John G Steiner grew up on the shore of Lake Washington where his mother Virginia, and father Joe, owned and operated a summer resort. The resort was named Shady Beach by his parents and was located just outside the town of Juanita. It was an idyllic place for John and his two brothers and sister to live as it had all the entertaining features that the old resorts had in those days such as a wide array of slides swings and teeter totters. A stream flowed through the property and there was a variety of picnic buildings and a huge long dock. John was certainly exposed to the constant building and repairs that his mom and dad were continually performing around the property and in his fathers shop.

Later when they lived in Tacoma, John was exposed to more woodworking by both his father and older brother Terry. Out of their garage shop they built countless go-carts, toy boats and tree houses.

After moving to Auburn, he took as many woodshop classes as possible. Woodworking came very naturally to him. He would eventually meet Dale Donaldson, his first mentor in woodworking,. Dale moved in next door and they instantly formed an intense bond. Dale was a fine craftsman with wood and taught woodshop. He was also an avid water skier and taught John how to ski, drive a ski boat and build skis. One of John's fondest memories was going with Dale to meet the legendary Wally Burr. Wally lived in Seattle and was the most famous water ski maker of all time. He was the inventor of the banana and tunnel ski and nearly every ski manufacturer at one time worked for him. John saw in Wally an exceptional craftsman. John and Dale would work on countless projects over the next few years that involved woodworking, cars, boats, motorcycles and especially Dale's Jeep.

After high school, John attended Green River Community College where he found his second mentor, Bob Short. Bob was the design teacher at Green River. Within a few weeks, they formed a very tight working bond and spent endless hours talking about philosophy and design. They worked together in many different mediums including paint, wood, clay and metal. John taught pottery classes at Green River and ran his first business of selling wheel throwing pottery.

Bob introduced John to his next and most influential mentor, Bucky Fuller. While he did not meet Bucky in person until much later, Bucky expanded John's thinking with the depth of his knowledge and experience. Bucky's philosophy would be responsible for building a large part of his creative foundation. He would spend hours reading and re-reading his books and eventually would go on a bit of a sojourn to California to hear Bucky speak at several collages.

While Bucky influenced him in many ways, the greatest was his message to excel in whatever you applied yourself to and to keep improving. John took that experience into his woodworking for the next 4 decades. At Green River he built some experimental structures that included a truss type floor system, a modular experimental house that was based on airplane building techniques and several geodesic domes.

After moving to Bainbridge Island John continued to work for a short time assembling designs for local artisan Dick Fichter but would eventually start building projects for his own customers. Over the years he would study and take workshops from notable furniture builders such as Sam Malloof, James Krenov and George Nakashima.

Today John lives and works out of a waterfront home and spacious shop where he has lived with his partner Sarah for 18 years. He is still working hard to maintain the principles of craftsmanship that he gained from Bucky's influence.

John's business and furniture pieces have been written up in several articles over the years.