Bluster Bay Woodworks is almost synonymous with beautiful, warm wood shuttles. However, when you visit their website. it's clear they offer much more than shuttles. They sell three different sizes of umbrella swifts, three different skein winders and miscellaneous other wood tools for weavers.
And, when it comes to shuttles, they make 29 different boat shuttles as well as ski shuttles and poke shuttles. You can choose from a variety of woods in almost all of their products. The website is a wonderland of information about woods and their weights, all explained with clear pictures and examples here. Keep in mind, at Bluster Bay Woodworks, each item is made one-at-a-time, by hand. This is part of what makes their shuttles so special.
So, who are these creative woodworkers and how did they start making weaving tools? Bluster Bay Woodworks was founded in 1984 when Kristie and Terry were living in Sitka, Alaska. On their website they recount their journey from a small island, near Sitka, accessible only by private boat to their current location in Sandpoint, Idaho.
Terry and Kristie in Alaska riding the boat home from Sitka.
While living "off the grid" in Alaska sounds exciting and a little romantic, after over 20 years it began to take its toll on their bodies and their ability to distribute their wood products to the weavers who wanted them. So, they sold the house in the Tongass National Forest and moved to Sandpoint, Idaho.
Bluster Bay Woodworks currently operates from a modern shop with full city utilities and a paved road right to the front door. With ready access to shipping and freight services that were not available in Alaska, as well as a multitude of new wood sources to discover and explore, the business has grown to inlcude a wide variety of shuttles, swifts, skein winders and various wood weaving tools.
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