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Well I always made stuff
The thing that is interesting is that when I was a kid, I had no patience whatsoever
I would buy a plastic model, and if that sucker didn’t go together in 20 mins, I lost interest
Uhm, somewhere along the way I learned patience.
And I’m pretty good at it now
As a kid, I grew up, pretty much being hands-on,
Uhm, it was a working family. I, back in that point of time, thought that it was a punishment to be born in to the family that I had
Uhm, if I wanted to go to the football game, I had to get a stone out of the, out of the woods, and roll it in on pipes
Uhm, but what I didn’t realize at that time, is that, that was a really the creation of the foundation of me being hands-on.
Like most people that uhm, stumble upon crafts,
You stumble upon crafts
I went to college. I have a degree in Bio-Chemistry.
Uhm, you know, I enjoyed some lab work but I never really, it never really rung the bell.
You know, what got me really going is I saw custom knives, I saw handmade knives for the first time in my life.
And it blew my mind
I never realized that, like as an individual, you can make a knife. I mean, its, its, its silly to think that ‘cause we were making knives for hundred of thousands of years.
But uhm, that just, got the whole real ball, rolling
There were several projects that I’ve done in the past where in the meeting between me, a designer, and the client, that with all 3 of us, throwing ideas in
There would be something that no one of us would come with, and I always found that very exciting and intriguing
It’s important as I work with a customer that I really know what it is that that person wants and not what I think they want.
Because they can be, they can be different.
I think a large part of what I do, is listening to what the customer wants
Uhm, if you don’t really listen and listen well
and see how they live and know what they want
You can’t create for them what they are hoping to get
In this so much like cookie cutter world out there, and even in a weird way, you know when I’m making rings that I like and someone’s buying them,
in a sense they’re buying a cookie cutter product but when their actually designing it like it’s theirs
And it’s nice to be able to give someone something that is wholly theirs.
When you get something custom made, it’s being designed and being built for you in mind.
Uhm, very different from when you walk in the store
Whether it’s a chair that you want to have adjusted, or a desk that is wider or has different layout of drawers, a custom maker can do that
If your heart is set on Tiffany’s, there’s nothing I can do for you
Uhm, we don’t have the pretty blue box
But you know, we do offer the fact that you will get something that no one else, on planet earth has
So, I’ve always said, like go custom, there’s nothing else better in the end.
I mean, the satisfaction of buying from someone that you’ve actually talked to, you know who made the ring
I mean, you can go to some of the finest jewelers in this country, and go ask the jewelers, who made this ring?
Who, who actually made this? They wont even, they wont even be able to answer you, that question.
They don’t even know. So that’s the difference. I mean, you know one you get from a person of flesh and blood that is on the other end of the phone or one, is just where you have no idea where this product came from.
Doing anything custom made is a lot of work
Uhm, but the rewards are great, uh, your riches come in the quality of life
And the pleasures that you give to people, by virtue of what it is that you do
Part of you is going to be living in their home and to have that connection,
Is essential, I think, in being able to create a piece that you can really, want to put your name on it.
When I, when I look over the landscape, at arts and crafts in this country,
There’s a definite renaissance going on and what has allowed this renaissance to take place is that
There’s organizations like CustomMade that can bring a customer and a crafts person together
In a format that just never existed before.