ABOUT US: The Faces Behind The Scene

2WoodworkingWomen.com is about sharing what we've learnt with you. Sharing our passion for playing with wood, and teaching you how to do it safely and with a level of precision that creates projects that please the maker and the recipient!

• Karen Lacasse
  
  A passionate woodworker for over 25 years, (a woodworking teacher for 5 years and self-employed for 20 years + as owner of Lacasse Fine Wood Products Inc.). She has imported and exported lumber from around the world through a number of internet sites, dealing in both lumber for wood crafters and wood that she fabricates inhouse for railing components and stairs for the creative home renovator.
  
  She insists that it has been a company benefit to pick the brains of some of the best woodworkers around the world, and learn in every wood-business interaction. She has found that their generosity seems to be a consistent characteristic of all woodworkers in general. So this site is a tribute to those individual and literally 1,000's of conversations over the last 25 years. She sends a big thank you to all those that shared ... to the rest of you, enjoy!!
  
  
  • Karen's Woodworking Portfolio
    Check out a series of pictures of some of her work during the last number of years
    
    
• Paula Herold
  
  With an appreciation for the past, my woodworking journey began with an objective to create something functional, artistic and always challenging. I am, Paula, woodworking women number 2 and loving it. I seem to have inherited my passion for woodworking from my father, a self-taught woodworker, as well as some antique tools.
  
  A flavor for design is one natural talent I guess we could say I was born with. When designing two of our homes, the outdoor sauna or renovating the upstairs in our current home I could easily visualize the end result with nooks and details that make it unique. Now convincing a contractor to build this for me has been another story. Most contractors see nooks, details and thinking outside of the box as time consuming, expensive and therefore, non-essential. This started my hands on approach to getting my project completed. So, I started off in carpentry doing my own crown moldings, baseboards and fireplace mantle.
  
  
  Skill is something I developed over time and with mistakes, because we do learn a great deal from making mistakes and how to correct them. From a female perspective I like lots of detail but I was terrified turning on the table saw and many other tools the first time, so understanding how the machinery operates with all the safety rules is important to me.
  
  
  One of my first woodworking projects, the birdhouse. Seemed simple enough except Karen quickly notice that the pattern I was following had inaccurate measurements. There was also no mention of the wood grain; my first mistake cutting pieces against the grain. As a new woodworker the accuracy of my measurements and my wood cuts needs to improve, and it will with practice.