Workbench with tools in Birdseye’s Vermont woodshop.
Meet Guy, our woodshop foreman, and Gigi, his big dog with a little dog name. He manages the shop floor, oversees production, and guides the team through projects from design to finish, all while building works of his own.
We sat down with Guy to hear the story of how a marine biologist and woodworking hobbyist becomes a professional woodworker—from where he started to how he got here to what’s kept him coming back to the woodshop for 18 years and counting.
Woodworking hasn’t always been the focus of Guy’s career, but it’s always been a part of his life. “Since I was a kid, I’ve enjoyed building things and woodworking, but it was a hobby. When I went to college, we needed things. A coffee table, a dresser, bunk beds. Rather than going out and buying those things, I just built them. I get more satisfaction out of this thing that I made. It's this tangible thing that I created.”
Guy initially studied marine biology, which led him to the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys after graduation where he researched and trained dolphins and sea lions. Working on the Gulf side, he prepared the dolphins for husbandry, veterinary care, and hurricane season on the open ocean. He also had the opportunity to work with kids through the Dolphin Child Program, an enriching program for children with disabilities that allowed them to interact with dolphins from the dock. “I saw some really amazing things happen down there. I saw kids who had never spoken before, and their first word was ‘Merina,’ the name of one of the dolphins. Interacting with the dolphins was a very powerful thing to hold their attention.”
It was in the Keys that Guy also met his wife, a fellow dolphin trainer at the research center and a native Vermonter. When an opportunity to finish her education at the University of Vermont arose, Guy and his wife left their work, headed north, and traded the Gulf of Mexico for Lake Champlain.
Without any dolphins to train on the lake, Guy had to find a new way to spend his 9–5. He started working alongside his father-in-law, a professional woodworker, 17th-century furniture reproducer, and museum curator. “I was building furniture pieces for museums and people who might've lost out on the original piece at an auction but commissioned us to reproduce it. That was really the springboard from hobby into profession for me.”
After spending some time as a self-employed cabinet maker and a woodworker in a high-end woodshop for a couple of years, Guy found his way to Birdseye, right as our woodshop was taking shape in the early aughts, and he was quickly promoted to woodshop foreman.
Guy Owens restoring a historic wood newel post.
Measuring handcrafted wood details with precision.
Guy Owens fitting a restored newel post in the shop.
Completed newel post on the Birdseye workbench.
“Everybody's got square rooms. What piques my interest the most is making curved pieces. They require you to think outside the box, quite literally. When people see the end product, they have to wonder, ‘man, how did they do that?”
From a hobbyist building utilitarian furniture to an experienced woodworker carving complex pieces, Guy has honed his craft in our shop, and he’s known for loving a good challenge. “I routinely come in and scratch my head and think, well, we've never built one of those before, but we'll figure out how to do it. I enjoy the mental stimulation of making new things.”
If Guy looks familiar, you may know him from his viral Instagram reel in which he demonstrated yakisugi (also referred to by its misnomer, shō sugi ban), a traditional Japanese method for preserving wood with fire. Transforming planks of wood into something both resilient and beautiful, he charred the material that would become the entry door for a highly customized music studio, featured in the July/August 2025 issue of Dwell. Tucked away in the woods of northern Vermont, Guy’s charred door integrates into the surrounding environment while protecting itself from being weathered by the elements.
Beyond his viral fire moment, Guy is drawn to crafting anything curved. “Everybody's got square rooms. I like things that are outside of the box, quite literally. It’s more impressive when you see the end product. You have to wonder, man, how did they do that?” Among his favorite curved works is the elliptical room at Aerie Point, one part of a full-scale historic preservation and new construction project by the lake. It was the ultimate woodworking challenge—and reward. The build couldn’t be a simple curve because, at any point in the room, the radius was changing. Guy and the woodshop team had to get creative with the build; they ended up making a third of the ellipse at one time so that all the parts of the room would fit together seamlessly.
Guy has been woodworking with us for nearly two decades now. When we asked him what keeps him here, a couple of things came to mind. “It's both the work and the people. We do this exceptional stuff that we're always pushing the boundaries, and the people I do it with are great.” It’s people like Guy that keep our woodshop sharp and crafting pieces with precision and purpose.
Interview by Mikulak DesignWords by Mallory StaubPhotography by Elias Gillen
From viral reel to Dwell: yakisugi entry door. (Photography by Ryan Bent)
Hand-worn mallets and woodworking tools.
Carved wood panel design in Birdseye woodshop.
Guy Owens building a custom drawer.
Gigi, shop dog and loyal companion, waiting outside.
