David and Nicola Finch
About us, our lives and our work
Nicola has a background in theatre as a visual & performing artist. She has worked in health care and non-profit management. As a freelance website designer she worked with elementary schools, small businesses and artisans. An avid genealogist, Nicola's ongoing labour of love is researching and writing the story of her Great Uncle Charley Bailey from his WW1 letters and diaries. Nicola manages our online gallery, storefront and email communications for Touch Wood Rings & Meadowranch. She is who you will talk with when you write to us.
Craftsman, artisan and 'Renaissance man' David Finch, works in a variety of mediums. He is an experienced designer, artist & builder. Recognizing the care, skill and love that goes into everything David creates; people are often deeply affected when they see and handle his work. Our Touch Wood Rings came into being when David was injured and then recovering from major surgery on his neck. He is not one to sit idly and so he started 'fiddling' with what was in front of him. Chunks of firewood - amazing pieces of wood too beautiful to put on the fire. From this period in David's life came an amazing collection of hand carved wooden spoons, bowls, backscratchers, keepsake containers and most notably our wooden rings. From their humble beginnings as a therapeutic activity, David's meticulously crafted and naturally beautiful wood rings have become our primary focus.
This website and our lives are powered by the sun! We live and work 'way out in the middle of nowhere'. Our 50 acres overlooks an historic hay meadow on a high plateau in the Cariboo Chilcotin. Any power we use is generated by our solar panels and a bank of storage batteries. We also have a back up generator. Our hot water comes from the water tank tucked in next to the wood furnace. To heat our home and our shop we rely solely on wood from blow down & bug killed trees. We use our wood cook stove right through the year. Food never tasted so good. It's a good life. We have a few sheep (so few that we have given them names), a couple of delightful middle-aged dogs, a flock of happy egg producing hens, the requisite rooster and, right through the seasons an amazing range of wild critters who have called this place home forever!
David and I strive to live simply. Our work is a reflection of our values as much as it is a means of supporting ourselves. We believe in 'right livelihood'.
"Right Livelihood embodies the principle that each person should follow an honest occupation which fully respects other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of our actions and taking only a fair share of the earth's resources. Right Livelihood is about sustaining a lifestyle that values simplicity and contentment, rather than acquiring material possessions."
We do our utmost to cause no harm to people or the environment. We certainly have no allusions that our wooden rings will change the world, but each wood ring we make means perhaps, that a little less gold or another diamond is not mined.
Much of the wood we use is from blow down and bug killed trees on our 50 acres. We take the stewardship of our land very seriously. We've collected our birch bark from the ground around stands of birch trees in the bush. Our juniper heart wood, cherry & olive wood come to us from the yards of family in the Similkameen Valley of British Columbia. Some of the other woods that do not come from our land are surplus and scrap woods from wood shops and veneer factories where it would otherwise be trash. Additionally, we use a such a tiny bit of wood to create a ring that we couldn't use up a tree in a lifetime of making wooden rings. We are always striving to lighten the load on our planet.
Word of mouth and the Internet are our only means of telling the world about what we do. It's cost effective and earth friendly. This technology allows us to use our solar power and our time to communicate with you as an alternative to printing catalogues or travelling to participate in exhibits.
We look forward to putting our work in your hands, our rings on your fingers, and we thank you for coming by.
Contact Nicola & David Finch, Box 4744, Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada V2G2V7 nicola @ touchwoodrings.com
Wood Rings. Individually custom designed, meticulously hand crafted wooden rings
by British Columbia artist and craftsman David Finch.
Touch Wood Rings. From Canada.
Our Wood Ring Blog where you'll find many more examples of David's work and read about the folks who wear a Touch Wood Ring
Our Online journal
about living remote
and off the grid in BC
