We are Kerry Deane and Dennis Cloutier. We have been turning wood for about 10 years, and before that we did furniture and wood carving. Dennis is a full time wood turner who focuses mainly on practical kitchenware like pepper mills, bowls and rolling pins. Kerry's work is on the artistic side and she turns decorative bowls and hollow vessels.

We're represented by several galleries, and our work has appeared in an international exhibition. To find out where you can see and touch our work, see the "Finding Our Work" page. Where possible we recommend visiting a gallery. You will save on shipping costs, and more importantly, you can't really appreciate our work until you hold it in your hands.

Our Wood

We are located in Coquitlam (near Vancouver) British Columbia, Canada. We use a variety of woods, most of which are locally sourced from the urban forest. By reusing wood that would otherwise end as wood chips or firewood we are minimizing our environmental impact. We usually start with a whole log, and the wood is milled and air dried at our studio.

Our favorite wood is Bigleaf Maple, which grows along the west coast of North America from Oregon to British Columbia. Almost all maple trees have straight grain, but a few produce "figured" wood. In figured wood the wood fibers do not grow in a straight vertical direction, but instead wander back and forth as they grow. You can sometimes see this as a crinkly or pillowy pattern under the bark. When you cut through this wood you see variation in the colour and reflectivity of the wood because the direction of the fibers changes. In curly wood (aka flame, fiddleback or tiger) the pattern looks like stripes running across the grain. In quilted wood, the rarest variety, the pattern looks like pillows. Burl is a growth on at tree which looks more or less like a wart. Depending upon how it is cut it can look like a bunch of dots (eyes) or it can look curly. Bigleaf Maple is known for producing more strongly figured wood than most other maple species. As a result it is very popular with instrument makers around the world. Instrument grade Bigleaf Maple can sell for truly breathtaking prices.

Warranty

We guarantee everything we make. If you are unhappy with it we will take it back as long as it is still in good shape. We will also replace anything that cracks or splits, as long as it wasn't caused by chucking it off of the roof or putting it in the dishwasher. Our pepper mill mechanisms are guaranteed for 20 years, so we'll repair or replace any that cause problems.