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Mike is an award-winning master carpenter with over 35 years of experience, trained by renowned craftsmen including Sam Maloof and Michael Fortune. His work has been featured in Fine Homebuilding and highlighted by Festool USA in their Presents video series. He owns Belzowski Woodwork & Design.

Woodworking is more than just a skill or career: it’s a blend of many things–hard work, patience, and passion. This is the fourth edition of our newly formed Demonstrator Spotlight we’ve been working on ahead of our annual shows: Johnson’s Wood Expo (Charlotte, MI) and Johnson’s Woodworking Showcase (South Bend, IN) – both taking place in September. 

We have been interviewing demonstrators and getting the inside scoop on how they got started in woodworking. This final edition focuses on Mike Belowski, who’s based out of Northern Indiana and is an experienced carpenter. He has been featured in Fine Homebuilding’s Master Carpentry series and was formally trained by the Mark Adams School of Woodworking. He shared with us how he got involved with the trade, the work that inspires his designs, and what he enjoys most about EXPO.

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Q&A with Mike

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the type of woodworking you do?

A: Belzowski owns a custom carpentry business and has five employees to help him complete projects. They build anything from homes and decks to high-end architectural millwork. He has been involved with building since he was a kid. His grandfather was in the trades, and passed when Mike was young. He left behind all of his tools and wood. 

It started out simple with building a wood fort on the deck to then doing roofing at 12 years old. At 15, he had his first paid job and was involved in a trades program through his high school. He worked in the trades all throughout high school. In 1999, he began working full time with his business.

Q: Do you remember your first “official” project was?

A: “My building trades teacher, Jim Nova, who was the person that I worked for out of high school, basically put me in charge of his building projects,” says Belzowski. “I was running all of his construction jobs at 19.” He built a couple spec houses, homes without a specific buyer in mind, at first. He worked in two divisions: basement foundation repair and construction. Then, he started building homes around a lake in La Porte, IN and started to contract more higher-end homes. “His (Nova’s) confidence in me and the fact that I wanted to be in charge lead to this. I took a leadership role and found myself in charge often,” says Belzowski, “It was funny too since I was the youngest one on the job for awhile.” 

Belzowski worked for Nova, who retired two years after he graduated, until he was 25 years old. 

Q: Where do you draw inspiration for the projects or do clients provide that for you?

A: Belzowski said that a lot of the projects he’s worked on, he’s also designed. The last significant project he did, the client wanted to build a barn. He is not typically a pole barn builder. So to satisfy their vision, he designed an “old-style” barn. They loved the design and asked that he incorporate a farmhouse as well. “I designed the farmhouse, and they gave me a list of criteria for the house, like room sizes and types of rooms they wanted,” adds Belzowski, “I came up with the layout and worked with them on details, so yeah I pretty much designed everything, and most of the projects I’ve done, I’ve designed and built.”

When clients don’t come with specific ideas in mind, Belzowski draws inspiration from many architects whom have inspired him over the years. One such architect is named Michaela Mahady, who was a partner with Sarah Susanka, who wrote the Not So Big House collections.

“Michaela Mahady designed a house that was featured on a program called Hometime that I watched in the late ‘80s when I was in 10th grade and I loved that house. Then when Susanka’s books came out, she was featured in one of them, so I got her book and drew a lot of inspiration from it,” explains Belzowski. He was specifically drawn to its half round windows and cat slide roof.

Belzowski also has a lot of books on architecture and furniture and design that he likes to look through and read. He has taught himself a lot and even took a design class with Michael Fortune, a furniture maker out of Canada.

Q: What is your favorite wood to work with?

A: “Walnut is probably my favorite,” says Belzowski, “I love walnut, I like cherry. Those two I’ve been using a lot lately and also brown maple.” He says brown, soft maple, often has figure to it with the light contrasting and the streaks. He recently made some shop cabinets and the maple made them look really put together and clean.

Q: Could you elaborate or walk us through that whole process of how you take an idea from the concept to the finished piece?

A: Belzowski says every design he comes up with is hand drawn. He typically has the homeowner provide him with inspiration photos and together they discuss what they want the finished product to look like. 

When it comes to projects that he’s done before or has knowledge about, he designs plans that have aspects of architects and designers that he’s inspired by. “I’m more of a classical-type architectural guy, so there are some older shingle style homes that were built in the last turn of the century that I have books on that I often pull ideas from,” says Belzowski.  “So anytime I can incorporate little details I’ve seen, such as built-ins or traditional molding styles, I try to employ that.”

At the end of the day, the details and design are up to the discretion of the homeowner or client but if he has the opportunity to provide his opinion and creativity, he tries to keep the design consistent throughout the house and have themes and patterns and pull those same details together. 

Q: What advice do you have for someone who is just starting out in woodworking?

A: Belzowski says that nowadays there are plenty of woodworking schools across the country and YouTube videos for almost everything. It’s important to have an interest and passion and apply yourself. “I think this mindset goes a long way, but there are also a lot of trade schools that weren’t there when I was coming up in the trades that are available now,” says Belzowski.

He says that a lot of trade schools and wood shops offer beginning classes so people shouldn’t feel intimidated to apply if they’re interested. “A lot of times they’ll say what kind of skill sets are needed, and you can take a beginning woodworking class where you’ll make a project and learn the safety tips and how to use equipment.”

Q: If you were looking to grow your team or enlist a young woodworker, what sort of things stand out to you?

A: Passion for the craft,” Belzowski says immediately. He recalled a young man that worked for him who reached out because he was interested in the trades. He came to Belzowski’s shop to see one of his projects and he asked a lot of questions. Belzowski offered him a job and he worked for a couple weeks during the summer when he was 14 and came back the next summer to work again. Then, the following summer, he worked all summer and didn’t want to go back to school. When he completed high school he worked for Belzowski almost full time. “That first week of working I was giving him a bunch of tasks to do, you know, ‘move this, pick up that, clean that’, and he was so efficient, and just did everything and would always ask what was next,” recalls Belzowski. “By the end of the week, he was trimming a multi-million dollar home and he did well. He had a great attitude and all the guys wanted to work with him.”

“He caught on and asked questions, wanted to learn, and showed up with a good attitude and a willingness to work and learn,” says Belzowski, “This mindset can allow someone to learn alot.” He says it’s always good to have new energy and excitement when you’re trying to learn or figure out something. He also mentions that people starting out need to find the right trades people who are willing to help and provide guidance.

Q: Is there one thing that you hope attendees of this year’s EXPO show take away?

A: “If people are able to glean a little bit of information and take it back to their shop and try it, that would be huge,” says Belzowski. “Most of the demos I do are skill-based demos where I teach various techniques, like bending wood, and there’s lots of different ways to do it, so if you are able to do just one of the ways, that would be a success.”

Q: What is your favorite part of EXPO?

A: “I enjoy doing demonstrations and meeting people, especially like-minded people that are interested in the craft,” says Belzowski, “A lot of times people show me their work, and there’s a lot of talented people that come to the EXPO, and it’s just nice to meet and be able to talk with them.” 

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Mike Belowski has a clear passion for woodworking and an impressive portfolio of projects from building custom libraries to whole houses and barns. He will be demoing wood bending techniques on Friday and Saturday mornings at EXPO as well as veneer basics Friday afternoon and a joinery and hand tool demo Saturday afternoon. See our full schedule on https://lljlumber.com/wood-expo/ – Stop by and learn from Mike for yourself!

You can follow along with his content under the handle @belzowskiwoodworkanddesign on social media or visit his website www.belzowski.com. 

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