Chris was raised making things--he was born into it. He grew up in the midst of a 16-year long renovation of an 1830's post and beam farmhouse in the mountains of New Hampshire. When not making spaceships out of scrapwood, he could be found either on the ski slopes as a child ski-racer or in the pottery studio of his coach's wife, Mary-Jean Lucky. It was under Mary-Jean and Tom's guidance that he learned the ways of clay and natural aesthetics from around age 8 until he went off to college.
While attending Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine during his high school years, he spent a lot of his time in the Art Cottage. It was there that he had his first exposure to silversmithing and blacksmithing and where he started his formal education in fine art. He would continue this effort at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, where he studied in the Furniture Design, Metals and Jewelry, and Sound Design departments.
During high school and summers home from college, Chris helped his father renovate old New England houses into rental apartments, the family business. After graduating from SCAD and setting up shop in what would have been his bedroom (seriously...he slept in the dining room with the band saw), his father gave him the table saw that he had bought to build furniture with 25 years prior.
In 2004, Chris moved to Baltimore, MD to begin the next stage of life. It was here that he finally set up an honest-to-goodness shop to start what eventually became Capranemus. (It's probably time to explain the goofy name: pronounced Kap-rah-NEE-mus, it's a loose latinization of something along the lines of "Goat Tree" or "Goat Glade". And that's simply because Chris is a bit of a nerd and has always like goats and trees...)
Since then, Chris has lived and worked in the Woodberry neighborhood of Baltimore, MD with his girlfriend, weaver Carly Goss (of Carlybird Weaves fame), enjoying its delightful forest trails and rich industrial history. They both maintain work spaces in the historic Hooperwoods Mill.