How it Began

My dad grew up on a farm and as he says ‘on a farm if something breaks you fix it.  If you need something built you build it.’  We lived in a very old house which was a constant project.  He built bookshelves, put in closets and even bathrooms doing all the plumbing and electrical himself.

This was my normal so I grew up building my own things.  I cut plywood to make skateboards, built my own treehouse (more like an unstable platform, but still…) and my own bed as a teenager.

Once I got my own house I built functional items like bookshelves, a stool and a coat rack. When a storm took down a Cherry tree in our yard I thought ‘Cherry is supposed to be a nice wood.  I should make something out of it.’  So I loaded it into the back of my Saab and found a sawmill to slice it.  After drying it for a year I made my first bench with wedged through mortises.  I was hooked and began making other simple pieces.  Years later I was given a very old lathe.  At first I just made things like legs for tables but once I started turning bowls and artistic pieces I quickly upgraded lathes.