About
My handmade wine racks, handturned wooden bowls, custom furniture, kitchen accessories, and lighting designs are a natural outgrowth of my desire to build creative, sustainable, and visually striking objects that make our lives simpler and more beautiful.
My choice to use eco-friendly, reclaimed, forest-salvaged and responsibly-harvested wood and other materials - locally-sourced here in Vermont whenever possible - reflects my belief that the beautiful things we own can also help sustain the world we live in.
Visually, my designs reflect handcrafted traditions without being nostalgic. Rooted in rustic and primitive elements but also incorporating modern and Asian influences, my wood kitchen accessories, bowls and small furniture aim to bring simplicity in design together with the history and natural character of the materials I use.
About Me:
Raised among furniture makers, weavers, photographers, painters, musicians and luthiers in Vermont, New York and California, I was steeped in the creative process and an appreciation for handmade crafts and art from an early age. As a boy I followed my father into his workshop in South Woodbury, Vermont. I soaked in the sounds, smells and processes of woodworking, but it wasn't until many years later that I pursued the work in earnest myself.
Even as I moved away from those craft and woodworking roots, I was never far from my creative instincts and the fact that we bring ourselves into the things we make. After studying art, Asian studies, music, photography and writing, I worked as a photographer, writer, bookstore owner and graphic designer.
In 2008, I returned to my father's workshop - where he had become a boatbuilder - watching, learning and absorbing once again. My time spent in his new North Hero, Vermont, shop reinvigorated my love of woodworking, and exposed me to metal work, and wood turning. All of this built my confidence and skills to pursue my own craft and explore my own design muses.
My wife, Launie Kettler, is a food photographer and writer. Having played a supportive role in her food blog Teeny Tiny Kitchen, and having watched her own passion for food writing and photography grow over the years, it was only natural to focus a good deal of my new woodworking and design on kitchen related items. Launie enthusiastically tests all of my new designs in our kitchen.