I started doing woodworking with my father around 1998. At the time, it seemed tedious and boring, a chore. Now that I have been doing woodturning for almost 2 years, it is still time-consuming, but no longer boring.

The first woodworking project I undertook by myself, was making an urn for my father. He had a piece of Purpleheart wood that he kept saving for "something special." What would be more special than his urn?

I later took the scraps of the leftover wood – Purpleheart and Maple – and made pens and Christmas ornaments for family members.

Lee Keith Samuelson, Sr. (1938-2004)

The beauty of wood is in its imperfections. If that were the same with humans, I'd be a "hottie."

Below are examples of some pens and wine stoppers that I have made. I made the pens for FreedomPens.org, which is a project set up for woodturners across the country to make pens for our fighting men and women in uniform.