Bill Zyha

Bill was born in Spirit River AB, he moved to Creston in 1970 and moved to Boswell ten years later. Moving to Creston is one of his favorite memories, “Wow! What a Country!” he says. Bill has since retired from carpentry and cabinet building for 6 yrs now. Since he retired he has been busy carving pieces of wood into beautiful pieces of usable art. He makes all kinds of bowls, spoons and forks, candleholders, fish bonkers and more.

Bill has taught himself his craft and through trial and error over the years has perfected his pieces beautifully. He hasn’t taught any classes because he feels this is just a hobby for him to enjoy. He learns from his mistakes and says if he doesn’t learn something new everyday that life is not worth living. Carving wood is a past time for Bill, he finds it very relaxing and is always curious and interested to see the different grains that appear in each piece of wood as he sands them.

Bill’s favorite piece is his big burl hand carved bowl. The bowl was too big to be turned in the lathe so it took him 137 hours to hand carve. One piece usually takes him aprox. 6-8 hrs to make it depends on the size, a small piece can take 1 hour and a big piece can take up to 2 days. Every piece is different and has its own special qualities. Bill is currently working on birch bowls. Still today his daughter owns his oldest and first piece he ever made out of spalted birch.

Bill’s favorite books are Westerns by Louie Lamour, he has everyone of his books and even the collectors edition. A tip he would like to share with other artists is “Enjoy what you do or don’t bother with it!” You can see Bill’s creations in Park Studio Gallery and the Candle Factory in Creston, the Dogpatch Pottery in Crawford Bay, and in Northwest Handmade in Sandpoint ID. You can also go online to www.parkstudio.net and see some of his creation’s in the gallery page.

Biography taken by

Yvonne Sulko

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