About the Goblin

🌑 The Koan of the Silver Slippers

A misfit walked through the city’s neon haze wearing silver slippers.
A monk called out,
“Why do you walk like a ghost among machines?”

The misfit replied,
“I once chased gold,
but now I let time fall through my hands like water.”

The monk pointed to a wilted flower on the sidewalk.
“And what of that?”

The misfit wept.
“I am that flower—stuck in rain,
and radiant all the same.”

The monk smiled,
and vanished into smoke.

🌲 Who is the Forest Goblin?

The Forest Goblin is not a brand. Not a persona.
He is me—full form, no stops.

He is the part of me that remembered what the world had asked me to forget. He walks slowly. He listens deeply. He builds with soul.

Before all this, I was a backend software engineer in high finance - and a bit of an outlier in more than just my career. I’ve always moved differently. Thought sideways. Felt more. Even in childhood, I sensed I was tuned to a quieter frequency.

I built and tended to complex systems that moved with speed and resiliency—but inside, I was moving too fast to hear my own self. I was overstimulated, over-performing, and out of rhythm with my own being. 

 

But this story isn’t about escape. It’s about return. 

 

🌿 The Way of the Grove

The Forest Goblin was born not from ambition, but from listening—
To wind. To trees. To silence. To myself.
To the child who memorized a tool catalog before he knew his ABCs.
To the part of me that never stopped loving tools, design, and artistic creation.

The more time I spent in the forest—hiking and driving in Yosemite, in the deep woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—the more I remembered who I was:

Not a machine.
Not a performer.
But a maker. A philosopher. A quiet soul.
Someone meant to move at the pace of presence.

Now, I craft fine custom woodworking with slowness and soul.
Every board, every edge, every pass of a tool is a conversation.
Each piece demands my attention—and in turn, gives me back to myself.

This craft heals me.
It grounds me.
It reminds me that presence is not a luxury—it’s a way of life.
The shop is my temple. The grain is my guide. The act of making is my meditation. I listen, not to hear, but to understand.

🪵 What I Create

Through my fine woodworking shop, The Forest Goblin, I build:

  • Heirloom-quality cutting boards and home furnishings
  • Custom commissions
  • Functional art shaped by soul, stillness, and sacred utility

Everything I make is slow-crafted and detail-driven.
I do not cut corners. I do not rush.
I work with reverence—for the wood, for the process, for the people who will one day hold what I’ve made.

📜 The Goblin’s Code

This isn’t a list of rules. This is how I live.

  • Go slow enough to feel.
  • Let your nervous system set the pace.
  • Make only what you can be proud to leave behind.
  • Treat each tool like an old friend.
  • Let silence speak.
  • Build for the next generation, not just the next sale.
  • Honor beauty as sacred.
  • Trust in what can’t be spoken.
  • Remember the old ways.
  • Stay weird, stay kind, stay honest.

🕯️ A Final Note

I do this work not only for others,
but for myself—
To stay whole in a world that asks us to fragment.
To find peace in each pass of a tool.
To touch mystery through matter.

I believe in tools.
I believe in presence.
I believe in work that heals, holds, and remembers.

Welcome to the grove.
May what you find here be beautiful, useful, and a bit enchanted.

→ Explore my work
→ Commission a piece or begin a collaboration