Bristlecone is not new, but our Artfire store is. We have hundreds of perfect transactions over many years of service. Bristlecone in its many incarnations is over 23 years old, and came about from my natural attraction to the beautiful organic forms that nature makes. After a childhood full of collecting interesting branches, roots, stones, and leaves, well I had to do something with it. I found wood to be a fairly forgiving medium that holds a natural beauty. And, of course, having a woodworking shop gives me a reason to bring home anything that catches my eye during my Mountain wanderings. When I was 15, I opened a shop at the Colorado Renaissance festival where I was making carved walking sticks, chess sets and many other things. As I became aware of peoples need for beautiful, useful tools, then I felt I had found my niche. My interest in woodturning grew from wanting to make attractive and useful tools. Looking back through the rich history of fiber arts I continue to discover many wonderful tools that were relied on to produce fabric, clothes, and blankets. I then add their function with my want to beautify the design, and craft a new tool. I love the fiber arts, and behind the scenes I am developing designs and prototypes for spinning wheels, spindles, felting tools, weaving shuttles, hooks and needles, etc. The custom work I craft encompasses all types of fiber related arts. You may not see them in my store, but I make weaving shuttles, shawl pins, kitchen tools, and much more. My family all practice fiber arts skills (spinning, knitting, weaving, crochet, felting, etc) so naturally I have a close 'test' audience and they are tremendously helpful in guiding my designs Our home is off the grid, so naturally the shop is solar powered as well. This is limiting in the amount of power I can use during long cloudy times. So during those times I work by hand. We chose years ago to live efficiently and simply and over the years have been practicing the lifelong art of building and rebuilding a homestead . Healthy crafting is very important to us, and we assume, to everyone. Why craft anything that causes discomfort, or is made of cold unfriendly materials. I like to think that what I craft is warm and pleasing, both to the eye and the hand. It is my hope that my tools will be used throughout time and handed down to the next eager hobbiest/crafter/artist. Therefore they should be made from simple friendly materials that can be used over and over again. Often the materials I am using are recycled from some other purpose, where they are no longer useful. The finish I protect the woods with is simple, natural and wholesome and has also been time tested and favored amongst woodworkers for many centuries.