Born in Orlando, Florida, and raised in southeast Michigan, Nick Hamma was always drawn to the great outdoors. In his younger years, he enjoyed wandering in the northern wilderness areas of the state, admiring and contemplating nature, creating objects from wood. After high school woodshop class, it would be nearly a decade before Nick took up woodworking again—completely by chance.
Nick’s girlfriend, at the time, wanted to make a Michigan chair for her brother’s housewarming gift. They built the chair, and after posting on social media, more and more people wanted one, too. Before he knew it, Nick had a full-fledged business up and running with several friends helping out. With orders piling up, Nick quickly learned, through experience and his own artistic talent and skills, how to craft a lovely, quality product. Today, he’s the sole woodworker with a business partner who manages the website and marketing.
Nick believes all businesses and people have a responsibility to give back to their communities. Nick uses mostly Red Cedar sourced from the western US. He donates about 5% of his profits to the National Forest Foundation, and soon plans to personally start planting trees locally throughout Michigan, in communities that could benefit most from it.
Chance. My woodworking business was not planned. My ex-girlfriend wanted to make a chair one day so we made a Michigan Adirondack chair, and she posted a photo online. It drew a lot of interest and before we knew it, people were asking for one left and right. I decided to make my work an LLC and it’s continued to grow since. The only previous woodworking experience I had had was a year of woodshop in high school. So there was no particular thing that drew me to woodworking except that it happened to be a skill that I had which has helped me now be able to work for myself, which is a feeling I enjoy.
When it comes to woodworking, I enjoy the ease with which you can shape what begins as simply slices of a tree, into intricate, comfortable furniture, or anything for that matter! I’ve enjoyed accepting the challenge of making all the different custom pieces which customers have requested, including 5 different states as chair backs so far.
I think it’s important for people to just make things in general, whether with their own hands, with a computer, or with a helping hand. Imagination and creativity are the driving forces of the human spirit.
There seems to be higher level of quality with a lot of handmade goods. There’s just a certain focus and attention to detail that isn’t found in a lot of mass-produced goods.
I am currently building a work area in the Northwoods of Michigan’s lower peninsula, where I will continue to make products for customers, while also building myself a nice cozy cabin, and a sustainable lifestyle. I hope one day to not need money to live comfortably, and move on to bigger and better endeavors.