The Staff

My name is Christine. I'm the girl creating the designs, sanding, sawing, painting, finishing, writing blog posts, talking on social media, and to clients about their projects.

I am always hugging trees. I graduated from The University of Texas at Dallas with a BS in Accounting, and then became a CPA in 2005. After almost 10 years in the tax profession, and a lot of soul searching, I decided it was time for a change. Once out of work, the creative bug that laid dormant for all those years, came to the surface. Shortly thereafter, Rustic Carvings was born. I have been saving wood from roadsides and trash bins ever since.

With the newest addition to our household, a little boy in late December 2011, the ability to be home and take care of him is a dream I never thought would come true. 

There are a few pieces of equipment that still scare me, like the table saw. And, the miter saw is still currently on the list of things I won't use anymore. That's where my husband, Sean, comes in.

He's taught me a lot, too. Like, what a scroll saw is, and how to use it. When I need a little brainstorming help, he assists. When the carving machine breaks down, he fixes it. He's my ultimate support system, and I couldn't do this without his help.

But his contributions do not end there. He is the master carpenter that puts together all of the memory boxes, and picture frames, that we make through Rustic Carvings. Teamwork!

Do I carve these things by hand? Heck no.

I create it on my computer and then through the magic of firmware, it goes into this machine, I call a robot, and he carves it out. His name is "Sparky".

It was originally "Carvey", but we've had to replace the main memory board, thus a name change felt appropriate.

Since the pieces do not look great when they're straight off the machine, my hands take over from there and cut and sand, sand, sand. Couldn't do this job without Sparky!