I was born in Shelton, WA, in 1954 and raised mainly in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.At the age of 25, I had worked at about 25 different jobs, everything from plastics manufacturing tosaw chair production at Omak Industries. I worked in a cabinet shop for a short while and liked it morethan other professions I had experience with, much more than being a garbage collector.After moving to Bend, Oregon, at the end of the ’70s, I was working in a Reman Saw Mill, and a friendasked me if I would be interested in an assembly position at a local cabinet shop. I worked at BendCabinet for four years as a nailer at first, but along the way, I learned every aspect of the business, includinginstallations into the mid-80s. The shop was then purchased by one Larry Wilson, who transformed thecompany into a fixture shop building restraint fixtures from New York to Hawaii; our bread and butterwork was for Shari’s Restaurant and Pie Houses. I worked 4 10-hour days a week, Monday throughThursday. Lary was kind enough to allow me to use his extensive shop on Fridays, and I started makingfurniture after being exposed to an issue of Fine Woodworking Magazine. Eventually, I set up my shopand discovered I was competing against retired doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc. Most of them workfor the pleasure of such things.I was given a lathe by a friend, and soon I was off and running; it’s now 30 years later, and 95% of myskills are self-taught. When I am turning, I am not working but immersing myself in something I love todo. Hopefully, that shows through. I lost my father in 1996 quite suddenly; his first name is my middlename, I signed all my work Phillip Lewis Day to honor him and all that he did for me.