Those familiar with Jack Slack (aka catfella) are readily aware of his love of animals. He has surrounded himself with them all his life and has devoted much of his professional career as a sculptor to carving animal figures in many mediums other than gold. He is an accomplished wood and stone carver of the old mallet & chisel variety, seldom using sketches and almost always using live models or his vivid imagination. He founded Designs By Slack in 1975 and for the past 25 years has devoted his time to gold carvings.
He is also an intrepid adventurer, traveling around the Atlantic and Caribbean on skin-diving and windsurfing expeditions. He has been a champion skin diver and scuba instructor, as well as an experienced cruising sailor. After college, he lived and cruised in the Bahamas on his sailboat and during this period he discovered a sunken Spanish treasure galleon, the news of which made headlines throughout the world and a cover story in Look magazine. He is the author of Finders Losers the story of the Lucayan Treasure Find first published in the U.S. by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1967, and subsequently published in the United Kingdom by Hutchinson Ltd. The story was later (in the 70's) made into a documentary film released in Europe. During his cruising days he was a friend and diving companion of Jacques Mayol, the famous French skindiver and free dive record holder.
Currently he windsurfs more than he skin-dives and delights in the playful manipulation of his household cats, until they become participating models for his new designs.
