Employees

The Two Person Shop

Don Thomson
Co-Owner

Don Thomson is the co-owner of Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC. He got his start in construction and remodeling. From there he branched in to building furniture for family and friends. During his 23 years in the US Coast Guard he had limited opportunity to build professionally so he continued building for family and friends. Upon retirement from the Coast Guard in 2000, he decided to take his woodworking to the next level and go professional. His first woodworking business - Machstel Woodworking - was located in Lebanon, Ohio. There he operated for over 7 years prior to moving the business to Diamond Lake, WA.

Don thrives on coming up with solutions to difficult problems. He loves to take on tough woodworking challenges and develop creative solutions. He also firmly believes that customers are the boss in this business. It is the customer who decides what needs to be done and they task Don with getting it done for them. Without customers there would be no business.

Don loves to come up with artistic ways to make an otherwise plain project more alive using inlays and contrasting woods to add color, interest and character. He prefers to use natural wood colors instead of using artificial coloring methods (stains, dyes) to add interest to a project. Using ebony inlays in maple is a great example of this contrast. In the past few years Don has expanded more and more into bent form lamination techniques as well as free-form furniture using torsion box forms. He has also done a lot of work using exotic, highly figured veneers in these projects to really give them a WOW factor.

Don is a member of the American Marquetry Society as well as the Nautical Resource Guild.

In his off time (right.....) Don likes to build historical sailing ship models. Ships from the English, French and Spanish Empire era's along with the beautiful Clipper ships of the middle and late 1800's are a great passion.

Don is also a member of Pend Oreille County Fire District 3 as a Volunteer Firefighter, Wildland Firefighter and the Coordinator for the Pend Oreille County Hazmat Incident Response Team. If you see him around say hello.

Nancy Thomson
Co-Owner

Nancy Thomson is the co-owner of Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC. Nancy got her start scroll-sawing about 6 years ago. She is an accomplished scroll-saw artist making Christmas Ornaments to quilt racks to embellishments to projects that Don builds.

Nancy loves to experiment with different woods to see how designs will turn out. Her favorite wood is aromatic cedar. Applying an nice finish really brings out the beauty of this wood. Her latest ambition is to undertake scrolling materials other then wood. Corian, glass and brass are amongst her next victims of the scroll-saw blade. She is also studying turning photographs into scroll-saw. This is a very interesting idea and we are looking forward to how it progresses.

Nancy is a full-time mother to our twin daughters. She volunteers in the Newport School and assist teachers in the classroom.

Nancy began her career as a math major from college. From there she has worked in finance in a couple of companies. She has found her real passion which is woodworking.

As we go forward we look forward to opportunities where we can incorporate Nancy's scroll-saw artistry with Don's furniture making. It will be an exciting blend of two forms of craftsmanship.

Don and Nancy normally shut down the workshop for one week in November each year for a very worthy purpose. Don makes exotic-wood pen and pencil sets and Nancy makes special Christmas ornaments for our service men and women serving our country. Don has a special kinship with his brothers and sisters in the Armed Forces and feels it is the least he can do for them. So, if you have a relative in the Armed Forces please let Don and Nancy know. Also, if you approach him to do a project for you during this shut-down period expect to be put on hold until the Armed Forces Week is complete.

Woods of the World

Eucalyptis wood.