Stone has influenced my life and the way I look at many things since I started working with this remarkable material more than twenty years ago. It has shaped me physically, challenged my creativity, and intrigues me constantly. 

I have been attracted to the natural world as long as I can remember. When I was eleven years old, I met up with the earthly elements of stone and clay while traveling through New England. It was there that I noticed stone walls dotting the countryside and on that same trip I happened to watch a man turning clay on a potter's kick wheel.

In my early twenties I began working with clay while enrolled in the Production Crafts Program at Haywood Community College in Western North Carolina.  At HCC I learned what it means to be an artist and craftsman and from there pursued being a potter. I enjoyed turning out pots and firing kilns but became disenchanted with the amount of time spent indoors. After five years of making pottery I moved to Boone, North Carolina where I promptly met a stonemason named Robbie Oates.

I started working for Robbie immediately and by the end of the first week I knew I wanted to be a stonemason. Memories of New England stone walls returned the first time Robbie and I worked on a dry stone retaining wall. After an apprenticeship of two years I started my own company Circle of Stone in 1988.

In addition to running my business, I have authored two books on working with stone and taught 78 workshops on dry stone masonry. Now, with twenty years of creative masonry experience, I continue to find new challenges and opportunities with each project that comes my way. When you are doing what makes you happy you have the ability to attract other great opportunities into your life.