The Story of
Lazy River Design Works

This store and all the content on it was created by me, Justus Hayes. It's what happened when circumstances prompted me to come up with a way to use my creative skills and the internet to make some work-from-home income. That ability will become very critical in a few years from now when Rowan, our youngest, graduates from high school and will be at home full-time. That requires someone to be with him 24/7, because Rowan has Down Syndrome and light autism, is completely nonverbal, and needs constant supervision. Someone will have to be with him every day, and it makes the most sense that someone will be me.

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I'm a very fortunate man in that many of the creative threads that I have developed over the past 30 years of professional work as a scenic artist/painter and enthusiastic amateur in photography and computer graphics are now coming together to make this endeavour possible. Image manipulation is something I love to do, something I am almost compelled to do, and now with the advent of manufacturers that offer print-on-demand and drop-shipping services, making an online store like this one is within reach of anyone with a little skill and a lot of time.

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There are four of us in our family - my wife, Lisa, and our two boys, Alex (16, and how did that happen?) and Rowan (13). We live in what is practically Vancouver, in British Columbia. The beauty and atmosphere of the coast and the islands speak very strongly to me, something that is reflected in my work here. A couple other personal creative drives are abstraction through extreme photo manipulation, and surface textures, particularly surfaces that are distressed and grungy.

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Buying an original Lazy River directly supports our family as we negotiate this crazy time. When the lockdown began and the scene shop I worked at shut down, it became obvious to me that I needed to find work outside of an industry that involves large numbers of people congregating together. That realization, looking down the road at Rowan's return to being at home full-time, and my own personal ongoing journey through Recovery (I put the booze down for good on Dec 24th, 2019) all combined to produce the creative explosion that is the Lazy River Design Works.

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I make sure that there is a constant supply of fresh, new designs in my catalog, and you are sure to find something that suits your tastes. Browse around, pick up a little something, and at the very least subscribe to my mailing list - look below in every page's footer.