My Story

I am in no way a carpenter, trying to measure or put something together is beyond anything I can comprehend but I am working on it, “it’s all about having the right tools and the right tools cost $$$”.

I stumbled across wood burning and wood carving and fell in love with it. I take pieces of wood that I find laying around or happen to stumble upon while out and about and try to turn them into sculptures that would look neat sitting around. The more comfortable I got I wanted to find something I could make that would be useful, so I decided to start making sculptures with the purpose of making them lamps. Along with the lamps came coasters but not your typical coaster, these coasters are rustic and unique, designed for the MAN CAVE or the SHE SHED.

I hope you enjoy searching through the site, everything is made by me in a shed by hand, so how did I get here….

My story starts with me not being handy whatsoever, I was raised in a house where my father taught me how to hit a baseball and shoot a basketball, not how to use a hammer or put anything together “I am a product of my environment”. I have been a softball coach for the past 15 years, leading my high school team to a Pennsylvania District III 4A championship in 2021. I also coach a travel team that has me away most of the summer. I have two kids both out of school and a beautiful wife of 20 plus years.

THE WIFE

My wife is the handy one, she is the one you go to if something needs fixed in the house and also if you’re hungry, the true glue gal that makes it all work but this about being handy, not about being hungry. She puts everything together, tears down walls, remodels the kitchen, runs new electrical wire in the house, you get the picture man, we go to the home improvement store and she is the one talking to the men in the orange vest, while I stand proudly behind her, because I married a strong, independent women. I love when she teaches the old orange vest guys a thing or two and they are amazed. Needless to say I love her and what she does for the family is not lost on me.

THE NAME

Just Breathe 13 wood sculpting comes from being a HUGE PEARL JAM fan, sometimes when things are not going the way you want and you feel like your back is against the wall, just breathe!

13 comes from me being very superstitious and my favorite number. My superstition rules are quite different from most, 13 is a lucky number, black cats running in front of you are good luck (We have two black cats), breaking a mirror is good luck, having the opportunity to walk under a ladder is good luck but only if they all happen organically.

How I got here

Like I said above Me handy = NOPE but when I stumbled across the world of wood burning and wood carving I was fascinated because it was something I could do, let me repeat that, it’s something I can do, I didn’t say I was great at it but what I realized quickly was I didn’t have to be good at it, there is no rhyme or reason (little Dave Mathews band plug) the things that I was making looked pretty cool to me and then they looked pretty cool to some other people, what I was creating was a form of art, each piece I carved, while not perfectly hand crafted with the finest tools creating the perfect cuts and lines, they were made by a dude with a mask, glasses and ear buds. Lost in my own world with most likely pearl Jam playing with saw dust flying through the air.

Everything wrong with the world goes away!

The Goal!

I have worked the same desk job for 25 plus years, and while I am grateful to have a job as it pays the ever - growing bills and my job has allowed me to cut my days short in the spring in order to coach softball, my desk job is not what I envision for myself. Coaching softball has been a passion of mine, as I have enjoyed guiding young female athletes to become strong independent women, but I am ready for it to be done especially now that I have found my life after softball in wood carving.

My “wishlist” is that the stuff I make is something that others might like to see in or around their homes.

What your will find

Distressed Coasters

Bowls

Log Lamps

Wood sculptures

Pine cones

Whatever else the creative juices muster up as the more I do this the better I will get. Thank you for taking the time to read my story, don’t forget to follow on Facebook and Instagram.