I started out in the early 1980's as a mechanical engineer working to design and install modern sailing rigs on cargo ships. From there I worked at a place that designed and refined medical equipment. It was there that I discovered modern kaleidoscopes in a gallery near where I ate lunch. I thought to myself, "I could make these." Four months later I was laid off. This was in 1987 and it was time to go somewhere else, so I moved from Boston to Colorado. I have been making kaleidoscopes in one form or another ever since.