RESPONSIBLY SOURCED - WILDLY DIFFERENT!
I was born in a magical small town in Germany and lived there for the first nine years of my life. The town had escaped bombing during WWII, and its medieval town center, complete with protective walls, ramparts, turrets and moat, remained fully intact. Narrow cobblestone streets squeezed between and among crooked, half-timbered houses whose histories stretched back for hundreds of years.
My father was a photo instructor at the local U.S. Army base, and my mother stayed at home to raise us. We didn't have much money. Back then, we didn't even have hot running water. Our two small rooms were heated by little coal stoves, and in the winter, sheets of ice would creep over the insides of our windows at night.
Nature provided our main source of entertainment. Whether it flying my kite in the meadows in autumn, riding my sled down the slopes in winter, picnicking alongside a brook in spring, or exploring the cool woods in summer, nature was always there - all around us. I believe that my love of the environment and my taste for the rustic was born during this time.
When I was almost ten, we moved to the United States - to Houston, Texas. It was a culture shock. Everything was new. And everything was big! I repeated a year of school in order to catch up with my English speaking school mates. After high school, I attended the University of Houston and then the University of Houston's Bates College of Law.
This is where I met my husband. For the next ten years, I practiced law and had my two wonderful daughters. I stopped working to stay at home and raise my children. I also co-authored and illustrated a book on the Trees of Texas. But a few years later my marriage fell apart, and it was time to pick myself up and go back to work.
Since I didn't want my children to grow up "latchkey," I decided to go into teaching. That way, I would have similar hours and vacation days. I taught elementary school for nearly twenty years. During this time I also met my second husband. He had a great love of the environment, and we had many family outdoor adventures. He was an avid nature photographer and taught me photography. (My father had tried to teach me photography earlier in life, but with film photography, the delay in having photos developed didn't give me the instant feedback I needed to get good at it.) Unfortunately, my husband was battling stage four cancer and died about a year after we were married. Time to pick myself up again.
I loved teaching, and it really saved me. But I had also always been a creative, and teaching didn't leave much time for outside activities. When I eventually retired, I dove into everything I had been wanting to do for years: writing, photography, painting, crafting . . .
One day my partner, Jim, was throwing out some old fence wood, and I had a moment of inspiration. Why waste that wood? And it looked so wonderfully rustic! I decided to find out what I could do with it. The result was a really cool coffee table with an interesting 'herringbone' pattern. Well, the writing was on the wall. Here was something I could do that was creative, practical, and good for the environment! I haven't stopped designing and making tables since!
Today, I live with my partner, Jim, and a couple of rescue dogs, only a few blocks away from one of my daughters, her wife and their three amazing foster children. (My other daughter and her husband also live in town, and I get to see them often.) And I continue building tables and experimenting with new designs. Life . . . to be continued.
Ria Nicholas Designs
Copyright © 2024 Ria Nicholas Designs - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.