About
Hi there, I'm a craftsman! I like to glue pieces of wood together and turn them into something beautiful. You can call my craft works of art, but don't call me an artist, I don't want to make you think, I just want to make you say wow.
Thank you for your support,
Simon Roy
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Contact
This is a one-man shop, I do everything from sketching to shipping. The only thing I don't do is answer the phone. Email me if you have any questions about an item or regarding your order, and I will reply within 24 hours. If you contact me for anything else, keep reading, the answer to your question might be listed below.
Email: roysimon@live.ca
- I don't sell plans or templates. I never did, and probably never will. There are books and templates out there, but I encourage you to create your own designs. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it. there's value in uniqueness. Unfortunately, nothing in this world stays unique for long. If you create something unique and beautiful, people will copy it. If you are looking for an original piece of craftsmanship, whether at a craft show, on Etsy, or anywhere else, ask questions and prepare to be lied to. If you are a craftsman who doesn't mind taking credit for someone else's work, I have only one thing to say: Be honest with your customers.
- I don't take custom orders. My workshop is a sanctuary where I let my mind wander to create whatever I feel like, without boundaries and obligations.
- I only ship to USA and Canada.
- Yes you can use my vases as urns. An urn is whatever receptacle you put body ashes in, you decide.
- I'm not interested in your website management or advertising services
Tools and Materials
- Shop fox W1706 bandsaw with Viking blades from LeeValley, 1/4 - 6 tpi most of the time, 3/16 - 10 tpi for small radius, resaw blade for resawing.
- Shop fox W1701 shaper with various router bits from various brands.
- Dewalt DW735 thickness planer.
- Dewalt DWE7480 table saw with 10" - 80 teeth Ultra finish Freud blade.
- Dewalt DWS779 miter saw with 12" - 80 teeth Ultra finish Freud blade.
- Mastercraft 10" drill press with various drill bits from various brands.
- Laguna Revo 1216 lathe with 24" bed extension.
- Laguna DB 12-6 disc belt sander with 80 grit sanding belt.
- Laguna SS-14 spindle sander with 80 grit sleeves.
- Supermax 19-38 drum sander with 80 grit sanding paper.
- Rikon 8" low-speed 1hp grinder, with 180 and 600 CBN grinding wheels, and Wolverine grinding jig.
- King Industrial 1200 CFN dust collector.
- Wen model 3410 air filtration system.
- Crown turning gauges, Easywoodtools carbide tools, D-way beading tools.
- Oneway lathe accessories; chucks, jaws, spur drive, live center.
- Beall lathe-mount buffing system and bowl buff set from Leevalley.com.
- Axminster SK-100 chuck with eccentric spiraling system.
- Faceplates of various sizes from various brands.
- PSI Woodworking tailstock chuck adapter.
- EZ threading/sphere jig and basket illusion kit from Chefwarekits.com
- Razortip SK detail burning system, with 1/8 basket illusion burning pen from carvertools.com.
- Faber Castell pitt artist brush pen (India ink).
I use various glues, finishes, and sanding papers for different applications. Read the labels, respect drying time, and everything should be fine.
Wood
Wood is warm, beautiful, and versatile. And when properly regulated, it is also sustainable. In other words, wood is the ultimate crafting material. I use mostly maple I get at my local lumber yard (Armand Malo, Sainte-Mélanie) along with other North American species, such as black walnut, cherry, and oak. To enhance my work I use exotic woods from Kjp Select Hardwoods, Ontario, and Langevin Forest, Montreal Qc. My favorite exotic wood species are wenge, bloodwood, yellowheart, purpleheart, ebiara, zebrano, and mahogany.
Sustainability
As I mentioned above when properly regulated, wood is a sustainable material. When I was still active on social media, I got lots of comments from people worried (rightly so) about the current state of the natural world. And since I work with wood, they naturally associated my craft with deforestation. When I started my woodworking journey, I took pride in using only local woods and demonizing exotic woods. It was ignorant and hypocritical. Although wood trade is regulated, most countries (mine included) could improve forest management. Costa Rica is leading the way in forest management, but that doesn't mean they don't have a logging industry. So yes the provenance of certain wood species matters, but every country has the right to exploit their natural resources. As a craftsman, I can't do much more than trust my wood supplier to comply with regulations and keep my dust collector free of contaminants so I can compost wood waste.
To those who shame wood crafters online and at craft shows with sour comments, know this. The main drivers of deforestation are cattle farming and the mining industry. But people need housing and food, and construction and agriculture require lots of ore. There are too many people on this planet and most of us are responsible for deforestation, blaming a craftsman is barking up the wrong tree. Environmental concerns are commendable but often misguided. The best thing we can do for the environment is to live a simple life, travel less, shop responsibly (all those boxes going back and forth, this is madness!), and eat less meat. Don't go crazy about the meat though, evolution made you omnivorous, that's a superpower, be proud of it, be grateful for it, and be a good guest and eat what you're served! As someone already put it, it's not the cow, it's the how.
Social Media
I tried for a while, but since I'm not a social creature, this endeavor was doomed from the start. Although I've wasted a lot of time on those platforms, I did learn a few things. I've learned that anybody can use your content to sell t-shirts, 16000 plans, and whatnot. Sometimes they even downright pretend to be you. I'm not sure what they're hoping to get out of it, but I stumbled quite a few times on fake accounts pretending to be me. So don't be fooled by parasites, and if in doubt, contact me through my website.
Thanks to all my social media followers, your support was much appreciated. My IG account is still out there, but I've locked myself out of it, and gave up trying to get it back. As for my YouTube channel, I shut it down on purpose. I never really enjoyed making videos, so I never got any good at it. I had to face reality, and stop wasting so much time for nothing in return. I was also tired of all the crap they were pushing through my feed, which brings me to my next subject;
Say no to epoxy resin!
Since YouTube and this era of thumbnail craftsmanship we now live in, epoxy resin has oozed its way like cancer into every crevice of the arts and crafts world. Don't get me wrong, I know plastics are vital for countless applications, and I use plastic-based finish and epoxy glue when the situation calls for it. What I can't stand is when craftsmanship takes a backseat to ad money. I've seen some beautiful epoxy resin crafts, and if it weren't for the plastic pollution, I would try it myself. And although sometimes the quality of the work is undeniable, more often than not, it's just people pouring liquid plastic over anything, and turning it into anything, hoping to get enough views to make a quick buck. It is literally, a plastic waste industry, and has little to do with craftsmanship. Can we drag the bar any lower? Of course we can, just lie about it, like those epoxy resin companies with their eco names, green logos, and organic claims.
Since it's unlikely those 'eco-conscious' people at Youtube will ever do anything to tame that gooey monster they unleashed upon the arts and crafts world, it falls to us craftspeople to stand for sustainable craftsnanship. So, next time you think about making or buying that river table or that hybrid sphere, ask yourself these two questions;
- Do you think plastics belong to noble crafting materials such as wood, clay, glass, metals, gems, and stones?
- Do you mind all the plastic waste it produces?
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