Art has always been a part of Nickole Lopez’s life.
“When I was a child, it was my outlet to express myself,” she said. “Art and poetry let me get out a lot of my emotions that I had built up inside.”
She has lived in Harrison for three years, which is around the time she started to dabble in wood shaping.
“I started taking it seriously since February,” she said. “My husband, David, influenced me the most to pursue this as a business. He is part of a couple of beard groups on Facebook, so he shared my work on there. That’s when I started to get orders for custom beard combs from interested customers.”
Her brother-in-law, Frank, also motivated her to chase the new venture. She made him a few things for Christmas gifts this past year.
“He really loved the things that I made for him,” she said. “He’s a fan of the water, so I made him some window wood art. There was a sail boat, an anchor, a boat steering wheel, a fish and a captain with a long beard. That all took about a month to complete.”
To do her work, Lopez uses a Razortip D10 which she ordered from Canada where the machines are headquartered.
“Each machine is put together by hand,” she said. “The power supply and tips all came with warranties, so if anything happens to them they’re easily replaceable with no charge.”
She also has a dual machine, so that if she’s working on two different projects she doesn’t have to stop, unplug, and wait for the other machine to heat up.
A lot of Lopez’s projects are custom orders. She makes surprise wooden boxes, dice holders, window hangers, combs, custom signs and wooden spoons.
“It took a week for the first order to come in,” she said. “Since then, I’ve had about one order per week. I get orders for beard combs more than anything.”
Lopez receives orders from all over the country; most of them come out of California and New Jersey. She ships them out through priority mail packages with special wrapping, so the contents don’t get disturbed through transport.
“The best part of what I do is creating something beautiful out of an idea in your head,” she said. “My main goal is just to create beautiful things that are useful and can bring people some sort of enjoyment. If people can use my work in their everyday life that’s even better. It’s just awesome to bring joy to people. It’s cool to be good at something and to be a part of people’s enjoyment of things.”
Those interested in more information on Lopez’s work can “like” her Scorched Art Designs Facebook page.