Born in 1986, I grew up in Anaheim, California until I was 5 with my parents, Cam and Cece Clitheroe, and my younger sister Katelynn and younger brother David.We moved to Hillsboro, OR in 1990 and I went to St. Matthews k-12 Catholic school. While attending St Matthews I dressed very similarly to Doug Funny from the Nickelodeon TV show, and was very shy. Regardless, I developed some lasting friendships and maintained my standing as one of the top smarty pants in my class. In 1995 we moved to a home behind Hillsboro High school, and in September of 2001 everyone in my class went on to private high schools, except for myself and a few others. I attended Hilhi, pursued as many accelerated classes as I could get my hands on, including International High school, and the International Baccalaureate program. Though I didn’t pursue the entire diploma, I maintained high marks while turning my focus more towards art . In that first year I met Sandy Johnson and she introduced me to the Society for Creative Anachronism, a community of medieval enthusiasts.
In 2003 I took a one week intensive class at the Oregon College of Art and Craft for metalsmithing and Jewelry, and from then on I was hooked. I took another Jewelry class from Ed and Cindy at Manny Bee’s Studio in Newberg, OR. I learned most of my basic Jewelry from them. I shortly after looked for a blacksmithing master and found Ralph Douglass through my parents’ church. I spent nearly 8 months working with him until the end of my senior year, when he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer and spent many months battling the infections that resulted. Ralph died shortly after I graduated. His wife, Dawn Douglass, graciously gave me some of his forging equipment and I plan to set it up as my primary forge once I get a more long term location.
I was accepted into the U of O and quickly began taking metalsmithing and jewelry classes through the department under Anya Kivarkis as the visiting professor. I also had the privilege of learning from Beth Greene and Kerry. I took both intro classes as quickly as I could after realizing that I knew all of the basics from my previous classes through PCC and OCAC. After that I began taking metalsmithing and jewelry every term. The terms were divided into subjects and we covered a very large array in the 9 classes I took, including forming, enameling, casting, chasing, etching, and a lot more. Throughout my time at the U of O I began to really develop my subject matter and found that while I was at times interested in exploring formal artistic topics, I was more fascinated by medieval aesthetics, historical reproduction, and creative expansion of artifacts. To the frustration of my professor I began pressing for “non conceptual art” because I felt that I was being directed to spend far too much time worrying about the validity of my concept and far too little perfecting the techniques. Regardless of this conflict, I found that a lot of what I was learning in my art history classes was very interesting, and though I developed a hatred for essays I loved to see the slides of art done thousands of years ago.
I finished my BA in Fine Arts at the University of Oregon in December of 2008 with a focus in metalsmithing and jewelry. After graduation I soon met Alan Flashing and after some discussion he agreed to allow me to do a fluid apprenticeship which lasted every week until May 2009. I worked with him on his projects, learned to do the techniques he was using, and in return I got to use the shop for my own projects, and ask questions about process and technique when he wasn’t busy.
From there, my girlfriend of the time and I moved to Bend, OR so that she could take a horse trainer’s apprenticeship with Clint Surplus. While she began her apprenticeship, I quickly set up shop at our house and spent a frustrating few months looking for a job. Luckily I began fighting with the Belegarth medieval Combat Society, and met Gavin Douglas. Gavin introduced me to his father, Steve Douglas, who co-owned a family business with his wife Elyse. After an interview they agreed to hire me for the apprentice level jeweler position at Douglas Fine Jewelry Design. I worked there under the guidance of Steve Douglas and James Dixon, both of whom have been in the Jewelry business for over 20 years. I learned many techniques and skills, and greatly increased the speed at which I could work, and these new skills are evident in my portfolio.
Somewhere in there before getting the job at Douglas Jewelry I was given my first horse, Cricket, who I promptly renamed Anawyn at her request. Her and I have been working together for two years now, and with extensive help from Katie Stearns, she has become the perfect warhorse. We go trail riding, camping, to Renaissance fairs and SCA events, and even help give horseback archery demonstrations. She has been an amazing influence on my capacity for patience and understanding, and I feel that I have benefited endlessly from her presence in my life. In return, she gets fed plenty and has a blast playing with all of her friends.
At work my proficiencies continued to grow, and I had become the primary CAM operator, as well as responsible for almost all of the silver-work and stock jobs. Unfortunately, work was becoming scarce, and in mid July I was laid off due to slow business. Steve and Elyse Douglas are some of my biggest fans and continue to help me with business advice, suggestions, and the occasional pow wow.
I was accepted as a student in the Trackers NorthWest program and spen 8 months as a student in the Adult immersion program . I’ve always been an avid nature lover and “ranger”, but over the course of the program I learned extensive techniques in wilderness survival, hunting, tracking, shoe and kayak building, bird language, permaculture, herbalism, and much much more.
Other Interests, Besides Winter Wolf
Though metalsmithing and Blacksmithing have become the focus of my life, and in fact my career, I am a jack of all hobbies, and I can’t help but to get involved in as many interesting things as possible.
I am a huge fan of anything medieval, and at that I find that my second home is the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is an international corperate group geared towards the creative recreation of the life, arts, and times of people pre 17th century. Participants take on a name and a persona of a specific era to go enjoy themselves while they camp, fight with heavy rattan swords in armour, shop at merchants row, and spend time with friends. To learn more about my persona, visit his page.
In addition to the SCA, I have been introduced to Belegarth Medieval Combat Society by my girlfriend in late 2007. Belegarth is like the SCA’s little brother, with a focus on padded weapon combat which allows a wider range of participants. There is less structure in the way of merchants and organized sciences and arts, but Belegarth sports a younger mentality of fun loving people who enjoy getting out into the woods to fight, flirt, hang out, and make friend from all across the united states.
Branching out of the medieval activities, sort of, I am also an avid scholar of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work on Lord of the Rings. I actually met my partner in crime on the Ramaloke Project, Crew Moss, in a Tolkien linguistics chat room called elfling IRC, back when I was in high school. I study the history of middle earth as well as the linguistics of the elven tongues, which were designed based off of Latin, Portuguese, and a few other surprising source languages.
I also bagan learning to ride horses in 2007 and have begun training as a Horseback archer under Katie Stearns. You can go learn more about that sport at her site on Mounted Archery.
Other then that, I am an avid camper and hiker and love to get into the outdoors. I have studied a few different martial arts including Erney Reye’s World Martial Arts, Aikido, and Shaolin Kung Fu under teacher Brian at the Eugene Shaolin Kung Fu Club. I enjoy anything from paint-balling to movies, and love a good conversation whenever I can get one.