About All by Chance Woodworking

David Chance didn’t grow up in a woodshop, and he didn’t plan to become an artist. It all started when his youngest child sent him a YouTube video of a guy in a shop, turning a chunk of wood into a bowl on a lathe. It looked cool enough to try—so he picked up a used lathe and gave it a shot.

Three lathes later, David found himself a member of The Community Woodshop in Salt Lake City, surrounded by makers of all kinds. The creativity there runs deep, and over the years he’s picked up techniques in woodworking, resin casting, and turning. But no matter what he explores, David keeps coming back to the lathe.

His work took a turn toward storytelling a couple of years ago, when he met a couple moving from Salt Lake to Oregon. After 20 years in their home, they wanted to take a piece of it with them—something meaningful, something they could pass down to their grandchildren. She was an artist herself. He was the sentimental type. They handed David a piece of firewood and a broken branch from their backyard tree and asked if he could turn it into something special.

That project changed everything. David realized he wasn’t just making bowls or keepsakes—he was helping people hold onto something they thought they had to let go of.

David Chance doesn’t just make things—he rescues them. What most people would toss, he sees as potential. Whether it’s scrap wood, pistachio shells, cinnamon sticks, or a single pinecone, David turns cast-offs into one-of-a-kind bowls, vases, and art pieces that actually tell a story.

He’s not a factory. He’s not a mass producer. He’s a guy in a shop—sanding, shaping, pouring, and figuring it out as he goes. Every piece is made by hand, and no two are the same. Some are functional. Some are just cool to look at. But all of them started with something ordinary and ended up as something worth keeping.

One of the most personal projects he’s done came from his mother’s old couch. After she passed, the couch stayed in the family for another 14 years—until it finally gave out. David’s sister reached out to all the siblings to see if anyone wanted it. No surprise—nobody did. Except David.

With the help of his nephew, he tore it down to the frame and salvaged the wood. That wood became a set of turned bowls—each one now living in the home of one of his siblings. That old couch, full of memories, had been given a second life.

That’s the heartbeat behind David’s work. He doesn’t just build—he preserves, repurposes, and reimagines. One piece at a time.