I grew up and still live in California, when I was a kid I would want this toy or that toy, and my parents would say, "just make one" so at an early age my brother and I would make the toys we wanted. If we needed help with a tool or how to do something, my dad would show us, and then a new world would open each time we learned how to use something new.  As boys, they were usually swords and guns, but we made other things as well.  My desire to build things to last and give new life to unwanted things comes from a couple of places. Growing up, my parents were avid recyclers, back in a time when you had to take your recycles to the actual recycling center. That got ingrained into my psyche. Additionally, with years in the household goods and transportation industry, and seeing the waste of so much that just doesn't need to be. Lastly,  the fact that it seems that so much is made to be disposable, everything from furniture to firepits.

 

I started metal working, after I bought a jeep.  I just couldn't bring myself to spend the type of money companies would ask for after market bumpers and other types of off road protection for the jeep that just weren't built that well.  So with the help of my brother, an accomplished metal worker and fabricator, we built bumpers and rocker panel guards for my Jeep.  From there my creative side took over, using cast off parts to create.  

 

I tend to look at parts and see them as something else. Sometimes I will build something all around one part, just because it is so cool, other times I will have an idea of what I want to make, and will find the parts in one of my numerous parts boxes.  I make things because it is relaxing and fun to put them together.  There is something deeply satisfying about doing something like turning an old iron into a boat, building a robot around using a camera for a head, or creating a conversation starting sculpture from thousands of different pieces.