Welcome to Clinton Craft!

   ClintonCraft exists because I've never been content to leave well enough alone. I'm a tweaker, a customizer, and an incurably curious builder. I've always looked at an object, a process, or a problem and immediately wondered, "How could I make this better? Or make it myself?"

   That mindset started early. I still remember being in second grade when a classmate brought a toy to school. Instead of thinking, "I want one," my first thought was, "I could make that." I went home and tried carving it out of a bar of soap. Needless to say, I didn't yet have the skills to pull it off—but I had discovered something much more important: the joy of figuring things out.

   Ever since then, I've spent my life collecting the skills needed to turn ideas into reality.

   Woodworking was my first serious craft. My dad had a woodshop when I was growing up, he let me experiment with tools there, and I watched him build things for our home. Later, wanting to experience the incredible feeling of playing music with my feet, I built my own MIDI AGO organ pedalboard from leftover pieces of maple flooring. Once I realized I could build the things I wanted instead of buying them, one woodworking project quickly led to another.

   As always, those projects demanded new skills. A design required some basic metalworking, so I learned metalworking. Around the same time I began designing a nine-string guitar that would combine bass and guitar on a single neck without compromising tuning relationships, string intervals, or note layout. Building that instrument meant learning guitar electronics, winding my own pickups, and diving into increasingly complex electronics projects. Every new challenge opened the door to another discipline.

   While all of this was happening, I was teaching orchestra in public schools. Early in my career, a friend who owned a violin shop offered to teach me basic luthiery in exchange for helping prepare his rental fleet for the upcoming school year. I took that training, invested in my own tools, and eventually began doing all of my school's string instrument repairs myself. It saved the music program money, allowing us to purchase more instruments for students—a trade I considered well worth the many, many hours spent repairing instruments outside of school.

   Not long afterward, I discovered another challenge. As a traveling orchestra teacher serving five different schools, I wanted a single instrument that would let me demonstrate both violin and viola parts that I was teaching. A friend owned a five-string viola, and it seemed like the perfect solution—but it was well beyond my budget. Then I found a partially completed viola body online. I bought it, finished the carving, modified the pegbox for five strings, fitted the bridge and soundpost, varnished it, and completed my first custom five-string viola. The project was such a success that I eventually built several more, along with additional violins for my students.

   Luthiery naturally grew into building entirely new instruments (mostly electric guitars and basses thus far), designing MIDI controllers, expanding my recording studio, and eventually building a home studio into what had once been a simple closet. Every project taught me something that became useful in the next one. One skill led to another, which led to another, and the process continues today.

   I've realized that the real reward isn't the finished object. It's the process of learning, designing, solving problems, and creating something that didn't exist before - it's often more fun to build the tools!

That same mindset has influenced every part of my life. I've built sophisticated spreadsheets and automated countless administrative tasks for my classroom. I've learned to repair, modify, and detail my own vehicles. I've designed and built custom shop tools whenever the right tool didn't exist—or cost more than I wanted to pay, or I wanted more features than manufactured tools and products had. Every project seems to branch into several more, each introducing new techniques, new ideas, and new opportunities to learn.

Over the years, many of these skills have grown into side businesses. This website is where those paths come together. It's a place to share the projects I enjoy creating, document what I've learned, and offer my skills to others.

   Whether you're simply browsing out of curiosity or looking for someone to help bring an idea to life, welcome. I hope you enjoy exploring Clinton Craft, and if you are here to hire me to detail your car, or build you a guitar, I hope you are thrilled with the results!