Visitors returning to this site will notice that there have been a number of changes made to the website. I hope you find it easier to navigate and view. I knew I needed to update the site, but Andrew, my oldest son and web guru had graduated from college, and was working for MicroSoft. I dreaded the expense involved in hiring outside help, but my wife agreed that the site needed work and pushed me to get started.

I spent the early Fall pouring over the websites of those other chair-makers whose work I most respected and compared myself with. My site was fifteen years old, and hadn't been updated in a number of years. I was interested in seeing how my site compared to my competitors. What features attracted me most on a given site? How did that site's picture's quality, overall size and resolution compare to those on my site? How many different chair designs did the site feature? It was in some cases pretty depressing. Photos taken with an old hand held camera and loaded at ridiculously low .jpg resolutions to aid in quick loading times just didn't compare well against professionally photographed work. On the basis of photo quality alone I had to be driving away potential clients. I came up with a laundry list of improvements I needed to make to my site and sat down with the folks of Gopher Design. Gopher Design, www.gopherdesign.com, is a small family owned web design company, located here in Bowdoinham. I had first seen their work about five years ago when Jessica introduced herself at a local business meeting. I was attracted to Gopher's website designs because of their clarity, style and eye appeal. By the time I laid all my wants, must haves, and you can't cut this outs in their laps, I probably violated every aspect of their design aesthetic. They did a great job anyway and the result is pretty much exactly what I intended. Which is another way of saying that anything wrong with the site reflects on me rather than the designers.

The other thing I really wanted to add to my site was this blog. The body of the old site concentrated solely on chairs. It had no place to talk about the other things I make and love, tall-case clocks, wooden hand planes, period furniture and on and on. I have had great conversations with customers and other woodworkers by phone or email that would have been fun to share with others, but are now lost to time. I have a lot I would like to share. I hope as this blog evolves you will feel free to ask questions and express your opinions. More later. Thanks for dropping by.