Artist Nick Deck has loved playing around with wood since he was a kid. It didn’t matter if he was carving sticks in the woods or getting underfoot in his grandfather’s workshop.  Some thirty-odd years later, and he still loves playing around with wood, only it’s in his shop now.

“I first started gathering up my own woodworking equipment back in 2012, and it didn’t take long before the hobby became an all-absorbing obsession. At the time, I was working in the oil and gas sector and spent the majority of my time on the road, living out of hotel rooms. To maximize my woodworking time, I started packing two gear bags for work. One with all my regular clothes and work gear, the other packed with hand planes, carving tools, clamps, and scraps of wood to practice with. I’m sure the hotel staff wondered about all the sawdust and wood shaving in my room, but I couldn’t go a day without tools in my hands.” – Nick Deck

In 2017, Nick took a leap of faith and quit his oilfield job to pursue woodworking full-time. Since then, he has pioneered a variety of patterns and techniques used in making elaborate end-grain designs. He started out with cutting boards that served as functional pieces of art and has recently introduced some large-scale scale not-so-functional pieces of art to his lineup of products. This year he has been exploring other uses for the intricate patterns he makes, creating everything from bookmarks to lighting fixtures and furniture pieces. Nearly everything he makes these days pulls inspiration from the landscapes in and around Calgary, cutting boards modelled after winding rivers and soaring mountains, magnetic knife holders shaped like the river rocks he used to play with as a kid along the shores of the Bow, and bookmarks inspired by the plumage of the variety of birds that call this land home.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do what I love every day. I’m just a 33-year-old kid who loves playing in his humble little wood shop.” – Nick Deck