I first rested my front foot on the slippery slope in the summer of 1987. As could be expected, it did not look like a slope nor was it initially slippery when it took my weight. It was disguised as a course in ‘Damascus Steel’ at the Peter’s Valley Craft school taught by Daryl Meier, one of the modern masters of steel technique.

Without getting too professorial, Daryl taught his method of manufacturing “Pattern Welded Damascus Steel” which is one of the three great steel making traditions in the world. The other two are ‘true Damascus or Wootz’ originating on the Indian subcontinent, and the Japanese technique called most often ‘the Japanese technique’.

With all three you wind up with not only the object you start out to make, be it candlestick or sword, but also a fantastically varied pattern in the steel surface. Once I saw that pattern I was hooked. Not only did I start to slide down the slope, I ran in the direction it was taking me.

I began to see surface patterns in everything and then I began to see combinations of patterns based on different materials. Then in my mental playground I started to combine the combinations of the patterns, which in turn led to trying to combine the materials.

Rock, Metal, Wood These were the materials I settled on. They have value, they are known through time, and they can be beautiful. I try to see some echo of surface in one material reflected in a second or third material. I try to put them together in a pleasing way. Sometimes I succeed. (Many times I don’t, for example, getting rock to adhere to metal so that it lasts a lifetime is not easy, and I have the piles of rock fragments to back up this truism.

I hope you enjoy and even consider purchase of my work. A lot of heavy thought goes into even the lightest piece.