Well, I hate to talk about myself until you get me going. I tend to pride myself in having lived in various parts of the U.S. throughout my life (California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Washington). Had I discovered Portland earlier on, I probably wouldn't have moved around so much. I'm a happy family guy with a great wife and a 3 ½ year old daughter (an aspiring fashion designer). She's hilarious and exhausting. Our family is now firmly rooted in Portland, and I'm proud to say our daughter Kalea is an Oregon native. Since "getting my foot in the door" at a glass studio in Berkeley, Ca. in 1991, I haven't worked in anything but glass. I did the typical stint in college without discovering any fields of occupation that I was interested in doing for the long term. As soon as I discovered glass, school was history for me. There's a lot to learn about the medium of glass, so the past 17 years have been a long course in continuing education. Working at glass studios in different cities has been a great means to meeting new friends and being exposed to new techniques in glass.

By trade I am a glass artist specializing in sandblasting. So I decided to take a stab at sand-carving my Chaboo table. Sandblasting wood is very different than sandblasting glass. Most woods are much softer than glass, and therefore much faster to carve deep relief. Bamboo is a different story. It is very hard and fibrous so the sandblasting has to be done at very high pressure. After working out the "bugs" on a sample piece of bamboo, I was ready to go. I just needed a design. I finally settled on the obvious, an arrangement of bamboo shoots (duh!). I continued the design from the top surface down the legs. You may notice that I transitioned the design from positive to negative (the top surface I sand-carved the back round and left the bamboo raised, while the legs I sand-carved the bamboo and left the back round raised.). I finished the surfaces with an Osmo tinted wax finish.

I couldn't help but add a little glass to this piece. Look closely and you'll find a small ¾" cube nestled inside the "carrying cut-out".