Shayla Giroux is an artist, designer, woodworker, and metalsmith. She creates objects that honor labor, place, and the quiet satisfaction of work well done. Although she has primarily trained and worked within conventional Western contexts of industrial design practice, Shayla has begun to grapple with some of the systemic inequities that continue to shape this field. Workers in the manufacturing trades are often exposed to gender bias, a lack of psychological safety, and insufficient mentorship or collegiality. 

Shayla’s work has and continues to be dependent on learning and relationships where patience, respect and trust are paramount. Mentorship and apprenticeship have been an important part of her professional development. They permit a transfer of knowledge that is embodied and experiential. The focus is relational not transactional. Her work remains in constant evolution, adapting to new understandings and ways of being.