What made you want to be a maker?

Well for me it was never some conscious choice, I just am a maker and I always have been. The difference now however, is that I found the thing I’m supposed to be making. It seems like my whole life I’ve never been shy about attempting to make or build things, small things usually, but it wasn’t until I built a skateboard that I felt like I found it…I found the thing that I want to make over and over again, evolving as I go.   

Why should people support your business/products?

That’s a tough question. I think I can answer that by telling you why I support other makers, and I can only hope my reasons might be mirrored back onto me and my boards. 

When something has been hand built by someone, it has a story, a history, even as a “new” product. The story is more than factory produced, distributed en masse…it is a rich deep story. Each stitch, each sketch mark, each bolt has been created by a thoughtful artist. That is meaningful. I can know that by purchasing that product and supporting that maker/ artist I get to be a part of that story.  

I think we have an emotional response to hand built things that we just don’t get from mass produced things…and that is what it’s all about. That is why we are makers.

Favorite product that you make?

I just finished a custom board for someone and it is a totally new shape for hannahB.Boards. 34” in length x 9.75” in width, a slightly pointed nose with a bold diamond tail. It has a strong silhouette with a retro vibe which I’m kind of loving right now. 

List five of your favorite tools.

1. concave cabinet scraper
2. random orbital sander 
3. surform pocket plane 
4. black Posca paint markers, 1M & 3M 
5. little notebook for logging each board I’ve made 

(photographs from hannahB.Boards )