I suppose you could say being a maker runs in my family. My great-grandfather started the Automatic Index and File Company in Green Bay Wisconsin in 1905. My grandfather eventually took over and moved it to Youngstown Ohio during the depression, merging it with General Fireproofing and continued to design and build office furniture and filing systems. Their primary market was the bustling big city of Chicago. Between the two of them they held several patents on their designs. One of those designs elements I’ve incorporated into one of my desk designs. Before retiring my grandfather sold the company to Steelcase, which is still very much in business today. On my fathers side of the family is a long list of designers and craftsmen. I grew up in houses designed and built by my dad. I can’t remember a time in my youth when he wasn’t building something or working on one of his sports cars. For me, there was little choice but to follow in their footsteps.

I was born in the late 50’s and “grew up” in the 60’s and 70’s. We took for granted a basic level of quality and craftsmanship in our everyday lives and belongings. I can remember when “Made in America” was truly a badge of honor. Seemingly simple everyday items were heavy duty, well made and lasted a lifetime. I own many (thousands!) of tools that I began acquiring when I was a teenager. Some of my woodworking planes date to the 1920’s and are still as accurate and essential to my operations today as they were when they were new nearly 100 years ago. I’m saddened by the trend to “value engineer”, which is a fancy way to say make cheaper, so many things in today’s marketplace. I don’t follow that path. What I build is made to last a lifetime and then some. I frequently tell my customers that someday their grandchildren will be fighting over who gets the dining room set I’m building for them now. I use traditional construction methods when they are best, but am not the least bit shy embracing modern tools, techniques and materials. For example you will very seldom to never find dowels used in my furniture. They are structurally inferior to mortise and tenon construction. In my furniture repair experience the main cause of failure is by far doweled joints.

My woodworking and furniture making began more than 35 years ago. I started out as a carpenter making and installing trim, finish and cabinets. I didn’t have a shop in the early days, so I’d set up sawhorses in the customers garage or drive way and go from there. It was the early days of restoring old houses in the SF bay area, and when I couldn’t reproduce trim profiles myself I would have them made by a mill using machinery dating from the Victorian era. My specialty was matching details to make my work look as if it had been built by the original carpenters. This was very valuable experience in that it taught me how to research a style, reproduce it’s details and visualize how I was going to seamlessly integrate my work into their home.

As I got more serious I moved into shared shop space with other like minds and talents. I suppose this was the 80’s version of a “makers movement” The bay area was vibrant with crafts people of all types. I frequently collaborated with glass workers, metal workers, faux finishers and textile artists.

In the mid 80’s I felt the need to fill in a few gaps in my education and experience, so I headed east to Rochester NY to attend the Wendell Castle Workshop. It was there that I found the combination of contemporary design and traditional construction methods that I was looking for. I’m very proud of my work from that experience, and still have them in my portfolio and build to order line.

When I returned from my experience at WCW I dived headfirst into fine furniture design and making using all of my newly learned skills. I’ve been very fortunate to find customers that had the vision and courage to support my development. In those 30 plus years of experience I’ve covered a wide range of styles and materials. There’s not much I won’t take a swing at when it comes to challenging projects. I particularly enjoy building chairs. I’ve built all types, from classic Art Nouveau to very contemporary metal and wood.

My current focus is to take the best of those methods and designs and offer them on a limited production basis. What this means is that I’ll take an existing design, adapt it to a customers needs by way of dimensions and materials choices. By using designs from my extensive experience we are able to shorten the lead time considerably. Some of the more popular pieces I build in short run batches and have available for immediate delivery.

My product line is primarily hand crafted wood furniture and accessories. My designs cross an number of stylistic genre’s. I will integrate other materials such as metal, glass or stone where appropriate. I’m a capable metalworker as well, so when it’s efficient I’ll do that in house. For other materials and disciplines I’m fortunate to live in an area where there are crafts people of nearly all mediums readily available.