For all intensive porpoises, this is the story...

Once upon a time... no, too cliche.
In the beginning... Hmm... Seems a little epic, but, whatever... 
In the beginning. From the fiery depths of an ancient volcano, came forth what is known as Bödwhíst! Too dramatic?

Okay, okay! For real this time. The story of Bödwhíst begins in 1978. The collaboration of a young fair maiden endowed with intelligence, empathy, and curiosity of the world, and a dashing young man with a larger than life attitude, an overwhelming need to create, and a strong work ethic, produced the "oops" which is me.

Flash forward 5 years. I am now... well 5. (as I'm sure you could've guessed). It was the '80s. A time when some parents adopted, what is now known as "free range" parenting. Which means kids could do pretty much anything as long as we were home by supper or when the street lights come on. Yes, even at kindergarten age… Which I was… This is the time that I write and illustrate my first book.  Granted it was a class project and not of my own accord, I nonetheless completed it and hence became a child prodigy writer/illustrator! I kid of course. It'll be many years before i write anything worthwhile. *cough, 35 years, cough* 

Leaping forward a few years to 1986. I'm now 8 and my father was nearing the completion of a marvelous house he designed and built with his own hands for us to live. I always loved watching him build things. I could say he's a master craftsman. I might be biased but some may agree. At this time, would be my earliest memory of creating something out of wood by myself. My dad showed me how to use his bandsaw. I was fascinated by what the machine could do. I grabbed a piece of scrap wood and made a puzzle. It was only a 3 piece puzzle and pretty rough  looking, but I remember being so proud of myself.   

This I believe was the start of my love for machinery and also sparked my creativity to life. My brother and I were always stealing my dads nails and whatever wood we could find so we could build things. It was usually building and adding on to our  monstrosity of a tree fort in the woods behind our house. It was quite the... mess. We both still wonder how we survived our childhood. 

Flash forward again. Stuff happened, we moved a lot, yada yada, and its now 1992. I'm 14. With puberty fully set in, and the very common "rage against my parents" mentality that goes along with it, on top of the early '90s "I don't care about anything" attitude, I drop out of school. (Don't worry, I realized how stupid that was later in life.) The good thing that came from that stupidly impulsive choice, was that my dad told me if I'm not going to school then I had to go to work. Being very stubborn at the time, and not wanting to admit that my choice was stupid, I agreed. You see, my father had just started his construction company building retail stores inside of malls throughout the continental United States. Well, usually just up and down the east coast, but every once in a while we'd go out west. I did this job for 14 years. I got to build some pretty crazy stuff in some of those stores. Almost every day on the job was a new learning experience. 

Another 14 years go by. It's 2006 and I'm now 28. I happen to get my partner at the time pregnant. Following a period of panic, I decide to not go on the road anymore so I could be around for this child that's on the way. Couple years later, after doing various unfullfilling  jobs, I start getting depressed. I need to build and create! Because I had a little machining and metal fabrication experience by then I manage to land a job in a major global corporation doing machine work. I was given the opportunity to design and build machines, fixtures, and to improve older machines for safety, ergonomics, and efficiency. Being a massive global corporation, they could afford to replace things instead of repairing them. A lot of things get scrapped. So I started taking it home. They only charged me scrap weight of the metal. This is the moment I start collecting junk and putting my creativity and my skill set to use for myself. 

I eventually start going to craft fairs and my creations start selling. "Wow!", I thought, "Strangers like what I make and are willing to pay me for it!?" This is how DuForge Studio was born. Created in 2013 but not "officially" (according to the government) until a couple years later when my brother came aboard. Couple of "Irish Twins" (so we're called) creating and collaborating. Making wonderous things. A few years later we decided to go in different directions. He's still making wonderous things and working on other cool projects. I, on the otherhand, kept doing my own thing. Same as when I started DuForge Studio.   

Another flash forward (its the last one, I swear). I was lucky enough to meet and marry my super awesome and amazingly supportive wife. With her, came an older sibling for my two kids and an amazing step-daughter that calls me dad. I mention my family because without them, its highly likely that DuForge would no longer exist. They all support me, encourage me, and inspire me to keep learning and creating. My super awesome wife also inspired me to write. Nothing particular that she did other than being herself. She writes beautiful poetry. 

Upon turning 40 fragments of a little story popped in my head while I was at work. Now, these things have always happened to me. Fragments of lines, rhymes, concepts, otherworldly things including other worlds in which these things come from, etc... Sometimes I'd write these fragments down but I never did anything with them and I'd usually forget about them and/or I'd lose them. This particular day at work however, I not only wrote down what was in my head, I chose to elaborate on it, actively thinking "what comes next" and "how does that happen". By the end of my shift I had a finished product! Well, it needed polishing but it was complete as was. Everyone I showed liked it and so I continued writing. I've always loved Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and other fun rollicking poetry found mostly in children's books. I also love Poe and Lovecraft, Sci-Fi and Horror, Tragedies and Dystopian realities. I think these heavily influence my writing which is not my intent but after reading the things i finish, its apparent.

Now that you know some of my backstory, this leads me back to Bödwhíst. DuForge Studio is the name for my physical creations. It's a play on my last name, DuFour. When I started writing I used the penname J.D. Cromwell. My initials, J.D. and Cromwell is two things. the first is Crom. Crom is a god in the Conan universe. He's described as grim and gloomy which is fitting for some of my works. The second part is well. The Well is the name of my first finished story that sparked me into writing. 

So, what is Bödwhíst? To be honest, I'm not quite sure yet. It's a word that popped in my head one day and I liked the sound of it. It's started to form meaning though.  Am I Bödwhíst? I'm not sure. Is what I do Bödwhíst? Maybe? It could be the culmination of ones work. Or it could be what makes you unique. Maybe it's everything. Everything that makes you, you. Maybe it will never mean anything at all. I guess I'll just have to let it evolve into whatever it wants to be. I don't know. I'll keep you posted. For now, its just the name of this site.

Well, that was longer than I thought it was going to be. I should update my Facebook and Instagram with this masterfully crafted autobiography so more people can be amazed by it... who am I kidding? 
If anyone actually read this novel I just wrote, I thank you. It means I didn't write it for nothing. 
Now, go explore and enjoy (hopefully) some of my super awesome, wonderfully crafted, unique creations (or some of the not unique but still wonderful items) and tell me what you think. I appreciate all critisism. Don't be shy, I want honesty at a brutal level. 

~Jason D

The Man of Many