Winston Roberts

About the Artist

Winston Roberts discovered his love for woodworking after moving with his wife into a new home in Portsmouth, Virginia. The home’s large loft seemed perfect for built-in bookcases and desks, so he bought books and power tools and taught himself the craft. At the time, the internet was still in its infancy, with no YouTube tutorials to follow. Winston managed to build a few pieces in Virginia—including a dining table with ten chairs, which he even upholstered himself—but by the time the couple moved to Florida, the loft remained empty.

Most of Winston’s work is functional, but he strives to make it beautiful as well. He has created countless cutting boards in various styles, along with serving trays, charcuterie boards (once described by a show visitor as “kitchen porn”), wine stoppers, salt and pepper shakers, spreaders, keepsake boxes, and chess boards with matching boxes. In recent years, he has embraced working with epoxy, using it to transform wood that others might consider flawed. Where he once cut away holes, splits, and irregularities, he now seeks out those features, filling them with color and creating unique designs.

Winston works with a wide range of exotic woods, including padauk (African), purpleheart and bloodwood (Central and South American), tigerwood, leopardwood, canarywood, bocote, wenge, lati, and mahogany. He also uses domestic woods such as poplar, cherry, maple, walnut, and cypress. One of his most exciting finds was a bundle of ambrosia maple with striking curls and color variations.

Lately, Winston has been spending more time at the lathe, making bowls, vases, and “dragon’s eggs,” often combining irregularly shaped wood with epoxy to create stunning, one-of-a-kind pieces.

What began in half of a two-car garage has now grown into a dedicated 1,000-square-foot workshop filled with an extensive range of power tools—from table saws and bandsaws to drum sanders and drill presses—and, of course, countless clamps (“you can never have too many clamps,” he jokes). He also keeps a 20-foot container stocked with lumber and laughs that, at his current pace, he may have enough wood to last 200 years.