I have a confession to make. OK, I have a LOT of confessions to make (as you’ll learn over time). But today’s confession? I. Love. Wood. I love trees. I love all the verdant and varying shades of green that come alive in springtime. I love raw wood, turned wood, solid wood, hand-carved wood, exotic woods and all the potential they hold for creating something new. And that is why I am in swoony-heartsick-LOVE with Herriott Grace.

Recently introduced to me by a lovely friend, this heart-warming, Canadian father-daughter duo have me utterly smitten. Their story is a cross-Canada romance of familial love and the now-nearly-vintage charm of receiving packages via Canada Post. (It’s a real thing! People still send packages in the mail. Even brown paper packages tied up with string. It really is one of my favourite things.)

Lance and Nikole Herriott live 3400 kilometers apart: his workshop is in Victoria, British Columbia, and her studio is in Toronto, Ontario. When she first made her home more than halfway across the country, they started to send packages back and forth.

In some of those packages, Lance began to include his own hand carved spoons. He had been collecting wood since the early seventies, and used his best pieces for these gifts. Nikole loved them; their balance and shape, the pieces were made with unmistakable care. She knew they were something special.

One day it dawned on her that others might appreciate her father’s talent as she did, so Nikole asked if he would ever want to share his work. Lance took a few days to think about it. And, after some convincing, he agreed to her plan, but only with people that understood and cared about the time and effort spent on each piece.

She told him, “Leave it to me, I know just the sort.”

And with that, Herriott Grace was born.

(italicized copy via the Herriott Grace website)

There are so many reasons I love this story. First and foremost, it’s about the warmth of relationship between a daughter and her father. It’s about love and belief and possibility. It’s about transcending distance to remain meaningfully connected. And this beautiful process of love and care results in – as you can see below – a stunningly beautiful product. Here are just a few of the lovely pieces now on my personal wish list:

These feather cookie cutters are positively delicious. No doubt the feel of the smooth wooden handles in one’s hand makes the process of creating these lovely cookies all the more delightful.

These gorgeous teak spoons are the sort you will pass on to your grandchildren. Perfect for a fig compote served atop freshly baked scones on a sunny afternoon. To be enjoyed with a cup of tea and conversation with a sweet friend, of course.

I don’t think I would be able to choose which cutting board would be the one for me! Perhaps just one of each, please and thanks.

I might just have to take up the art of pie making if I come to be so lucky as to have one of these lovely, hand-turned rolling pins in my kitchen one day!

This simple, raw-edged, hand-turned bowl reminds me of the one atop a stack of books in my living room. I love the collaboration between artist and nature. As Lance says: “the wood decides.”

On creating the art: “Wood should be treated with hands, not machines. Once you take the money value out of something and do it just because you want to do it as a passion, that’s when you get quality. If you’re doing it for a dollar, pretty soon your value drops and drops, and pretty soon you’re just the same as anybody else. If it’s about how many you can make for a dollar, it isn’t art. It isn’t carving. It just becomes another job.” – Lance Herriott

On receiving the packages: “That box comes and it smells like my parents’ house, and it smells like his wood shop, and it smells like home… I like the mail. I like the post. I like it when things arrive “just so” and when a package is “just so” and when things are put together in a way that is reminiscent of the past. Like a box of just beautiful things with tissue and string and a tag, and as much care went into packaging it and wrapping it and sending it in the mail as went into making it. I like the tradition in that. Things used to arrive in the mail with string around them, and if a little object that we can send can be like that in even a small way, I think that that’s a nice thing.” – Nikole Herriott

I look forward to the day my first Herriott Grace package arrives in the post. No doubt it will be a very nice thing, Nikole. Thank you for inspiring me with your relational, beautiful process and your heart-warming-ly beautiful product.

xo
s.

All photos courtesty of Herriott Grace