WELCOME TO THE TREETOPS STUDIOS

Welcome to Saanichton, a village on the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island, about 10 miles north of Victoria, British Columbia. The original house, built in 1986, was designed by John's parents: Oliver; a precision instrument maker, horologist and woodworker and Merrill; a painter, needlewoman and fabric artist. Until their deaths in 1994, and since we came to live here, the house has evolved into a studio home.

We live and work in a very quiet residential area. We also travel a lot and when we are home we value our privacy and protect our studio time. Therefore, The Treetops Studios are not open to the public. Nevertheless, we invite you to join us. Point and click in any of the Studio's work areas. If you see something that catches your fancy, please Contact Us at either of the e-mail addresses below. A first meeting can be arranged in one of the many coffeehouses, pubs or restaurants in our community.

Why the name, 'The Treetops Studios'?      Well, when approached from the street side the house appears to be a small east-facing bungalow. However, the back of the house is built another storey down into Graham Creek ravine. The view west is literally into the canopies of the trees in the protected area behind us. Cedar, spruce, fir, maple, dogwood and cherry crowd for the light and host their own community of squirrels, birds and insects.

What We Do.      The Treetops Studios started as a fusion of two artistic traditions: Elaine's centuries-old French-Canadian heritage and John's more recent Arts and Crafts roots. We strive to combine the necessary emphasis on simplicity and 'value-in-use' of the habitant craftswoman with the focus on quality design and workmanship in the best nineteenth and twentieth century hand-crafted goods. Since we started the Studio, we have both come to appreciate Chinese and Japanese decorative traditions. Plying all three strands together, we are striving for: