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 I come from an artistic background.  My aunt and grandmother were both potters.  My grandmother was quite advanced for her time, creating many interesting, unusual, as well as provocative sculptures out of clay while my aunt was more traditional and centered on producing bowls, vases, and other more cylindrical objects.  Both worked out of their studio in their home in San Francisco.  For more than 30 years they both displayed their work at the annual exhibit of San Francisco potters in Golden Gate Park.  I began throwing pots at the age of 4.

My passion with working with wood began in my junior high school woodshop where I would arrive when the shop would open 30 minutes before school and stay until it closed well after the school day ended.  This continued during my time at Dartmouth College where I put long hours into the student woodshop and, among other things, created a cherry colonial couch consisting of 30 hand-turned (on the wood lathe) sculptural supports between the upper and lower rails and 4 similar hand-turned endposts.

This passion took a backseat for many years while I followed another joy – that of studying and pursuing several degrees in engineering at the University of California, Berkeley culminating in a doctorate.  I was part of the teaching and research faculty at the University of Utah and Oregon State University for many years, before my calling to woodworking reappeared.  I then took several formal classes in woodworking at the both the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, the Northwest Woodworking Studio, and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship where I had the honor to work and study under such renowned figures as the center’s founder Peter Korn and Canadian Master Woodworker Michael Fortune.

In 1996 I began my own business of designing and creating one-of-a-kind handmade furniture both for display in shows and galleries, as well as in conjunction with commissioned work.  The latter gives me intense joy – to see a client’s vague vision/desire for a particular piece evolve into a unique functional work that includes both the client’s as well as my input.  In my work, generally hardware is not used for structural components, whereas traditional joinery techniques (dovetails, mortise and tenon, mitre and finger joints, etc.) are – thus ensuring that the piece will not only be esthetically pleasing but also structurally sound to the point that it will last for generations.  I work primarily with hardwoods; eastern cherry, Oregon black walnut, western and eastern maple (of varying figures such as tiger, quilted, and birds-eye), mahogany, lacewood;  in addition to exotic veneers like rosewood and zebrawood.  All of my finishes are applied by hand – either using a brush (for polyurethanes or lacquers) or a rag (tung and other oils) – and in many coats with appropriate smoothing between subsequent layers.  The result brings out the qualities of the wood and is not only pleasing to the eye but also generates an intense desire to actually feel the surface.

I hope that you will enjoy the work that you see here (as well as on my website) and that it will spark an interest in you to have something uniquely yours to be made for you or for someone you know who would appreciate the beauty and work involved in creating a handcrafted one-of-a-kind functional piece of  furniture.