About

Our life together, and with family, has always been anchored by shared imagination—the kind of creative partnership where an idea becomes a sketch, then a plan, then something you can hold in your hands. For decades we’ve dreamed up furniture and art, then set a path to make those ideas real. That rhythm—imagine, build, refine—has been with us from the beginning.

A LIFE IN SCIENCE, A LIFE IN CRAFT

For forty-five years, we lived our professional lives as physicians, immersed in science and data, and in the intimate, daily work of caring for patients with kidney disease. Alongside that life, we tended another—one shaped by building, writing, painting, and a close attention to the small, telling details that give a life its texture. Creative work was never a counterpoint to medicine; it was another language for understanding it, another way of seeing what might otherwise go unnoticed. Now, in this new chapter, Henscratch Studios offers the freedom to follow that instinct without pause—a “dream it and do it” space where ideas move easily from thought into form.

WRITING SHAPED BY TIME AND CHANGE

The writing that lives here began long before the studio had a name. The Henscratch Essays grew from twenty years of journaling about family life on the farm—quiet, observational pieces that hold humor, tenderness, and the meaning tucked inside ordinary days. The Bit by Bit essays emerged from monthly dinners in the 1990s, when conversations about technology and informatics were becoming part of everyday life. Together, these writings trace the arc of a family learning, working, and growing through years of change.

WHERE EXPERIENCE BECOMES ARCHIVE

Our audio work extends that arc. Voice Expeditions gathers conversations with people whose lived experiences deserve to be heard and held. The Nephrology Oral History preserves the voices of colleagues who shaped the field we spent our careers in—a record of insight, memory, and the evolution of kidney care.

“Creative work wasn’t a counterbalance to medicine;
it was another way of understanding it.”

- Frank Maddux

A CRAFT BORN IN OUR FIRST KITCHEN

Our woodworking story began the day we bought our first house. On a tight budget and full of optimism, we gently took apart the kitchen and rebuilt it ourselves—cabinets, countertops, everything. We made our first tables and benches for that home, and we’ve been designing and building ever since: benches, desks, beds, tables, bookshelves, and blanket chests. Each new idea led to new skills—joinery, finishes, reclaimed materials—and the sense that there is always more to learn.

CRAFTING THE LIFE WE’RE LIVING

Henscratch Studios is the natural gathering place for all of this: the stories, the wood, the voices, the long partnership, close family, and the curiosity that carried us through medicine and into making. It reflects the life we’ve lived and points toward the family life we’re building now—one shaped by craft, attention, and the ongoing work of creating things that matter.