Working with reclaimed and salvaged wood has  been something I have been passionate about most of my adult life, I always liked finding and re using old boards and beams sawn from old growths Yellow Cedar, Douglas Fir, Red Cedar and Western Hemlock, that had been discarded and then incorporating them into functional pieces around our home.

After many years of walking our dog on the beaches of Discovery Passage near our home in Campbell River, in 2010 I finally decided that I needed to start working with some of the drift wood we were walking past each day. So my first alder serving tray was soon made and then cutting boards, bowls and furniture were soon to follow.

I get the inspiration for my work from the natural beauty of the world where we live, I love to bring out the natural beauty of the wood, working with the  wood, keeping its natural shape and keeping it simple. To me each piece represents where it came from, the West Coast.

Each piece of wood I work with that I find washed up on the beaches of Discovery Passage has been on an incredible journey from its origins which may be from far up a mainland river or a distant shoreline to end up at it final resting place on the beaches of Discovery Passage. The specie’s of wood I work with are mainly local B.C woods, Alder, Arbutus, Maple, Pacific Yew, Douglas Fir, Red Cedar, and Yellow Cedar. 

I often get asked which wood is my favorite wood to work with,  it is hard to choose one as I do like working with all the species listed above, but if I had to pick one wood to be my favorite it would have to Arbutus as each tree is so unique,  it is a very hard wood and  is easy to  work with it planes, drills and cuts well and has such a unique color and grain.   

All of the bowls, serving trays and boards I make are food safe and have been treated with a food safe mineral oil which is available at all drugstores, the furniture is finished with a Satin Clear Low VOC Water Based Varethane. All of the wood waste (sawdust and wood chips) produces from my work is recycled by dropping it off at our local yard waste center where it is mulched and turned into soil