Opening new doors at ShamaWood Fine Woodworking Studio

Credit: ShamaWood Fine Woodworking

What does your door say about you?

After turning his back on a career with a tech giant, two weeks at a Byzantine monastery in his native Colombia inspired Arnim Rodeck to apply old, slow methods to woodworking.

Crafting doors in his Maple Bay ShamaWood Fine Woodworking studio, Rodeck considers himself a “storyteller on wood,” and he delights in bringing his customers’ lives and interests into each piece. One door, created for a boater, uses Douglas fir, red cedar and glass to form a map of the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island.

“Most doors nowadays are boring,” Rodeck says. “They’re custom-made but give no idea of the people who live inside.”

During the six-to-eight-week production period, customers are invited into Rodeck’s studio to observe, and maybe even pick up a hand tool to add their own touch to the door. Rodeck sends weekly emails and compiles photographs and commentary throughout the process for a coffee table book for the customer.

Most customers provide their own recycled wood for their entryways, which cost between $2,000 and $10,000. But if a customer insists on new wood, Rodeck insists on using FSC-certified.