I enjoy photography but never seem to have enough time to pursue it. I love shooting animals and nature.

I also enjoy woodworking. We recently moved to a new home where we have some acreage with a lot of native trees and shrubs. I started cutting into some of the pruned limbs and discovered that a lot of the wood that I'd never heard of or at least seen being used for woodworking was often some of the most beautiful.

My wife, the sewing, weaving, knitting fiber arts type that she is, suggested I make some buttons and pins out of a mountain mahogany clipping our neighbor cut, so I did. It was wonderful wood and looked fantastic. That got me started.

I opened a shop on Etsy - south4th.etsy.com - and started selling some of the pieces. I've had a lot of fun and met some of the greatest people.