Michael’s passion for wood has sparked all manner of design projects that give new form and function to materials he’s discovered in specialty shops, demolition sites and as found objects in nature. From Ontario tiger maple to African exotics to reclaimed vintage pieces, these unique works track Michael’s inventiveness, his mastery of woodworking himself—when was the last time you met a real live luthier?—and his sheer love of the stuff trees are made of.

Music Room

Michael designed and hand built this rehearsal/recording space; the horizontal wood components are mathematically dimensioned and aligned by Fibonacci series for maximum acoustic precision and fidelity.

This is making an isolated space beautiful. Very clever using found materials, and inexpensive wood for extraordinary value. They've made very good economical use of this space.

- Jury (The Wood Design Awards 2007, A North American Program of Architectural Excellence

Guitars

A guitarist himself, Michael has apprenticed to a guitar maker, repaired the instruments of the likes of blues master Buddy Guy and handmade a prototype bass for Sting, of The Police.

Sting and his band were at the height of their band’s global fame; the bass was a state-of-the-art instrument Michael arranged to give to the singer-songwriter in Toronto in 1982, in an encounter enlivened by Sting’s fellow bandmates Andy Summers and Steward Copeland asking where their basses were.

Michael didn’t enlighten them: he’d already made a second prototype—his.