Father-Daughter Duo Turns Salvaged Wood Into Art

In a small basement shop, father and daughter stand back-to-back, focused on their work. Two lathes hum, chips fly off the tools’ cutting edges, and fine wood dust drifts like smoke. Protected by smocks and face masks, Lawrence and Lucy Kristan are creating new shapes out of old wood. The two have worked together for many years.

When Lawrence was 18, he joined a company that made trophies and worked his way up to become vice-president before striking out on his own. “I started LDL Wood Products and we were strictly woodworking,” he says.

The company was successful, creating items such as wooden plaques, clocks and desk accessories, among many others. It also manufactured matching bases for trophies to make room for more engraved plates. That’s where Lucy’s skill shone.

“I was one of those kids who followed my dad into the shop right from the word go,” Lucy says. “So when the business started, I was in there as often as possible, after school and weekends. I went to college for accounting, and worked the summer at the shop and never left.”

Lawrence encouraged her to focus on finishing, and she became adept. “I enjoyed it,” she says, “but the really nice part was I got to work on restoring trophies for the Hockey Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.”

A little more than two decades in, and despite the company’s success, Lawrence realized that customers were moving to offshore suppliers, so he decided to retire. That’s when he set up his basement shop – just for fun.

Because the company’s equipment had never included lathes, he had always turned to an outside supplier for this work. But he had an enduring interest in turning wood. So for his basement shop, he bought a lathe that he soon replaced with a more powerful model. He also bought a second lathe, one suited for more delicate work.

Lawrence learned basic wood turning at workshops presented by Lee Valley Tools and refined his skills at meetings of the Toronto Woodturners Guild, where Lucy joined him. “We went every month, Lucy and I,” he says, “and they’d have a demonstrator with tricks and tips that were really interesting.”

Both learned well. Over the years, Lucy and Lawrence have each won several first-place awards in the guild’s annual competitions. They now call their work Inspirations, Wood Turnings Inspired by Nature.

Their raw material is primarily wood collected from the Caledon area. “We already have two or three people who have to cut down trees after the ice storm,” says Lawrence. “We also know an arborist who has some stuff I need.” If that’s not enough, he often goes walking to pick up fallen branches that inspire him.

Lucy, on the other hand, likes seeing what she can make of the offcuts. “I keep pulling stuff out of the firewood bin,” she laughs. “My husband, Derek, is paranoid because he doesn’t know what he can burn.”

Lucy lives just three doors away from her dad’s Caledon East home and usually walks over to the downstairs shop. “I’m here pretty much every day, depending on what I’m interested in or what needs to be done,” she says. “We work three hours, maybe four when it’s Christmas decoration time.”

For Lawrence, Lucy’s companionship is important. “We don’t talk much,” he says, “but the company is nice to have.” Lucy adds, “Sometimes I’ll say I need to bring you over for a consultation, to talk about one of the projects. That’s what’s fun … figuring out how to create a design or make the most of a piece of wood.”

The pieces the two turn out are as varied as their raw material: little birds and delicate Christmas decorations; breathtaking bowls of different sizes and shapes, some painted, some plain, created from flaming box elder and other hardwoods; and dramatic deep vases with streaks of bark running through them.

Prices range from $25 for bottle stoppers to $200 to $300 for the larger pieces. They are regularly available at Dragonfly Arts on Broadway in Orangeville and at the King Street Gallery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Lucy is working on new designs for forthcoming shows. From July 1 to August 2, the Kristans’ works will be featured in an exhibit titled Wonder in the Woods in the Headwaters Arts Gallery at the Alton Mill Arts Centre.

Artist Marnie Cooke, whose interpretive, impressionistic paintings are inspired by nature, will join them for the show, as will aspiring wildlife photographer William Mitchell, Lawrence’s grandson, Lucy’s nephew and a recent graduate of the Niagara College photography program. With pride, Lucy notes that last year, William’s photo of a silver fox was featured in a special issue of Canadian Geographic magazine.