As a boy growing up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, summer meant the beach. Sun, surf, and turning over rocks in search of crabs — cheap entertainment on a sunny day.

My dad always pointed us over the bridge into Southern Maine. I could never put my finger on why, but riding in the back seat and crossing into Maine, something in me lifted. Blue skies, salt air, wide sandy beaches. I think Dad felt it too — he's the one who kept taking us over that bridge.

Life carried on. The family grew up, my career came and went, and then — funny how these things work — I found myself living in Southern Maine, just down the road from those same beaches. That's where raw leather and a carving tool got their hooks into me.

Today every bracelet I make is cut, tooled, dyed and finished by hand at my bench in Wells, a few miles from the water. Each one carries a little of that back-seat feeling: sunshine, salt air, and the coast of Maine.

Welcome to Sunshine in Maine. I hope one of these finds a wrist near you.