Company History
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Growing up in Maine, I remember my dad in his little workshop in the back yard working on different projects. As an avid archer, my dad's most impressive accomplishments were his handcrafted laminated recurved hunting bows. He would also fletch and tip his own arrows using jigs to speed up his production and improve the quality of his products. My dad could build anything and fix anything. I had many hobbies growing up: rock collecting, model building,woodworking and drawing, just to name a few. My dad helped me in these hobbies by teaching me to use my hands. He taught me to take pride in my work. He taught me to be creative.
My renewed interest in woodworking took a step forward after I read an article about "Intarsia." My
quest to By packaging all the hard to find woods like Bloodwood together with pre-cut boxes or frames, patterns, and instructions, we created the Project kit and Woodworking Plus was born.
In the years since that first order, we have sold over 15,000 Intarsia Project Kits to wood workers in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. We recently moved into our new shop in Midlothian, VA and have since expanded our product line to include finished Intarsia pieces, turned wooden pens, lumber, marble-top tables, and other fine custom woodworks. - Mike Mathieu
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In 1989, my family and I moved to Virginia from
North Carolina to be closer to my wife's parents and
for better job opportunities. My old hobby of rock
collecting was reborn when we became members of the
Richmond Mineral Club. I wanted to display the rocks
I had collected, so I began building display cases in the 8x10 shop behind my house.
Eventually, members from the club asked me to build cases for
them too.
collect as many different woods to use in my artwork (ongoing) led to the concept of Intarsia
Project Kits. One of the pitfalls of Intarsia is the woods losing their original color. Red Cedar turns
brown, so Bloodwood is a better choice.
In the fall of 1994, production began on our first large
wholesale order from Leichtung Workshops: 85 Rose
Jewelry boxes and 85 Mallard Framed kits. With
such a large order, a bigger shop was now a necessity.
We rented a 750 foot shop to begin full scale production.
We produced 870 kits that first year, and the addition
of several other catalog companies increased our
sales to over 2000 kits per year.
