Carl Swensson

Carl Swensson was a tennis pro in the San Francisco Bay Area back when one could still buy a wooden racket and a white tennis ball. Plagued by a bad knee and desiring to do something more creative, he considered other career options. Carl returned to school to study woodworking. After school, he returned home to Baltimore, Maryland, and set up shop. For a time, Carl studied Japanese woodworking with a master builder of Japanese tea houses. He has built everything from Buddhist temple doors to ladderback chairs. Currently, he is making wooden parts for a church organ being built in Virginia, and teaching classes at Country Workshops in North Carolina, where he has taught for more than 20 years.