About
Willow Furniture Quality:
How It is Made
Our furniture is built with various species of wild willow, harvested locally in Alberta, Canada. Occasionally, alder is also incorporated into a piece. We purposely use heavier than average materials in order to produce a stronger build that will not blow over in the wind or crack from excess weight. We use screws instead of nails for structural pieces and brad nails and panel nails on benders. Every piece of willow is selected for quality and is gone over with a knife before installation, to remove bumps and and possible "catches" on the bark to ensure a smooth finished surface on the piece. We sand if necessary. When a piece built, it is sprayed, then kiln dried, and treated with a linseed oil/turpentine mix. Finally, each piece is gone over carefully for quality, to ensure that fasteners are all tapped in and hidden, and that nothing on the piece will catch on clothing.
Superior service, personalized attention
I start with the simple idea of bringing the best from me to you. I put lots of love and careful thought into all I do. I hope you enjoy all I have to offer, and share your experience with others.
Beauty for Ashes
About the Artisan: My Story
Out of the ashes of a forest fire and the devastation of clear-cut woods, one of the first trees up are willows. Many landowners consider them a nuisance, but Laurie Mohan sees the raw beauty of them, and what can be created from them...endless possibilities for one with imagination. She has sometimes been called the "willow lady."
Laurie grew up in small town Saskatchewan, Canada, Dalmeny to be exact. There, in a family of five girls, she became a do-it-yourselfer, sewing her own clothes, developing creative skills, helping and observing her parents as they built their own house. Creativity and hard work were always encouraged. Through her Bible college years, during which she earned a BSc in Bible and an MDiv in Missions in the USA, she worked several years as a seamstress in a retail setting, doing alterations. She taught for 5 years at International Bible College in Saskatchewan and became Academic Dean. A year after she and her husband married, they moved to an acreage near Little Smoky, in northern Alberta, Canada, where she did some substitute teaching and worked retail before earning a BEd. Her husband introduced her to rustic bent willow furniture when he bought a love seat for their first home.
Out of the ashes of their house fire, and with no insurance, her interest in building rustic willow furniture was born. With her first son's birthday on her graduation day, she pursued substitute teaching and built her first bent willow chair with the help of a library book. Family and friends helped them rebuild from the ashes, and Laurie filled their cabin style home with her unique creations, gathering every rustic furniture book she could find. She has been working with willow since 1997, selling her pieces for many years to friends, at local markets, and in local businesses. As one customer said, "Your willow is evidently your happy place!"
With her family grown now, Laurie drives school bus, and most days you will find her in between runs in her workshop creating, dreaming up some new piece, or learning a new technique; or outside in her garden or in the forest gathering materials; or conversing with customers and friends.
Isaiah 61:3 - He gave me "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that we might be trees of rightousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified."