oodworking has been a self-taught merging of skills for me, from learning basic carpentry, to designing and building my first cabinets with frame and paneled doors, over two decades ago.

For the past several years, I've been making furniture using a variety of hardwoods, doing mortise & tenon joinery, hand cutting dovetails, using inlay and shop-sawn veneer in my pieces.

I grew up working with my engineer-inventor father, helping in his small manufacturing business, doing many tasks that involved manual dexterity, the careful use of machinery and always being alert to improve the process. That background has been helpful, because in doing custom woodworking, you are constantly seeking a finer curve, a crisper joint, a better jig. I remember an underlying ethic in my father's shop; he would say; "We are trying to make something to improve the quality of life for others." Sounds almost trite, yet, on a different level, that's my intent as well, to make fine wood furniture that strives to connect with our human longing for discovery.

Back in the late 1970's, I began pouring over the technical knowledge reservoir of cabinetmaking in the then black and white copies of Fine Woodworking. These and other sources have gradually increased my confidence to do more and more challenging pieces.

When it comes to design, well, to each his own. My observations, in what might be called "contemporary" pieces, have led me more toward seeing the value of restrained and modest lines. I think there is more lasting appeal in letting the wood itself do the singing.

So, my efforts go into making pieces that are not only useful to their intended function but also aesthetically warm and pleasing. I seek to be attentive to the many varied moods that wood itself can convey through its color, its grain patterns, and when it is shaped in subtle ways. In fact, shaping a delicate handle that is inviting for gentle fingertips to use, is one of the personal touches I enjoy doing. To whisk clean thin shavings using one of the wood planes that I've made, if the grain is not too mischievous, can be like listening to the refrain of a delicate piece of music.

With this sort of workmanship, I seek to convey a less mechanized, hands on result, one that will welcome a patina and age with grace. Enjoy the online photo gallery of some of my pieces. If you are in the New England area, you can see and appreciate them first hand in selected juried galleries throughout Vermont and in the Red Orchard Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland.

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