iN PHOTOS: Shuswap woodworker turns hardwood into functional works of art

Almost everyday, and late into the evening, Jennifer Purper is in her humble woodworking shop in the Shuswap creating art out of rough pieces of wood.

“I love it, it’s my favourite thing to hang out in my little shop and make stuff, especially when I’m excited about a project,” she said.

Using numerous pieces of machinery, the Squilax resident creates game boards, cutting boards and charcuterie boards out of rough pieces of hardwood she purchases in the Lower Mainland.

“I call it functional art,” she said. “The finished pieces look smooth and beautiful while serving a purpose.”

Purper’s journey to mastering the craft has been long and filled with trials and errors.

She started just over a decade ago when she and her husband helped build and renovate a few houses and she got familiar with power tools, but it was a planter box she saw for sale at Costco that sparked her woodworking adventure.

“This planter box was expensive and I thought I could probably make one myself, so I looked online how to make one and all these woodworking plans came up,” she said. “I saw all the things I could build and went down a rabbit hole.”

Purper started out making planting boxes, beds and side tables using softwood purchased from local depots, but found the wood was too wet, and terrible for making things out of.

A few years ago, she made a cutting board out of hardwood.

“It was way better wood and it doesn’t need to be stained. The wood is already beautiful, you put oil on it to bring out the colours. I started making more patterns and kept going from there.”

It takes a lot of steps and numerous pieces of machinery to transform rough cut pieces of wood into smooth, flat products. Purper uses domestic hardwoods like walnut, cherry and maple as well exotic hardwoods from Europe, Africa and South America.

“Every single wood has a different hardness and smell and they all look different, it amazes me the colours you get,” she said. “Wood is the best surface for cutting, preparing and displaying food on. It has natural antibacterial properties and has been used for centuries for cutting on. It’s better for your knives than cutting on plastics.”

She cuts them into the lengths she wants and using a jointer and planer, flattens the surfaces and levels out the thickness of the wood. She uses a drum sander to smooth the surfaces, a router to smooth the edges and finally hand sanders and oil to finish.

Using a computerized machine, Purper carves out maps of the Shuswap lakes on some of the pieces and fills it with blue epoxy. She uses a laser to engrave place names onto the maps or rules onto the game boards.

Ten Thousand and Frustration Rummy are the most popular games purchased.

“A lot of people in the Shuswap know versions of all these games,” Purper said. “Everyone has their own rules but when the rules are written on the board, no one can argue.  

“The people in the Shuswap are good to me, they want to buy more locally. This is also a vacation place for families so I get a lot of sales at markets in the summer.”

Purper gets a lot of help and support from her husband Ken Mann who goes to every market to load and unload the truck, and to help her choose pieces of rough wood and haul it back to her shop.

“He doesn’t do any of the woodwork but is a huge help in making the whole process easier,” she said.

She still has the original planter box from Costco on her property, a reminder of where her woodworking journey began.

Go here to view or order pieces from Jen’s Woodwork Creations.