About

Although I have been working with wood most of my life, I have only seriously been building furniture for the 10 years since I retired from an information technology management position. I am a wholly self-taught furniture builder but have some past experience in sculpture and ceramics. Like most novice woodworkers, I was initially attracted to American arts and crafts furniture. Simple functional designs with straightforward construction quickly teach the fundamentals. As my skills developed I sought out more challenging and artistic designs. I am attracted to turn of the last century European craftsmen who moved away from tradition and sought to modernize furniture designs. I now try to design and build my own furniture with references to these past masters. I use basic power tools for the milling of rough hardwood but use hand tools for construction and shaping.

I find the most difficult part of furniture building is design. The properties of wood dictate and constrain many functional aspects of furniture design. The challenge for me is designing a piece of furniture that pays homage to the wood that was used in its construction but at the same time is fresh and interesting.