Furniture designer Donny Faris got the idea for making geometrically shaped table legs when he was a student at Portland State University. “I had a job in the facilities department, and, one day, I accidentally knocked a bunch of signs off of a desk,” he says. “They fell into a twisty shape that intrigued me. After work, I went home and made my first table with a stack of picture frames that rotated off each other.”

For metal artist John Xóchihua, creating a new piece usually leads to an entirely different product line in his always growing lineup of offerings. “I have a hard time staying in one category,” he says. “I made trellises, for example, which led me to an interest in stone slabs. Seeing how beautiful the stones looked when they were wet got me interested in doing water features.”

Glass artist Jolly Wahlstrom began his artistic career as a woodworker. “I grew up on a small farm in Northern Minnesota, in a family that didn’t have a lot of money,” he says. “When I was 19, I wanted a musical instrument, so I had to make it myself. I made an Appalachian dulcimer, and that was the beginning of my career as a craftsman.”

Growing up, fiber artist and painter Julie Simpson loved designing on graph paper. “I spent many, many hours coloring and drawing and making designs in the squares,” says the Olympia, Wash.-based artist. “I think all the time I spent doing that still influences my love of color and structure.”

In 1968, when she was 18 years old, Portland glass artist Linda Ethier learned her first glass techniques from a friend who taught her how to make stained glass. “I loved all the colors of the glass,” she says. “I made some small pieces and began selling them at crafts fairs. I’ve been working in glass ever since.”

For engineer and artist Todd Loewy, designing furniture lets him combine his creative and mechanical sides. “I like to combine good design with clean structures to create something that is art, but is also useful,” he says.