I was born in Pittsburgh, Pa in 1961 to a home bustling with creative energy: music, art, woodworking, the bookmaking arts, leatherwork, and weaving were going on around me from the day I was born to the day I left home for college 17 years later. My academic career concluded at the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science, granted in 1984. At age 19, while still in college, I built a classical guitar and knew I had discovered a passion for woodworking.