ALEX HELIN was born in Parksville B.C. on Rememberance day, and started his art career quite early in his life. He worked extensively with his father Bill, since

he was about two years old. Bill said " Alex was always determined to do what I was doing, from wood carving to jewelry creation. He was a hard worker which

made it easy to have him with me from a young age, and it was hard to get him to quit."

Alex loves to do his Tsimshian jewelry art and surf,  which makes for a nice balance in his work flow, considering that the two best places to surf on Vancouver Isl.

are near two of his best jewelry accounts.

Jewelry is his full time career but he does still help his father with some wood projects and art shows. Alex started working seriously at the jewelry trade when he

started his apprenticeship with his Dad in 2004 and after graduating in 2006 ventured out on his own taking over numerous wholesale accounts that his Dad wasn`t

accommodating and delivering a fine quality product in the Helin Family Tradition. Alex`s Father has quite the career to follow which has put Alex into some very

high profile venues such as carving on the Worlds Tallest Totem pole in Victoria and the 40 ft. dug out Ravensong Canoe, which he and Bill recently took over to the

2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Alex enjoys sports and was a hard core ice hockey , baseball and volleyball and squashplayer but since 2005 he found his true sports passion riding the waves of

Tofino B.C. Ever since his two cousins dragged him off in the middle of the night to sleep on a logging road and rise up bright and early to greet the moring waves,

 he has enjoyed monitoring the wave channel on the internet, racing off as soon as the waves get over 6ft. One of his greatest experiences surfing was when a big

sea otter joined him in some wave riding, then nestled in his arm for a brief rest against his surf board. Then again there were some pretty nice sunrises and sun-

sets out there too.

Alex loves to create the Big Kahoona Bracelets in gold or silver and hopes to be taking some new challenging creative journey`s with his father into some new

realms of jewelry making, like 3-D reppousse` metal forming and gem setting. He says that the greatest challenge in pursuing other areas is that he is so busy with

his commercial orders that it is difficult to find any spare time. Now that must be nice.

CHECK OUT THE JEWELRY ART BY ALEX HELIN AT: www.alexhelin.com or contact him for a free consultation or surf lessons at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ALSO CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE AT:    http://web.me.com/williamhelin/Tsimshian_Art/ARTISTS.html