30 Woodworkers Who Carved Their Way Into Our Hearts With Their Masterpieces (New Pics)

Think about how often we’re surrounded by wooden objects—tables, doors, staircases, to name just a few. We use them every day without considering the effort behind them. Something as common as a chair can take around 20 hours to make—and even longer if it’s particularly intricate or elaborate.

Knowing this, it’s fascinating to learn about what attracts people to this meticulous craft. That’s why Bored Panda got in touch with Liam O’Connor, a talented 24-year-old woodworker and furniture maker from the San Francisco Bay Area, to hear about his story.

Liam’s passion for creating things started early. “When I was a little kid I used to love sewing my own stuffed animals, but really I would try to make anything,” he tells us. As an adult, he’s kept that same spirit alive, making everything from dolls to pet houses, which he shares on Instagram and Reddit.

Liam’s creativity as a child was nurtured by his supportive parents and his grandfather, who helped him with different projects in the work shed every time Liam came to visit. Later in high school, Liam became deeply involved in ceramics, but his focus shifted when he went to college and gained access to a full woodshop. Since then, he has developed a penchant for crafting quirky and unusual wooden creations.

One of Liam’s latest projects, for example, is a testament to his imaginative approach: a creature-looking wooden den for a pet with carved round teeth and tongue-shaped pillow that rolls out of its mouth. One of the users on Reddit even compared it to The Luggage, a fictional object from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld fantasy book series.

Throughout the years, Liam has crafted a variety of charming items, including cute wooden doll figures, lamps, tables, and cooking utensils. Almost all of them are designed with elements that give them a lively, almost animated personality. For example, one of the lamps has little legs. The figures range from gnomes to forest spirits. The cooking spatulas are shaped like fish. Looking back, Liam notes that personification has always been a consistent theme in his work, even from his early days sewing stuffed animals.