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I kind of feel like I was meant to be

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blind just able to see things from a

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completely different point of view

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it took some courage to these different

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tools but when I'm working a piece of

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wood it feels very peaceful it's got

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such a fluid feel to it that it's almost

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like another dog I can feel it flow and

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change and then I turn it off announce

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it beautiful ornate bold I grew up in a

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small town in Colorado I felt like I

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never really fit in a lot there

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it really started making me feel

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depressed so when I was 16 I attempted

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suicide by shooting myself I didn't want

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to face the world anymore the more I

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think about it the older I get the less

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it makes sense luckily I only lost my

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sense of sight and smell and left my

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mind totally intact

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I learned woodworking about eight years

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after I became blind I went to a

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training center for blind people I

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started going to that woodshop and

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discovered I just had a knack for it you

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know I'd never thought of woodworking

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after I was blind but I come to learn

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that there is actually a very large

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community of blind woodworkers it was

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just incredible for me it just opened up

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my world

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my wife Annie helps me in so many ways

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she has been an enormous part of my

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woodworking she helps me select

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different colors of wood for one thing

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but she's also the one that bought me my

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lathe she supports me in every way and

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just has been a wonderful part of my

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life I mean out here in my woodshop

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about six hours most days and can't tell

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you how nice it is when I'm out here

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covered in wood chips I start with my

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rough piece of wood you know measure it

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and see will this make a bowl or a

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canister or a jewelry dish the best from

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there I I turn on the design program in

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my mind I call it my imagination is

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still so visual you know cut it into a

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usable block on the saw basically if you

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follow the rules blind or sighted keep

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my hands where they're supposed to be a

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saw works like a saw and there's really

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not much you can do about that and then

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I mount it to the lathe and turn it into

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a piece of art

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I love the sounds it makes when you're

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carving cuz different cuts will make

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different sounds and then I'm really got

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it going right and I'm making the

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sweeping cut into a bowl it's just kind

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of a hist it I feel the wood as it's

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spinning with my left hand and I carved

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with the right hand and I can feel it

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transform under my fingers as I'm

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cutting the wood away with the chisel I

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can transform just a rough stump of wood

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into a piece of art that looks like

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wooden pottery

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it's like you can feel the life in it it

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just has this kind of magic to it it's

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been one of the most fundamentally

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life-changing things for me because I

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have something I'm good at and it

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produces something in the end