Nick Bedard

People often talk about the concept of a work-life balance; for me that is something I truly do not understand because my craft is as much my work as it is my life. Artisans will carefully choose the word they define their work as: a craft or a trade. For me, I have known for quite some time that working with my hands will be my craft and not simply my job. As a maker that means I have committed to being a lifelong student of working with my hands and doing everything possible to build the skills I use in my projects. My life as a student of the craft has been far from the traditional path – I did not apprentice or attend a trade school. Instead I became a student of failure, I forced myself to build things outside of my comfort zone and even outside of my skillset. Teaching myself different trades that way was difficult to say the least, but I found it taught me the most. When I failed my way through learning a skill, I had not just learned the skill, but I had learned the ways that did not work. Years of this later, I have compiled an eclectic mix of skills that I try to incorporate into my projects. I have been fortunate to learn a lot over the last decade and a half, but I know there is more to learn and I am just as excited now as I was the first time I picked up a hammer.