I have worked with wood since childhood, receiving my early training from my father. While in high school I attended Mary Karl Vocational School in Daytona Beach, Florida, which later became part of what is now Daytona State College, taking woodworking classes at night with my Dad.

For the first 22 years of my adult life I was with the United States Air Force. One of the benefits I realized was the "base hobby shops". With the exception of Vietnam and Thailand everywhere I was stationed there was a fully equipped woodworking shop with instructors available. After retiring from the Air Force in 1989, I was introduced to polyhedrons by my life long friend Ron Wheeler. I have had an avid interest in these geometric shapes called “polyhedra” ever since.

I like to express the natural beauty of wood so all my creations are made from solid stock, not veneers or plywood and I have not used stains, varnishes or shellac since 2001. In the '90s I stained three polyhedrons and hated the results each time. Varnishes and shellac are very difficult to apply without getting runs and sags unless they are applied to a flat surface and polyhedra are anything but flat. So what do I use? The answer is finishing oil.

Mainly Linseed oil with a touch of varnish and a proprietary solvent, finishing oil is very easy to apply; and no runs drips or errors! The process is lengthy though, compared to other finishes but the results are very satisfying.

In my mahogany shapes a shift from light to dark and honey blond to dark brown can be seen with a change in the direction of light. If these pieces were stained this light shift would not be so prevalent, if at all. Oil penetrates the wood and brings out its natural beauty without having to look through a surface film.

I have no formal training but my experience with wood has been life long, culminating with the polyhedron. There are no books, plans or instructions of any type that I know of that show how to make a polyhedron from wood, so what I know today was gained the hard way. Instructions are abundant for two dimensional paper folding (origami) but not for three dimensional wood.

Simply put, polyhedra are three dimensional geometric shapes who’s faces are made of regular polygons, making most of them somewhat spherical in shape. Polyhedra are nothing new; simple shapes made by ancient man have been discovered across Europe and Asia, some estimated to be 4000 years old. Polyhedra are also found in nature in the form of crystals, plant and animal life. Common table salt crystals look like little cubes.