Hi, I’m Dustin. And this is Zesty Queso.
Don’t worry, he likes being held like this. He’s strange.
I’ve been drawn to woodworking from the earliest days of exploring my dad’s woodshop as a young kid (somehow he stuffed everything into a small 1-car garage in Redondo Beach, CA and still made it productive). I was surrounded by it at all ages, from building pinewood derby cars as a Cub Scout, to taking shop class in high school, to enrolling in courses at San Diego Miramar College at night to expand my skillset. If not for the pressure to go to college that most kids of the 80s and 90s felt, I might have built a career out of it.
Posing with my mantle clock project from Palomar College - a blue ribbon winner at the student showcase in the San Diego County Fair.
Instead, following graduation I dove into a career in power tools, which has taken me all over the country (ask me how fun it is to move a woodshop cross-country multiple times!). During that time I also started a small woodworking-focused business that I called Roberts Woodcrafts, which served as a vehicle to continue honing my skills as a woodworker - or more accurately, a woodturner, since most of my projects at that time were made using a lathe. Roberts Woodcrafts was moderately successful, but focus on my career and challenges moving & setting up the woodshop ultimately forced my side business to go dormant.
And that bring us to today.
Woodturning in my little shop in Vancouver, WA - around 2014.
Of all the places I moved after college, the Pacific Northwest was my favorite. I left a little piece of my heart behind when I departed, but promised myself that I would return if the opportunity arose. In 2025, it did - and not only that, but I made a career move that brought me even closer to woodworking. Seems like a great time to revive Roberts Woodcrafts, right?
Well, not so fast.
In the years where Roberts Woodcrafts was dormant, I started exploring other creative outlets - ones that I’m eager to integrate into woodworking. But that kind of makes the “Woodcrafts” in Roberts Woodcrafts rather limiting, right? And let’s be honest, naming a creative business after yourself is boring. So I began looking for inspiration for a rebrand. As it turns out, I didn’t have to look far - just down.
Zesty Queso was adopted alongside his sister from another litter, Zelda, a little Russian Blue, while I lived in Savannah, GA. Both cats are total sweethearts, but while Zelda lives for cuddles, Zesty lives for adventure. Adventure, and chaos.
The internet is full of stories about orange cats - that they are agents of chaos, with limitless energy and a tendency for…let’s say absent-mindedness. It’s internet lore at this point that all orange cats share one collective brain cell, not-so-patiently waiting for their turn to intercept it.
Zesty Queso is the embodiment of every orange cat story, tall tale, rumor and legend. Three years on Earth and he’s still waiting for his turn with the brain cell.
But Zesty is also whimsical, fun, and unique. And believe me, he does not take himself too seriously.
Doing what he does best - sleeping awkwardly.
As I thought about what direction I wanted to take this revived venture of mine, the connection was obvious. I strive to make projects that are interesting, one-of-a-kind and unpretentious. I’m not a production shop, so you won’t find me batching out the same project day after day. And every once in awhile, there’s going to be a desire to make something completely ridiculous. If there’s one word that accurately describes my orange flavored chaos monkey, it’s ridiculous.
So, welcome to Ginger Cat Workshop. I’m glad you found us, and I hope I can help make your project - from the interesting to ridiculous - come to life.
