My interest in woodworking began around 2012, I was a junior in High School. Though I distinctly remember cutting pieces of wood with a hand saw in Pre-Kindergarten when I was 4 or 5, so maybe the seed was planted then. In my junior year of high school I had a mentor, my U.S. History Teacher. He asked me to give up my biggest waste of time for Lent. It was undoubtably video games.

I suddenly had a lot of open time on my hands. I got bored. Woodworking seemed cool. I bought some terrible X-acto carving chisels from an art supply store, grabbed some 2x4 bits from the shed, and started making shavings. To be honest, I didn’t really make anything but a mess. I could picture objects in the block, but lacked the skills to reveal them. It wasn’t long before I wanted more firepower. I pulled out Dad’s terrifying old chop saw, which always squealed to life, but didn’t always shut down when you took your finger off the trigger. Bought small Craftsman Bandsaw for $20 at a garage sale, and an old drill got me going.

I learned what I could with those tools, made what I could, found what I wanted to make next, and figured out what tool or technique I would need for that future project. Rinse, repeat. Like a snowball rolling downhill I amassed a serious workshop and a few skills over the years.

In 2015, I took my first proper woodworking courses at Orange Coast Community College. My then girlfriend, now wife, Hallie came up with the name - Melde Made - when I wanted to start selling some little craft faire things under a business name. I started building more serious projects for clients off and on while working towards my Bachelor’s Degree in History in 2018 and my Social Science Teaching Credential in 2020.

Being set loose into the job market for teaching at the same time of the covid lockdowns extinguished my naive first-year teacher attitude. I went back to the only other thing I knew how to do, building stuff.

In the middle of 2021 I left teaching behind and began wood working full time. I am trying to grow this business and put some beauty into the world, hopefully for generations to come. If you want some functional beauty in your home, we are here to help.

Thank you!