Update…October 2024

I thought I would pop back on here to explain where life has taken me of late.  Everything I do falls under the category of: “I ain’t happy unless I’m making something”. It’s a passion that is deep rooted and can be traced to my childhood (which I’m reminded occurred a very long time ago).  I’ve spent a lifetime of drawing, making, building, painting, photographing, and fortunately have made a living in a profession focused on design and construction. 

In January 2025, I will celebrate the end of my 65^th year.  It will also mark my 50^th year of working “for the man” and I’ve been fortunate to work for some pretty good men and women.  With this comes an opportunity to return to the basics of my urge to create.  I will retire from my profession and focus solely on my craft.  And I am very excited about that. 

When I look at my life, I see Chapter One as the formative years.  My urge to build was strong and it included building a drafting table in junior high and taking drafting all through high school.  Chapter Two was all about the practice of architecture which was a job that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Unfortunately, as rewarding as it was, it ultimately was not lucrative for me and so I went to work for my client, a real estate developer which I refer to as Chapter Three.  Chapter Three challenged me as life in the corporate world was not the creative environment that I had experienced in architecture.  But it did set me up well for Chapter Four which will entail a return to my creative passions.

For quite some time, I have been cramming as much creative time as possible into Saturday and Sunday of every week along with a few scattered weeknights.  That has taken a toll on my family and social life as I have frequently chosen the flow of the creative process in my shop when perhaps that time would have been better spent lovin’ on my people.  My plan for Chapter Four is to use the normal working hours, Monday through Friday, to embrace my craft, leaving the weekend to focus on my wife, friends, and family.  Of course I will blur these boundaries, but in my plan, it will be a framework for a more normal lifestyle in this final chapter of life.

Some of you may have found this site because you were interested in wooden bowls.  I haven’t stopped making bowls, but that interest has slowed a bit to make room for another pursuit which is chairmaking. A lot of my sub-passions have simply ebbed and flowed over time, and I can’t point to how I switched from cabinet making to boatbuilding to spoon carving for example.  But I remember the exact moment when my focus turned to chairs.

I was taking a leatherworking class (do you see a pattern here?) in Nashville, which happened to be in Greg Pennington’s chair making shop.  If you’re unfamiliar with Greg’s shop, it is the mecca for modern day chairmakers.  For many, Greg’s shop is where chairmakers make their pilgrimages from time to time to learn the craft of chair making.  While taking a class unrelated to chair making in this shop surrounded by chairs of all types, Windsor and ladderback, I was at once terrified and deeply inspired.  I really didn’t need one more craft interest to invest time and money into.  And I knew this and even told myself out loud, “do not go down this road”.  However, the temptation was too great for me to withstand.

Greg’s classes typically fill up within five minutes of posting his schedule, so my first classes were with some other chairmakers who have worked with Greg.   Building my first chair was just as rewarding as I had imagined and ever since, I have spent most idle moments thinking of the next chair to build.  I’ve taken many more classes and have spent a lot of time in my own shop building other chairs from published plans. 

I have one more class scheduled for this year and it will be at Greg’s shop where it all started.  This will be my third pilgrimage to Greg’s and I would certainly hope that it is not my last.