Born in June of 1968 in the Panama Canal Zone, Jim Jenkins is a young man who has seen a majority of the world's most exotic locations firsthand. He has lived in such diverse areas as Japan, Korea and Hawaii, but most of his teen years were spent in Berlin and Wurzburg, Germany.

Although Jenkins moved to the El Paso area at the age of 17, and has made it his home base, he still continues to travel as much as time and opportunity permit. As a young man, he returned to Panama for an extended period, and it was here that he first began to learn the art of woodcarving. "Because Panama is a densely forested region, it gave me the opportunity to be exposed to, and fall in love with, the vast variety of beautiful hardwoods that grow so abundantly in these tropical rain forests."

One of the primary woods Jenkins chooses for his decorative, hand-carved boxes is Cocobolo, which he first purchased from the Kuna Indians who are natives of Panama. A member of the Rosewood family, this is a highly unique tree that can be found only on the West Coast of Central and South America. The wood itself is very dense and oily. "I have to take special care in working with Cocobolo" Jenkins relates. "The dust can be very toxic so I make certain to use a mask whenever I work on it. Also, I have to wipe the surface of the wood with acetone before applying a coat of varnish, or it will not stick, because of the slick texture of the wood.

Due to its warm lavender hue, Jenkins often selects Purpleheart , another Central and South American wood , to offset other more common varieties such as oak or walnut. Called "Nazoreno" by the natives or "Blood of the Nazarene", the natural purple color of the wood symbolically represents the blood of Christ to the many Catholics who live in this region.

Jenkins has received no formal training, learning the craft of woodworking by what he calls the trial and error method. "I have read a lot of books and looked at pictures of boxes", he explains. "After that, all the designs are creations of my imagination. I spend a great deal of time thinking about how a person will use these boxes, trying to come up with a design that is both useful and interesting." Jenkins also frequently uses bits of polished deer antler, found during his many solitary treks through our wilderness areas, to contrast the woods on the tops of his containers. "At first, I had planned to make pens from bits of the antlers", Jenkins explains, 'but then I visualized a hand-carved box, and became fascinated with all the possibilities offered by working in a larger format.