Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Graduated from Courter Tech high school.
Got drafted into the army. After leaving the army, moved to California; first to the San Fernando valley,
then to Los Angelos where I worked as a mechanical designer / draftsman until I started school full time at Los Angelos City College, then back to the valley at Cal State University at Northridge.
My first experience with jewelry was when I saw a student selling spoon and fork jewelry to another student. The craftsman was Jamal Mims. We became good friends and he was my first teacher.
I was a Design Major when I saw the jewelry design class students soldering. I thought I could use that technique to make brass and glass furniture, so I took the jewelry design class.
About this time I had been in college for 4 years and was ready for a change, so I moved back to Cincy. I got a job designing automatic sprinkler systems. I did not fit in the corporate world. I was told by my employer that they could not pay me anymore, so they gave me separation pay and I left. I moved to Atlanta. After about a month there, I had no job and very little money left. I noticed street vendors selling spoon and fork jewelry. I figured that I could make jewelry and sell it until I found a job. To my surprise, on my first day selling jewelry, I made as much money as my previous job had paid me and I was having fun while doing it. This was in June of 1974 and that was the last time I looked for a job. I've been making jewelry ever since.
Last year I celebrated 37 years in the craft. I feel truly blessed that I have been able to earn a living and to travel to many parts of the world by doing something that I love to do.
There have been many ups and downs but I'm still here and still doing it and am very grateful for it.
In the process I have learned from a master goldsmith from Senegal named Musa Gaye, a master carver named Chino Sababa Bahuti from Tanzania, a master engraver named Luis from Costa Rica and from many brothers and sisters here in the U.S. namely Eugene Grreen, Brother Saluki, and Sister Sufia Muslima, to name just a few.