Today's artisans fill a more specialized niche than many of their forebears, fulfilling a desire for something unique in the home.

I have several pieces of furniture from family members that I treasure equally for their fine workmanship and the memories they bring. They're not all wood, and none have enormous monetary value, but they all share one trait: they're handmade.

The Windsor chair at my computer desk is one such heirloom that I plan to pass on to my son. Made by Frank Hill of Melanson Mountain Chairworks in Nova Scotia's Gaspereau Valley, it's the most comfortable wooden chair I've ever sat in. Frank is one of many fine craftspeople in Nova Scotia who possess a unique style and talent for making quality furnishings-potential heirlooms of the future-for discerning homeowners.

These artisans follow in the footsteps of such renowned local craftspeople as the Sibleys, the Youngs and the Fultons of Bass River Chairs, as well as the hundreds of cabinetmakers beginning with Edward Draper, who arrived with Edward Cornwallis in the 18th century to establish a community on the wooded shores of Nova Scotia. Along with the joiners (woodworkers who make things by joining pieces of wood together) and turners (those who turn wood on a lathe) who were passengers with the same fleet, Draper helped furnish the immigrants with the essentials of life, including a roof over their heads.

This trend continued through the early years of British habitation. Men with woodworking skills were busy in all areas of construction, shipwrights built churches, cabinetmakers built houses and turners built tables and whole chairs, whereas under strict European guild regulations, they only would have been allowed to turn legs and spindles.

One thing is certain-"the best of the best was reserved for holy places," says John Langan of Dartmouth, N.S., who came to furniture design and building after years as a shipwright and has worked in furniture design and construction on half a dozen churches in and around metro Halifax. "The best materials, painstaking attention to detail, the finest design-nothing is too good when it will be used for prayer or worship," he says. A tragic fire at St. George's Anglican Church in Halifax in the mid-1990s exposed the spectacular work of a previous generation of shipwrights; their massive hand-hewn cupola that topped the round church was a testament to their talent with wood.

Today's craftspeople fill a more specialized niche than many of their forebears, fulfilling a desire for something unique rather than essential in the home and providing furniture not found anywhere else. "The combination of  the artistic and the utilitarian and craft and trade is the secret to success," says Ian Hope-Simpson. "In the past, the trade aspect would have been dominant; now I see it more as a craft." A blacksmith and woodworker in Wolfville, N.S., Ian balances the two skills to create his own special brand of furnishings and art. "I like to use natural materials to reflect the beauty in nature," he says. "I use stone and wood-exploring their natural textures, colours and patinas-with iron, which is so different-to try to inspire awe and reverence."

John Langan works mainly on commissions. He explains the delights and challenges of that process. "In my mind, the most meaningful heirlooms are those items that represent the personality of the person who commissioned them," he says. "That sort of relationship is not always possible to attain, but when it is, something marvelous happens."

Designing is more complicated still. Jonathan Otter is an artist in wood in Halifax whose own dining table may have had an influence on his decision to become a craftsman. The lovely 140-year-old yellow birch table is still being used every day despite a revolutionary history: A United Empire Loyalist brought it north during the bloody birth of America in the late 19th century. "Things have to be of a simple design to pass through time well," he says. "I think that clean simple lines, maybe with the joinery as an adornment, work well. If something is fashionably designed, it will go out of style and end up on the rubbish heap pretty soon."

John MacNab of Halifax spent years making elegant furniture and architectural embellishments that were in keeping with Nova Scotia's historic homes, but he eventually decided to branch into the exploration of sculptural helixes. Imagine fluted Corinthian columns adorning the front of a mansion, then picture them elongated to a point, gently coiled back down upon themselves, or leaning as though swaying in a breeze. These are the areas into which John is delving, using a mammoth vertical lathe that he built for the purpose.

Nova Scotia is famous for its chair making, and Frank Hill continues the tradition. Chairs are complicated pieces and were once highly prized possessions representing wealth and status not available to most people who made do with stools or benches, which were simpler to make. However, whereas the Fultons' Bass River Chairs are mass-produced, Frank's Windsor chairs, which sell all over the world, are individually riven and adzed from the finest Nova Scotia oak, ash and pine.

"The heart and soul of an era is reflected by the work of the people," says Ian Hope-Simpson. These men, and the many other talented craftsmen and women in Nova Scotia, are creating the heart and soul of our time, which will one day belong to our children-and to their children.