meet the pirate
Puddle Pirate Projects was founded in 2020 by veteran Terry S., recently retired from military service after 21 years in the United States Coast Guard. Terry hones his craft in a rural area of western Washington known as Snohomish County, celebrated for its lush, evergreen forests, powerful waterways, rugged mountains and stunning viewscapes. A veritable mecca of rustic, country-style beauty, Snohomish County serves as a constant source of inspiration for the married father of two.
A longtime military veteran with a heart for service, Terry’s artistic vision is shaped by his service to his country, his passion for serving his community, and his dedication to his family. His work is the fusion of art and function, resulting in beautiful, accessible pieces made to be used and loved. Everything he builds reflects his deeply ingrained, overarching commitment to pride, duty, and honor.
He ended his military career as a Chief Warrant Officer 3. He’s traveled all over the world and spent a year at Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), a post-9/11 USCG command unit located in the Persian Gulf.
Woodworking began as a hobby in January of 2020, after Terry stumbled across a tutorial YouTube video that demonstrated how to build an American flag out of wood. While not historically a “handy” guy, something about the video intrigued him, and he was compelled enough to give it a shot. He made that first flag and was instantly hooked, and woodworking has been a self-described illness ever since.
The first flag was a labor of love. The rustic representation of “Old Glory” is roughly 20inches tall, 37-inches wide and over 1.5-inches deep, proudly boasting America’s signature colors of red, white and blue. He stained it by hand and used a Dremel to painstakingly hand-carve each star. His wife snapped a photo of him and the flag and put it on social media and things immediately began to snowball. His friends, colleagues and family members not only loved the flag, but wanted one for themselves.
His first customers were earned.
He makes traditional red, white and blue American flags and Thin Blue Line flags to honor law enforcement professionals. He’s made several special orders, including the Puerto Rican flag, a bold, meaningful flag that symbolizes pride, defiance and protest. He’s ventured into historic territory by crafting the ensign of the Revenue Cutter Service (RCS), an armed customs enforcement service launched in 1790 and the predecessor to the United States Coast Guard. This important piece illuminates and preserves our military history and is available for purchase here.
Further inspired by the popularity of his flags, he began to broaden his artistic skillset by delving into custom charcuterie boards enhanced with pigmented epoxy, a pourable synthetic resin that, when cured, is known for its hardness, durability, and wear-resistance. For these more complex projects he began experimenting with rare hardwoods like black walnut and mango, adding the smooth, colorful textures that epoxy brings. Terry mixes the powdered pigment into the epoxy by hand, creating vivid, multidimensional hues that accent his charcuterie boards and make them truly one-of-a-kind.
A Coastie at heart, Terry’s charcuterie boards occasionally embrace a nautical theme, with vivid, oceanic blue-green shades of epoxy, and authentic boat cleats for handles. Each finished work is heat-branded with his Puddle Pirate Projects logo, a feisty pirate wearing a tricorn hat and a fierce gaze.
His cutting boards are exquisite, featuring gorgeous hardwoods like purpleheart, white maple, cherry, walnut, yellow heart, and others. These durable mixed wood cutting and serving boards take advantage of nature’s own capacity for free form artistry, by showcasing the varying shades presented in the different wood grains. Smoothly refined, finished and stained by Terry’s skilled hand, Puddle Pirate Projects cutting boards are a stunning kitchen accessory.
After retirement from the military in 2018, he found he missed the camaraderie that exists between fellow servicemembers and decided to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping veterans, serving the community and instilling a sense of patriotism in our youth. He currently serves as Commander of Monroe VFW Post 7511, located in east Snohomish County. He walked into his first VFW meeting not knowing what to expect, but what he found was a group of men and women talking about things they can do to help the community.
“That's what I needed to hear, I was sold,” Terry said. “The folks that are in the VFW never stop serving. That's what I like.”
He is passionate about giving back to his community and serving veterans and is excited about using Puddle Pirate Projects as a means to do both. His goal is to take Puddle Pirate Projects to the next level, in hopes that he’ll be able to retire from his “day job” and focus on woodworking fulltime. In that capacity, he’d love to introduce other veterans to the art of woodworking, as it has been such an impactful way for him to deal with the lingering aftereffects of longtime military service.
In the meantime, he finds ways to use his art to contribute to causes that are important to him.
In October of 2020, he launched a campaign in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in which he replicated his logo in pink to create two different styles of hats, along with special, limited edition pink Puddle Pirate Projects stickers. Additionally, he built a custom black walnut charcuterie board infused with shimmering fuchsia epoxy down the center. The stunning piece was put up for auction on eBay. The proceeds from the board and the branded pink tchotchke were given to the Northwest Hope & Healing Foundation, a Seattle-based nonprofit that helps those impacted by cancer.
As with the military and the VFW, Terry enjoys the camaraderie he’s discovered in the makers’ community. It’s something that is wholly unique and has continued to spark his creative process. New techniques are demystified through the online endeavors of other makers, and he’s been able to mirror those ideas and concepts while tailoring them to his own needs. He loves partnering with other makers to finesse his own work, simplify processes, solve issues and share strategies.
The networking has had vastly positive impacts on his work. He no longer has to hand carve each star for his flags, as he found a small business that crafts laser cut wooden stars. And thanks to other makers generously sharing their means and methods, he’s learned to build his own epoxy molds, which have provided significant cost savings for this budding woodworker who, after 21 years of service in the Coast Guard, is now earning his sea legs in the makers’ world.
Terry loves sharing his newfound passion with his wife, his 9-year-old son and his 13-year-old daughter, who are all talented artists in their own right.
Thank you for supporting a Veteran owned business, located right here in the Pacific Northwest.
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