North Carolina

Forestry, Louisiana State University                     

Steve has been working with trees and wood since finishing a degree in Forestry in 1976 from LSU in Baton Rouge. After a few years as a timber cruiser in the Pacific Northwest, Steve returned home to North Carolina and began his career as an engineer in the furniture industry. He has been building fine furniture for himself and friends and family since college.

With his discovery of woodturning, however, the hobby of woodworking has turned into a passion. Woodturning quickly captivated more and more of his creative energy and interest, and soon he left the manufacturing business to work fulltime as a craftsman. Steve's workshop is a depression-era clapboard building, a store his family built to sell their farm produce during the 1930's. His wood comes from many sources, including the acres of hardwood forest left from the original family farm in Burke Country, NC. This mature forest has oaks, cherries, sycamores, poplars, hickories, and maples.

After many years building furniture I began "turning" wood on a lathe. My current work ranges from tiny, shallow dishes made with African Pink Ivory wood to two-foot wide bowls turned out of a fresh log of local cherry. I often laminate different woods together before turning, using colors and wood grains in appealing combinations. I also use green wood to create pieces that use the shape of the original tree trunk as the natural edge of the piece.