Jesse enjoyed woodworking from a young age. From helping in his grandfather’s shop as a child, to taking benchwork and joinery at BCIT in Vancouver, Jesse always felt at home in the workshop. Jesse moved to Salt Spring in 1997 where he built his first shop next to his house and began his first business, calling it Custom Woodworks.

Throughout the past 15 years he has both attended and put on workshops, sold furniture as well as custom designs, all while being an active father of three, husband, and community member on Salt Spring. He keeps himself very busy, always pushing forward thinking about the next beautiful piece he is about to make.

Jesse takes great pride in handcrafting pieces to last the generations. He loves to hear clients tell him how they are using his pieces in their living rooms, how the grain show through the light and how the color of the wood evolves with time. He builds his pieces with such care for detail, with dovetails to give strength, and with practical traits to ensure they don’t go out of style. Jesse seeks local woods as much as possible, adding contrasting wood for aesthetic accents, and uses natural finishes to accentuate the natural grains.

Jesse moved to Portland in 2012 to expand his presence in the U.S. He is using his own name for his business, as it is well established in Canada. He looks forward to the years to come building more furniture.

Wayne’s designs and methods are chosen with utmost care, consideration and intent, crafting each piece with the skill and expertise that only comes with countless, joyful hours in the studio. His work is not only visually engaging, but also immediately tactile.

From the silky smoothness of a hand rubbed finish to the textural complexity of carved surfaces, the viewer is greeted with refined, sophisticated lines that beg to be touched, turned over, opened. The underside and inside is always given the same attention, detailing and finishing as the outside.

With close to a three-decade teaching career, Halabourda has shared his creative passions with literally thousands of young people. Whether it be industrial and architectural design, woodcraft or guitar making, sparking in his students an otherwise unknown talent has been exceptionally rewarding.

Wayne Halabourda currently creates bespoke and limited-edition furniture pieces, guitars, sculpture, architectural woodworks, and other interesting objects from his studio in Victoria, BC.

After retiring Dave and Alison moved from the East to the West Coast taking to the shop full time on Pender Island BC.

Dave and Alison both have a previous woodworking background from making furniture to each building a home.

Both Dave and Alison are self-taught wood turners and turn a variety of large and small pieces varying from pepper mills and bowls to very large artistic pieces.

The local woods they turn are sourced from storm damaged trees, pruning, development and through some local arborists. Healthy trees are not harvested for any of their work.

Dave’s technical efficiency and mechanical aptitude has enabled a smooth transition to wood turning and figuring out how to innovate Alison’s ideas.

They continue to innovate with new designs and techniques creating unique one-of-a-kind art pieces.

A wood enthusiast since his early days, Patrick is inspired by Art Deco design Frank Lloyd Wright and Lawren Harris, and the incredible chatoyance (cat’s eye effect) in solid and veneer woods.

Patrick painstakingly blends and shapes veneers into intricate 3-D art pieces with an emphasis on sea life and sailing and his own interpretations of arctic paintings by the Group of Seven.

Patrick’s process of shaping and coloring fine veneers into sailboats wondrously reflects the free flowing nature of their real-world inspirations.
Patrick’s tropical fish are created using vibrant multi-color laminates – shaped into a dazzling array of tropical fish.

The base of each piece reflects the natural beauty of the water.