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Caledon East father-daughter woodworking duo still creating sawdust into retirement 

February 12, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“I picked up a hammer while I was still in diapers, and I never looked back from being in the wood working business,” said Lucy Kristan with a laugh, during a recent interview with the Citizen.

Over the years, from baby woodworker to being “retired” but still in the shop every day by 10 a.m., Lucy and her father, Lawrence Kristan, continue to work in Caledon East, where they also live.

At one time, their company owned a 10,000-square-foot shop in Weston, which is a neighbourhood in Toronto. There, the business engaged multiple employees, and they were well known for making trophy display shelving in highly polished wood. Not only did they build the shelves, but they also restored and refurbished the trophies and their bases.

“We did the display for the trophies in the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame,” Lucy remarked. “We were so well known in the industry that we never had to advertise – companies came to us; the work came by word of mouth.”

The hard work and the large, prestigious jobs they did over the years assured them financial security in the present, and although the father-daughter duo still come to their workshop every day, it is no longer all business.

Now it is all fun, all pleasure. Lucy loves to develop new designs and ideas. Once her father retired, so did she; yet their love of creative work calls them to keep making new things.

For Lawrence, retirement was freedom from being tied to business; yet it was still a time when he had to continue doing something. So, he introduced new machinery into the shop, specifically a lathe about which he had to learn and certainly to enjoy. It was not long until many neighbours had new wooden salad bowls, for Lawrence insisted on finding good homes for them rather than selling them.

“Dad and I get to make sawdust together,” was Lucy’s quip, like a favourite family joke.

“We do this for ourselves. I’ve no idea ‘what I want to be when I grow up,’ I have to keep occupied making stuff that is keeping it fresh and new.”

One might almost call it a hobby, although the two are happy to specialize in one-off creations for people who approach them, of decorative, practical, beautiful and always interesting items. Things to hang on a wall; novel pieces of furniture built and painted in colourful designs. They make turned bowls and other practical household pieces, but it is frequently the unusual items, rejoicing in inventiveness and letting the wood talk to them, that keep them busy now.

While they used to sell their products in many shops and participate in a number of shows, they now confine their out-of-house sales primarily to Dragonfly Arts in Orangeville.

Lucy has been “puttering around” with what she calls her Branch Buddies. These are a collection of sweetly made little birds poised on branches just to fit their space.

She is planning to take them to the upcoming Headwaters Arts art show titled Echoes of the Heart, opening in the Alton Mill this Saturday, Feb. 14

“I wanted to take something small and affordable,” she reasoned, “especially, when people are struggling. I’m just having fun making little things for people. I have never made them before, so they are new to me, too.”

A new creation can surprise its maker, even in minor issues. The Branch Buddies birds, as they sit on their branches, show more variety, one from the other, than Lucy expected. She notes how much character each little bird takes on by the position in which it is placed on the branch, rather than the wood grain dominating. 

“But how they look at each other – that’s all I’m bringing…” she said.

Lucy really appreciates how Headwaters Arts sets up the shows. 

“There is something about people walking along, looking at stuff. Headwaters highlights the products.”

During the Citizen’s interview with Lucy, by telephone, there was a small shift in her tone, as though she was surveying the space she and her father share.

“This is our happy place. We are not in business, and we keep ourselves happy, but we make salad bowls for Joan (Hope, owner of Dragonfly),” she said.

“We’re happy to help a business.”

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