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Salt Spring Chestnut Box with French Polish

Regular price$420.00 CAD Sale price
Salt Spring Chestnut Box with French Polish 2021
by Peter Spence
3.5" x 3.5" x 3.5"

This elegant keepsake box is crafted from locally sourced Salt Spring Island Chestnut and finished with Peter’s signature hand-rubbed French polish — a luminous, old-world technique that lets the grain glow like warm honey. Smooth to the touch and deeply refined, it’s the perfect home for rings, small treasures, or the sentimental odds and ends that deserve better than a junk drawer. A gentle, timeless piece made from island wood with island soul.

Peter’s work embodies a lifetime of learning, refinement, and reverence for wood — each box a vessel of craftsmanship, patience, and spirit.

Peter Spence

Born in Thunder Bay and now working on Salt Spring Island, Peter Spence creates finely crafted wooden boxes inspired by Japanese design and the Arts and Crafts movement. Each piece is carefully grain-matched, hand-finished, and rooted in his lifelong devotion to craftsmanship. His work blends simplicity, harmony, and the natural spirit of wood.

Artist Statement

I work with wood because it is alive—each grain line a story, each knot a voice. My goal is to honour that story with quiet, functional forms shaped by patience, precision, and respect. Influenced by Japanese aesthetics and the Arts and Crafts tradition, I create boxes, lamps, and furniture that celebrate simplicity, balance, and the natural elegance of the material. When the work feels effortless—when it becomes “easy and right,” as Chuang Tzu said—I know the piece is becoming what it should be.

Peter Spence

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