Welcome to
Hands and Hammer
My name is Solomon, or Solo for short. I'm the owner and operator at Hands and Hammer, where I get to be a massage therapist, woodworker, and blacksmith. I love getting to help people feel and move better, but I also love getting to make functional art, so I decided I’d do all of it!
I grew up in New York City, where I was homeschooled because even back then I wanted to do too many things. I did ballet, tap, piano, flute, and wanted to be a marine biologist (I love whales and dolphins). As I got older my love of dance transformed into a love of martial arts, which I still practice to this day. Over the years I have dabbled in kung-fu, kenjutsu, capoeira, boxing, bjj, mma, and now I'm studying aikido. I have even gotten in the cage for an amature MMA fight, where I won, and then retired undefeated. My practice of martial arts has helped me tremendously with my current studies of anatomy, massage, bio-mechanics, and traditional east Asian medicine as well.
In 2008 I moved to Maine for college. I went to College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor, and studied marine biology. I graduated in 2012. After college I stuck around Maine, moving up and down the coast, and ended up apprenticing and learning blacksmithing. I quickly fell in love and learned basic knifesmithing and welding afterwards.
After learning how to work with metal I of course wanted to learn about woodworking next, so I got a job in construction. I spent three years learning on the job, building houses from the foundation through the finish trim. It was a great experience but I never got over my fear of heights, and every house has a roof, so I knew it wasn't the right job for me.
Unsure what to do next I went back to school again, only this time to learn massage. I went to the Downeast School of Massage, in Waldoboro Maine, and I can't imagine a better massage school to have gone to. I went to school in 2020, just at the start of the pandemic, and while that had it's own hardships, it was great to get setup in such a harsh time. It allowed me to figure out and learn all about pathology and safety precautions in a much deeper way than if had I gone to school at any other time.
And now I am lucky enough to have found a house in Mid-coast Maine with a wonderful workshop and massage studio, where I get to live with my wife, daughter, our three cats, and chickens.