Woodworking

My woodworking journey has been a winding road. While studying theatre arts, I honed carpentry, welding, and rigging skills to build sets, all the while working in construction and landscaping to support myself. My passions for stage management and carpentry led me to become the Technical Director at Diversionary Theatre, the country's third-oldest LGBTQIA+ theatre company. This experience took me to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, where I managed the Myth Busters exhibit, which eventually led me to Ravenswood Studio in Chicago, Illinois, where I learned fine woodworking from some of the best cabinetmakers in the industry. There, I built my first ukulele and was hired by Bourgeois Guitars in Lewiston, Maine, working for Master Luthier, Dana Bourgeois. To learn more, click below. Otherwise, scroll through this page to see my work.

While working at Bourgeois Guitars, I reconnected with my dear friend Sammi Rudkus. After leaving the US for a new life in Mexico, Sammi eventually made his way down to South America. When I learned he was marrying a woman in Ecuador, I was determined to make him the ultimate wedding gift, a handmade guitar. With the guidance of Dana Bourgeois and the Bourgeois team, I got Sammi's guitar ready for their wedding day. I even managed to hand-deliver his gift to their new home in Malacatos, Ecuador. The L-OO 12-fret style guitar, which Sammi lovingly named Maggi Mo, features an all-solid mahogany top, back, and sides with Indian rosewood binding and ebony bridge, fretboard, and headplate. It was also a lefty, which added to the fun. This experience was one of the most incredible journeys of my life and a true testament to our friendship.

Maggi Mo

Maggi Mo's Journey

The most recent ukulele I built was for my friend's niece. It features an Adirondack spruce top, mahogany back and sides, cedar neck, oak binding, jatoba fretboard/bridge, abalone rosette, ebony head plate, and a slotted headstock. I built this ukulele during my off hours while working at Bourgeois Guitars using their equipment, but all the jigs were my own design (Bourgeois doesn't make ukuleles). The soundboard was actually made with cut-offs from a bourgeois guitar. I called this ukulele Forsythia since I finished the project right as our forsythia started blooming.

Hear Forsythia sing!

Forsythia

Forsythia's Gallery

Adslia was the first ukulele I made entirely by hand. It was constructed out of parts found and donated to me by my colleagues at Ravenswood Studio in Chicago, Illinois. It features a cedar top, red oak back, white oak sides, maple neck with a cherry reinforcement stripe, jatoba binding, teak bridge, fretboard, and tuning pegs. Many luthiers might assume that a soprano ukulele would be a more straightforward first build due to its smaller size, but that's not the case. From experience, smaller instruments like ukuleles require greater precision in measurements, making them more challenging to craft. I didn't choose the ukulele for ease; I simply wanted to make my favorite instrument. At home, the tiny soprano ukulele is always the first thing I pick over all other instruments. It has a beautiful jangle that always makes me smile, even when playing the saddest melodies. I finished this ukulele at the shop in Chicago, but it wasn't until driving across the country, back to California, that I played her first chord. The journey back to California was during COVID, so we camped out on my grandparents' front lawn that night as I filed the nut slots, strung her up, and finally heard her sing. I named her Adsila in honor of my grandfather, whose ancestors were Cherokee—"adsila," meaning "blossom." That night, on Grandpa's lawn, Adsila rose from the earth like a flower pushing through cracked concrete, making that dark time a whole lot brighter.

See Adsila's journey and hear her sing!