Articles on Canadian Craftsman Pierre LaChance Born, and raised in Ottawa Ontario Pierre has the Formula for Success. Book Publications, Videos, Websites available online.
Wood sculptor gives gifts to kids By Jason Luciw - Kelowna Capital News - December 23, 2007
Wooden bike… He pieces together the wooden replica of Evel Knievel’s XR 750 motorbike. He has had a photo of the wooden bike turned into posters, which will be distributed as gifts to patients at Sunny Hills Health Center for Children in Vancouver—a division of B.C. Children’s Hospital. Jason Luciw/Capital News Pierre LaChance stands proudly next to the wooden replica of Evel Knievel’s XR 750, which he’s created as part of his ongoing therapy. The motorcycle is carefully assembled in LaChance’s Westside workshop ready for its latest photoshoot. Each piece of the bike is made from scraps of donated wood—mostly maple, walnut and oak. “See, it even has shocked,” he says with enthusiasm. The shocks are the only metal on the whole replica. The spokes, handlebars, exhaust and motor are all wood. The Evel Knievel bike isn’t the only replica he’s done. His blog site shows the race car he carved for Vancouver’s Molson Indy. Visit www.pierrelachance.blogspot.com. Like the race car, photos of the bike are now on posters that will be sent to patients at Sunny Hills Health Center for Children—part of B.C. Children’s Hospital that specifically serves kids with disabilities. “I’ve been donating to Sunny Hills since 1994,” says LaChance. “I was a patient there when I was young because of a car accident—I was on my bike and I crossed the road and was run over by a car. I am in therapy still because of the accident.” The woodwork has been part of his therapy for many years, he says. The posters of the wooden bike need to be sent to the kids, says LaChance. It’s too late for Christmas, but the gifts can be used for birthdays and events throughout the year, says Sunny Hills spokeswoman Sheila Kennedy. If a donor is able to pay to ship the materials, contact LaChance through his blog site. Agassiz Observer Agassiz carver's work has Horsepower James Baxter/Observer Pierre LaChance at his Agassiz workshop. By James Baxter Observer Mar 09, 2005, Agassiz woodcarver Pierre LaChance is putting the final touches on an oak motorcycle he is building for legendary daredevil Evel Knievel. The bike, a faithful replica of Knievel's gravity-defying Harley Davidson XR750, has been meticulously fashioned, piece-by-piece, over 100 hours, according to Lachance, who has also carved himself a reputation as a leader in wooden automotive crafts. He began work on the Knievel bike last year as a trade for the stuntman's endorsement of LaChance's website, which is dedicated to the auto thrill show business. The carver's father was a friend and employee of Knievel's." Also, I am doing it for the honour I have for Evel Knievel and the past [when] my dad worked for him," he said. "I feel I am carrying the torch in the auto thrill show business. The old man was a racing car driver and stunt driver, and - I was the model maker and the trophy maker for the drivers."LaChance says he is also set to display a few of his nearly 14,000 pieces at the local library. The featured item will be a Molson Indy car he carved in 1995 in connection with the Vancouver race. It will be joined, he says, by "what I can fit in the case."LaChance works from a small shop in Agassiz, where several of his replica cars, trucks and motorcycles rest bumper to wheel on counter space around his worktable. He says he has been carving for nearly 35 years, a hobby he developed when he was sidelined by an injury at age 10."[I] learned a lot from my grandpa as far as woodworking," he explains. "He was a furniture maker and also did small renovations. By the age of - 13 or 14, I had a whole bunch of models, all wood, [and] then I got into more technical stuff - precision autos like Porsches, Bentleys, Jaguars and 4x4s."Then I would get into building custom bikes like Harley s and BSAs, and tow trucks, monster trucks, logging trucks and fire trucks."LaChance says he enjoys the challenge of turning pieces of wood, some thrown on the scrap heap, into recognizable, detailed vehicles. He also recognizes that he is a unique craft." When I started getting into making wooden objects, I was very unique because not too many people have the patience to do it and there are not very many people who can do it," he said. I have become a category of my own."He says he most enjoys the challenge of fashioned a three-dimensional object from images in photographs, or from his own memory. Many of his pieces have been given away or donated to children at Christmas."It's not like I have a model beside me which I am copying, he said. "I am working from photographs. I transfer the raw material into what you see."LaChance's on-line gallery