museums across Europe and Israel for five years.
It wasn't until returning in the late 1960s that a curse became a blessing.
"I couldn't get work in a museum here and started carving out of boredom and frustration," he said.
Fast forward five decades and his creations now sit in some of the very museums he worked in.
The Japanese Royal family is also a collector of his work.
And a recent retrospective exhibition by Pataka Art Museum in Porirua shows just how far things have come.
And while Mr Mapp says his daughters and his wife, Hanne, are proud he's being honoured for his work, it's just something that their father does, collecting and repairing ancient things.
And his work won't stop any time soon either. Mr Mapp said as long as he can use his hands, he'll be carving.
Newshub.
