I have always split my free time between used bookstores and old cemeteries. Both offer opportunities for serene contemplation and both are repositories of information someone at some point felt was worthy of a crafted object: the book and the memorial. Both say: “Don’t forget. But if you do, we’re still here.”

Each project in its own way attempts to capture an idea, and by the choice of materials, whether type pressed into paper or a chisel sunk into stone or wood, the act of creation is a decisive step toward a celebration of something important. Each project retains the character of the tools that shaped it and is not a synthetic byproduct made to look like something else. Integrity comes built in. Handmade should not mean primitive or clumsily manufactured. Simple tools in the right hands are capable of supreme beauty and fitness for purpose.

The design process here is a collaboration between client and craftsman. Ultimately the result should reflect the spirit and personal style of that client, so that what they see is a unique vision of themselves, how they want to be seen and in some cases how they want to be remembered. The nicest thing anyone has ever said about my work is that it was exactly what they didn’t know they wanted. That’s the goal, every time.