People ask how I got into woodworking expecting a simple origin story. The truth is messier. Failed attempts, accidental discoveries, projects that taught more through their disasters than their successes. The creative part of woodworking developed slowly and continues developing.
Copy First
Originality comes after competence. Before you can design furniture, you need to build furniture. I spent years building other people’s designs from plans—Greene and Greene, Shaker, Arts and Crafts. The vocabulary accumulated while my hands learned their skills.
Constraints Breed Creativity
My best work often emerges from limitations. A client needs a table for an awkward space. The only wood available has challenging grain. These constraints force solutions I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Mistakes Are Material
The project I’m proudest of started as a mistake. A glue-up failed, the panel split, and I was staring at wasted material. Then I looked at the split differently—it could be a feature. I stabilized it with butterfly keys and let the repair become part of the design.
Material Leads
The wood itself often knows what it wants to be. I’ve learned to inventory material before designing—let ideas emerge from what actually exists rather than starting with abstractions.
The Long Game
My style took fifteen years to develop. Keep building. Keep paying attention to what excites you. The creative identity will emerge from the work, not the other way around.
