01
Old-world training
Taught on a stump beside a grandfather born in 1902 — a man who could make anything with his hands, and who never reached for a shortcut.
The hands behind the work
David — Founder of SoulCraft Studio
Fifty years of making, from a farm stump in the early ’70s to a three-discipline studio floor in Austin, Texas.
Three disciplines, one bench
Wood, metal, and leather
Wood
Hand-planed walnut, mortise and tenon, finishes rubbed in by hand.
Leather
Hand-cut hides, saddle-stitched seams, edges burnished slick.
Metal
Welded steel frames, forged hardware, blackened and waxed.
Born in the early ’70s and raised on a twelve-acre farm, David learned craft the old-world way — sitting on a stump beside his grandfather, a man born in 1902 who could make anything with his hands. There were no manuals and no shop-class shortcuts, just a knife, a piece of wood, and someone patient enough to let a kid ruin a few of them.
Simple whittling turned into a lifelong passion for wood, earning David a blue ribbon at the Heart of Texas Fair as a teenager. Over the years that passion expanded into metalwork, welding, and leathercraft — the three pillars SoulCraft Studio is built on today.
The shop still runs the the way the stump did: slowly, by hand, and with the assumption that whatever leaves the bench will be used hard for decades.
“My grandfather never bought a thing he could make. That’s still the measure.”
What shaped the work
Three things worth knowing
02
Blue ribbon, Heart of Texas
A teenage whittling habit turned serious enough to take a blue ribbon at the Heart of Texas Fair — the first proof the work was worth doing.
03
Three disciplines, one bench
Wood led to metal, metal led to leather. Today all three live under one roof and show up in the same piece more often than not.
The long way around
A working timeline
Early 1970s
Born to a twelve-acre farm
Raised where things got fixed instead of replaced. The farm set the standard: if it broke, you understood it well enough to make it right.
Boyhood
The stump and the pocketknife
Whittling beside his grandfather — the first lessons in grain, patience, and letting the material tell you what it wants to be.
Teenage years
Heart of Texas Fair
A blue ribbon for woodwork. Recognition that turned a pastime into a lifelong pursuit.
Adulthood
Fire and steel
Metalwork and welding entered the shop — the anvil, the hammer, and the heat that make a joint permanent.
Later
Leather at the bench
Hand-cut, hand-stitched leather rounded out the trio, adding the material that records every year it’s carried.
Today
SoulCraft Studio, Austin
A working Austin studio for small-batch goods, custom commissions, and hands-on classes — built on the three pillars of wood, metal, and leather.
Work with David
Commission a piece, or learn at the bench
Custom commissions start with a conversation about how the piece will be used. Classes put the tools in your hands the same way David learned — one material, one bench, one afternoon at a time.