TechnicallyMagic

I'm both proud of my portfolio, and tired of looking at it. In hindsight there are a million things I wish I could go back and do, I guess that's the artist in me when you're frustrated with your own work. I'm usually happiest with the most recent thing. As far as what sucked, its usually when I'm in over my head doing something for not enough money, because the alternative was not having the project, not having any money coming in at all. That's happened a few times, always looking to have it happen less which it has, thankfully.

I was raised on a farm, we had subscriptions to National Geographic, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, the funny pages were popular, and I saw Star Wars at 11 in 97 when they released the Special EDition. I got all kinds of behind the scenes books, and logged countless hours in the farm shop building things and tearing things apart. I started helping my dad with his carpentry projects, my uncle with his metal fabricating projects, and took a 5 course sequence in CAD, CNC, Digital Electronics, and the like in high school.

I went to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh for Industrial Design with a focus in Special Effects. While I was there I was fortunate enough to have Glenn Currie as a guidance councilor, who let me bounce around between ID focuses, and do a sampler of courses for my credit requirements. I worked in the tool room lending tools to students, and maintaining tools and inventory. I also ended up starting Technically Magic while at school. I took on freelance work through graduating with a Bachelor of Science and winning Best in Show at portfolio review.

When I graduated I moved home, started my shop on the family farm, and teamed up with Jaye. He stuck around for several years but ultimately took a job in Pittsburgh. I moved to my new location, which I own, and which came with two units, and enough space for me to live and have my workshop. Since then I've added another unit, and I'm going to be starting a fifth. This property will be my retirement fund and equity, it can be feast or famine in this line of work and this is my financial rock.

I met my neighbor, the owner of BTH and we became friends, and he was impressed with what I bring to the table.

As far as getting work, my first few clients came into the school looking for cheap student work. I really don't market myself too much, projects happen at a manageable rate. I also sell kits of a video game prop I built, and if things get too crazy or I'm out of town installing tree houses or on set for a shoot, I can't get kits out fast enough, etc. So I try not to bury myself.

This is an interesting question. The bolts we install are actually supported as the tree continues to grow, it forms a collar and builds material to handle the load. We try to minimize the holes we punch in, and stack multiples which minimizes the routes we cut off from the roots (tree trunks are like a big bunch of straws so we avoid punching holes all around and prefer to stack them vertically). The arrestor that slides onto the bolt and supports the beams on which the house is built, has degrees of freedom and constraint that allow the tree to move and grow, unique to the project. In fact digging holes for concrete and poles, usually by hand, 48" deep on account of frost, in the woods with all the roots, is a whole day of work ("sure do hate hole day") which we don't have to do if we walk on site and set bolts in a tree and just take off and go. So I guess the answer is, without severe unforseen challenges, no posts is preferable all around.

There is a distinct magic quality, an X factor some ultra-practical people like yourself may not understand. There's a reason Pole Houses or Stilt Houses aren't the thing that treehouses are. If you look through my portfolio you'll notice we use posts set in concrete where it is necessary, for example when there is a suspension bridge, too much motion is transferred to the bolts bearing the house, when people use the bridge. When we can completely avoid posts and use only trees, we get more challenges but the end result is more exciting.

These fields are still difficult when it comes to justifying the immense cost in skilled labor. So I budget projects on a sliding scale of sorts, and I can say I've completed projects technically billable over 100k, but the largest actual budget has been more like a little more than half that.

EDIT: That's with Technically Magic, BTH hasn't had anything over $60k since I started but they've been at it for 8 seasons now and have much larger stuff in the past.