I am a third generation building contractor who after 40 years of building custom homes in North San Diego County have recently retired into a South Oceanside bungalow where I have built a custom Wood Shop-Studio.  It was late in my building career when I started designing houses to sell which enabled and brought out in me a latent creativity.  Also, during the recession of 2008-9 I was afforded free time which I used to take a drawing class and started doing some free carving with wood…I discovered an unknown talent and then knew what I wanted to do when I retired.  Due to my contacts in people still doing new construction I have access to many different types of wood from trees cleared from private property that I recover before being burnt or hauled to a landfill.  I currently specialize in hardwoods from orange, ash and oak but really prefer to work with the root and burl wood from manzanita, redshank and olive.  Some of this wood takes up to a year to cure before use which tries my patience but gives me a future to look forward to.  I find it really rewarding to dig up a root burl, cure it and start cleaning and cutting into it to see what it wants to become…it really evolves with me along for the ride.  At that point the colors, patterns, textures and smells are payment enough for my time spent.