What drew you into furnituremaking? When I first started making furniture it was because we didnt have any. I had studied painting at RISD but I found myself, instead of painting, finding little projects around the house —like shelves for the bathroom —that needed to be done. Then, because we couldnt afford furniture, I made a coffee table, a couch, a kitchen table —things that we needed. I discovered I wasnt comfortable with making things that you just put on the wall and looked at. Whereas if it was something you used, I felt like it was worth the time it took to make it. And I realized that that was what I loved doing. In the beginning I had no tools. Id go to the lumberyard and ask "What do you have thats about that wide by about that thick by maybe five or six feet long? And cheap. And I want to see it." So they would lead me to the pile of fir. And I knew all the fir was warped, so Id make them go through the whole pile. Nobody wanted to wait on me —Id see them all running when Id come in there.