Making History

Feeding curiosity:

The early days

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         From the time I was a child I could always be described as a 'tinkerer'. My parents, at times exasperated with my consistent dismantling of household items, did as much as they could to feed my curiosity, buying me books on a myriad of scientific subjects, lots of models and LEGOs, or signing me up for workshops for children's crafts. I really owe them for fanning my flames of creativity, rather than rebuking me when they caught me taking apart their new fill-in-the-blank to "see how it works".

      As I grew into adolescence, I found summer jobs building decks or fences and picked up some real world skill, as well as a growing passion for using my hands to create. In school I took on extra curricular activities in the theater crew where we built extravagant sets for our school's plays. In my junior yeas of high school I started attending a vocational highschool part time in the electronics department, where I learned circuit design, electric principals and basic robotics.

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         After graduating high school I found myself volunteering with Americorps working for several years with non-profit organizations like Habitat for Humanity, and Project Homecoming in New Orleans where I continued to develop skills in the construction trades, as well as some electrical and plumbing. I used the education awards alloted though the Americorps program to become certified in welding and returned to work rebuilding homes with Project Homecoming in New Orleans. While I was making a difference for people, I had always dreamt of making furniture for a living, but while I had the skills and access to tools it would take a rather drastic life event to give me the push I needed to take the leap.

         I had been dreaming of making a living building furniture, but I had so many excuses and artificial limitations I set for myself, and it may have gone on like that forever, but fortunately in the winter of 2014 I tore my achilles. It was in the long recovery time from my injury that I finally got motivated to make serious change. I decided to rid my life of distractions and spend at least 4 - 8 hours a day building things. Below are a collection of some of my first pieces during this period.

After getting setting off into the world of making, I decided to return to St. Louis, my hometown, and found myself moving back in with my family. This was a rather unexpected turn of events on my part, and once again I found myself on the couch. However this time I had learned valuable lessons about the nature of my person, and it didn't take as much as a drastic injury to make me shed more of my self imposed limitations and decide to chase after something else I had been dreaming of; gardening. although we were living in a rental house I found a way to grow produce.. Hydroponics! here are a collection of pictures of my journey into the realm of indoor produce.

After living at home for about a year I found a house to buy that fit all of my needs as a maker, and was able to recreate my shop. At this time I was able to start making furniture again, but this time I had the resources to branch out and try materials techniques that were not available to me before, here are a few furniture and woodworking pieces from this time in my making career

As my Making progressed I added more shop space and tools to my collection including machining tools and more metal shaping tools. here is the collection of some of my metal work including some commissioned sculpture pieces as well as personal sculpture.