Beautiful Cheese Boards | Side Street Studio Blog

Beautiful Cheese Boards | Side Street Studio Blog

Helgi Eyjolfsson was born in a small farming community in Saskatchewan and it was there that he began his love of working with wood.

BIRDS EYE MAPLE INLAID CHEESE BOARD & KNIFE

After university he worked in the Canadian Armed Forces and with Corrections Canada as Prison Warden and Director General of Security. In retirement he enjoys working with exotic woods from around the world and specializes in crafting memory boxes, candle holders, cutting boards & cheese boards incorporating exoticwood inlays.

APPLEWOOD INLAID CHEESE BOARD & KNIFE

His workshop overlooks mountains, water and vineyards in Kelowna, B.C. and is a refuge for the spiritual nurturing of his soul and the handcrafting of his creative ideas. 

CHERRY WOOD INLAID CHEESE BOARD & KNIFE

Jodi Mayne Landscape Artist | Side Street Studio Blog

Jodi Mayne Landscape Artist | Side Street Studio Blog

Jodi Mayne is a West Coast landscape painter from Vancouver Island, British Columbia Canada.

OLD GROWTH

Now based in the capital city of Victoria, she grew up in the islands nearby Cowichan Valley and studied visual arts at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design in Vancouver.

JOINED

While completing her visual art degree Jodi focused on printmaking techniques and developed the love for bold line and shape now evident in her painting and drawing.Living and growing up on the west coast surrounded by forest and sea, has filled Jodi with a deep appreciation for the rich natural systems she celebrates in her paintings.

SHAPED BY THE COAST

At one time she lived in both Australia and Europe, now drawing on elements from many environments to develop a universal feeling in her compositions. Her work reflects a love and devotion to trees and plants and the beautiful, ancient processes they encompass.

WARM SKIES

In these half imagined, half encountered painted environments, Jodi creates spaces where anyone can experience an intrinsic connection to natural systems greater than them self. Realism is intertwined with imagination evoking places of past, present, and future.

Art Card Collection

 Her use of wood and found/re-purposed materials to create stylized landscapes explores resource use and the interconnections that exist between all things.

 You can find Jodi’s superb prints and art cards at Side Street Studio, Oak Bay Village, Victoria BC.

Jodi Mayne

VICTORIA MADE SOY WAX CANDLE IN PORCELAIN HOLDERS | Side Street Studio Blog

VICTORIA MADE SOY WAX CANDLE IN PORCELAIN HOLDERS | Side Street Studio Blog

Sue McLeod was born and raised in Victoria, BC.

 

She spent most of the years of her 20s travelling and exploring the world, educating herself through time and experience. She is a full time student of life and is eager to keep learning forever. It was the result of a road trip through British Columbia where she stumbled upon Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson and she was immediately drawn into the clay program.

SOY CANDLE IN PORCELAIN HOLDER

Sue has a unique and close connection with fire, which has greatly inspired and influenced her path in ceramics. Earthen materials come into contact with her hands to be shaped into physical expressions of her life experience. They are then placed within the fire where a magical transformation occurs to produce something so amazingly beautiful. How could she resist this process?

SOY CANDLE IN PORCELAIN HOLDER

Sue has lived a life where she puts as great an emphasis on play as on work. She works very hard so that she can play very hard and she tries to incorporate playfulness into her work whenever it’s appropriate. This playfulness comes through in her ceramic forms in many different ways.

SOY CANDLE IN PORCELAIN HOLDER

She is currently working on a series of board games which translate her hard work into something that can be played and enjoyed over and over. Sue sees the teapot form not only as a vessel for pouring tea, but also as a fun character that can have a personality all of its own.

SOY WAX CANDLE IN PORCELAIN HOLDER

Inspired by the wit, wisdom and illustrations of Dr. Seuss, Sue plays around with many different shapes and colours, capturing the mood of the ever-changing, both sensible and nonsensical world she finds herself in. All of Sue’s current work is electric-fired to cone 6.

You can find Sue’s beautiful locally made candles at Side Street Studio, Oak Bay Village, Victoria, B.C.

Trees have Living Spirits | Side Street Studio Blog

Trees have Living Spirits | Side Street Studio Blog

Wayne Anaka writes;

Having restored antique furniture and chairs for many years my passion for wood has renewed interests by way of the arts. From hand carving burls to turning bowls and platters I have designed many “one of a kind” pieces, my latest being “Hollycones” and parquetry inlaid coloured platters.

HOLLY CONE

Like our native Indian people I strongly believe trees have living spirits. When working with highly figured woods, many different unexpected images appear. I try to bring out their hidden beauty. Where knots fell out, marbles are carefully chosen to replace it. I have been accepted and sold pieces in the Sidney Fine Arts Show for the last three consecutive years. The Woodturners Guild has encouraged me by the many world class turners we bring in for demonstrations.

WESTERN MAPLE INLAID PLATTER

My ambitions remain high, as are my standards for what I produce. Public response is of the utmost importance to me. My work and great love for it makes it much easier for me to produce pleasing, one of a kind works of art for all to enjoy.

You can find more of Watne’s beautiful and creative work at Side Street Studio in Oak Bay Village, Victoria, B.C.

HOLLY CONE WITH MARBLE INSET