ABOUT US

Here's Del at the Port Moody Arts Centre demonstrating how he develops his creations.

Click here to listen to a podcast by Margarita Hobbes - A woodworker and handbag designer on 'Who are the creative people in your neighbourhood?'

Del Holbrook is a native of British Columbia, Canada having been born in New Westminster and raised in Port Hardy, a logging community on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. His interest in woodworking was sparked during his early teen years when his family built a 17 foot wooden boat. With that start and a keen interest in creativity he dabbled in woodworking until 1988 when his interest was captured by an article in WOOD Magazine about Judy Gale Roberts and Intarsia. He immediately knew that this was the medium for him to express his creativity. His passion was now on fire and his home's walls soon became covered with intarsia pieces leading him to start selling his works. The rest is history.

Intarsia (in-tär´-si-a) is an art form developed in Italy during the 15th century mostly to adorn church doors and other decorative church objects. Intarsia uses different types of woods selected for their natural grain patterns and colors to create a picture. Each piece of wood is individually cut, shaped and sanded before being fitted together and glued to a solid plywood backing. The technique uses small spaces between pieces to produce shadows which enhance the illusion of depth within the art piece. After the entire piece is fitted and glued together it is coated with a final coat of clear finish of paint or oil to help protect the wood and preserve its colors.

Del creates his pieces mainly from the many colours, grains and textures of Western Red Cedar combined with other native British Columbia woods and augmented by small pieces of exotic hardwoods. These woods are used to create his unique pieces of art that have found their way around the world. Some of his works now reside in England, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, India, Japan, Pakistan, the United States and of course Canada.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

September 2020

I truly hope you have some Comfort Birds. I would like to order 15. 10 for myself and 5 for a friend. In fact, I gave mine up this morning, so my friends daughter could have it. She has had 3 dear friends lose their spouses in the past 6 weeks. When I gave her a bird, she was waiting for a kidney transplant, she took it everywhere. She now calls me the bird lady, Del, goodness knows, what she is calling you.

February 2021

The geese arrived today fully intact, wonderful job!

We are very impressed with your work

December 2019

We know you CALL it a Christmas card and as in the past, thank you is never enough. my wife was SO excited and was hoping it was exactly what it was! That totally completes our Christmas collection. BEAUTIFUL!!!

You are too hard to compete with.