NICK'S STORY
"Ever since I was a kid, growing up around the old growth forests of Vancouver Island, I knew I wanted to spend my life working with wood.
When I was about 16, I started to have severe episodes of pain in my legs and back. It could last for a moment, or hours. I spent a lot of time in and out of various doctors offices, but no one had answers.
My body really started to slow me down and the pain spread. It became more and more difficult for me to keep up in my high school wood-shop class. By the time I graduated my dreams of working in a commercial wood-shop were pretty well dead.
So it was time for a new plan. I was going to start my own woodworking business.
Straight out of high school I was able to get a job working up north in Alberta's oil & gas industry. The hours were insane and the work was miserable, but it paid well. After 4 grueling years of hard work and cheap living, I'd managed to set aside enough money to buy a house in Calgary, split with my best friend. We found a place with an oversized 3 car garage and got to work setting up my workshop.
I spent another few years working in oil and gas building up my tool collection and doing as much woodworking as I could in my hours off. It got to the point that I was bringing a set of carving chisels and a block of Basswood with me on the road. That let me practice carving in my hotel room after work. Though I'm sure that housekeeping wasn't my biggest fan.
In 2016 I made my first cutting board on the request of my then girlfriend, now wife. Friends saw the board and ordered their own, then there friends did the same. Before I knew it my hobby was turning into a full time job of it's own. I spent every day off, worked late at night after work, and even put in a couple hours most mornings before going into the office. Then one day I got a call to become a full-time vendor at the Calgary's Farmer's Market. This was my chance.
As of May 4, 2018, I can happily say that little-kid me would proud, I'm now a full time woodworker."