“my designs emanate from my materials. I’m always looking for something newer and edgier”.

Stage 1 - I got my start from Jon Arno, a lumber guy at durst lumber in royal oak, MIchigan. after completely renovating my craftsman style home, I called him and said, “OK, now what do I do?”. He gave me some aspen and said, “make something nice”. the table IN THE FIRST PHOTO was the result, and I was hooked… I started with basic Woods used by most woodworkers: aspen, oak and pine, but rapidly moved into the exotics - wenge, PadAUk, purpleHeart, Lacewood, zebrawood, etc. I enjoyed experimenting with these new woods, and at the time, they were plentiful.

stage 2 - I discovered reclaimed wood and began scavenging housing demolitions, mixing traditional woods and reclaimed woods. this also included the acquisition of a large number of teak pallets from my friend Andrew eck AT GEOrGIA ARTISAN. HE IS THE ONE WHO SAID, “OK, SMART ASS, SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH THESE ;-)”. my lake rabun Adirondack series chairs EMANATED FROM THIS CHALLENGE.

stage 3 - pressure-treated lumber - I spent hours sorting through the stacks of pressure-treated lumber at Home Depot to find the ones with no knots, straight grain, etc. I began mixing this with reclaimed lumber.

STAGE 4 - extira - exterior grade mdf that you can literally soak in water. it also cuts cleaner, seems to have increased strength and takes paint very well. this initiated my “Rhonda miller” period, where I am using color as an important design element. Rhonda is a local artist who I have worked very closely with here in Macon. sometimes I will simply find one of her paintings (I have a dozen+) and copy the color patterns in my furniture. she is literally a color genius!

stage 5 - I discovered bendable plywood. This is typically an architectural construction material, but I have adapted it for Furniture. a u.s. manufacturer told me it was unsuitable for Furniture because the minimum radius that you could effectively bend this stuff was 16”. I went into my shop and Bent a piece with a 1 5/8” radius. I mailed them a small section of the benT plywood and they said "our technical guys say this is impossible!". I felt pretty good about that.

current stage - I seem to be getting deeper into each of my materials, experimenting with the characteristics of each type to generate even more exciting designs. i’m also mixing in additional materials as accents - aluminum rods, for instance - which gets me my slatted tops. I am also now working on making more definable “series” so that I can provide my pieces to more people. I find that the process to replicate some of my pieces is as interesting as creating the original designs themselves.