“I built my first piece of furniture when I was 14. My sister gave me a book on how to make furniture out of 1 x 4 and 2 x4 pine. I made a bookcase using the few hand tools my father had in the basement. From there I moved on to leather (it was the 70’s after all). I have not stopped working with my hands since. Other than a workshop here and there, I am entirely self-taught. I turned it into a career 35 years ago, starting with framing houses in the suburbs, to finish carpentry, to millwork and cabinet making. Eventually I moved to re-use, as the Donations Manager for Boston Building Resources where I worked to keep quality building materials out of the waste stream.

My current shop, in the basement of my home, is a work in progress. I have figured out how to incorporate woodworking, metal working, jewelry and leather-making stations in a 30 x 40 space. It is compact and super organized. Though cramped and tight, it’s organization means I can go into that space and turn ideas into things efficiently. I love good organization. Sometimes I feel like half the time I spend down there is in making the space more and more organized.

My shop is full of vintage machinery parts, tools and other found objects I have collected over many years. They inspire me. Sometimes I incorporate some of them directly into the furniture design, sometimes they simply inspire the design. The heft and solidity of rusted cast iron parts feels like a portal into a different world.
Part of my heritage is from Lebanon. I have spent a bit of time there. The intricacy of middle-eastern design is another portal I love to go through, meditative, patient, methodical, geometric, calming.

My work reflects all of these things: at times intricate; at times naturalistic, always by hand, always with some genuflection to the past, and to the finite and precious bit of resources we are given on this planet.”