John J Bonhotal
I am a retired educator living in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. I have lived in this area since my college days at SUNY Delhi back in 1974. One of my passions is hiking the Catskill Mountains and I am happy to say that I have hiked them all, many of them several times.
Another one of my passions is making sawdust. For as long as I can remember I have loved working with wood and learned many skills from my grandfather when I was young. I continue that passion to this day and have come a long way since the days of being in my grandfather’s shop. After retiring in 2013, my lovely wife and I decided to turn my life-long enthusiasm for woodworking into a part-time business.
Wood and Wood Knots opened for business in June of 2014. My products range from small gift items such as pens, clocks and keychains to picture matting and framing and larger, custom made pieces such as a baby changing table I made for my niece’s first baby and an armoire built to customer specifications. While I do all of the woodworking, my wife, Lysa, manages the business. She created and maintains our website, Etsy shop and facebook page, handles all of our online sales, paperwork and photos.
Artisan’s Statement
I have developed my philosophy as a craftsman over the years and I’ve done my best to turn the utilitarian to a functional piece of art. I use reclaimed and repurposed lumber and materials as often as possible. When building large projects, I use species that are indigenous to our area and whenever possible materials that are produced locally. I use the pieces of wood that would commonly be discarded (offcuts, trimmings, pieces with voids) when working with species that are considered even minimally endangered rather than saving myself considerable time and effort by purchasing select materials and subsequently encouraging deforestation. I’ve included sustainability information about all of the species I use on the wood species page. I believe that sustainability is critical to our future, but I can’t abide with discarding even the smallest of pieces, even some of my sawdust is used in burnishing process on some projects or becomes wood filler.
I hope you enjoy my products, each one is built by hand and with care.
John J Bonhotal