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I made my first table when I was twelve. It was cobbled together from scrap pieces of oak in my mom's basement - using a children's set of carpentry tools. The table was crudely finished and maybe even a little ungainly. But, it is still standing, solidly, in my mother's living room. I've asked her to let me replace it with my current work, but she'll have nothing of it. I was so excited to begin junior high school woodworking classes; turned out that I hated them. The classes portrayed working with wood as being a rigid and uncreative venture, causing me to forgot about woodworking for a while. But only a while.
I began serious woodworking in the early 1990's in Kansas after taking a crafts course at Fort Hays State University where I was working towards a Bachelor's of Arts degree. I only took the course because I wasn't able to fit a "fine" art course into a particular time slot that I had. Up to that point, I had no idea what the word "craft" could encompass. I immediately knew that wood as a medium was more captivating than anything I had ever worked with. I fell in love with the smells - the colors - the grain patterns - the tactility. Not having anyone at the university to guide me in wood, I set out on my own lifelong journey to learn everything that I possibly could about wood and how to use it to create functional art. I'm still learning, and I'm still in love with every aspect of the craft.
I build every piece of furniture with the idea that I want it to last for at least one hundred years. My pieces consist of solid, time-tested joinery which is often quite complex in construction. Sometimes what you can't see in furniture is what makes it special. I will only use domestic, non-threatened woods for my furniture. The majority of my pieces are finished with a hand-rubbed oil and varnish combination that I mix.
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