With his feet, Walter Dill once danced agilely across the bamboo floor of a dance studio with quick, precise movements; with his hands, decades later, he uses the same precision and agility — and the same bamboo flooring — to create architecturally bold home accessories.

The Langley resident began furnishing small wooden pieces, components for an ongoing project, in the 1980s in a small studio in Port Townsend. “Life took its other paths,” Dill said, explaining that he turned his attention to raising a family and teaching dance at Living Traditions Dance with his wife.

“We’ve all had experiences in our life that are important to us at some time and then they get put on the back burner,” he said. “I am bringing things back from way back. I’m using actual pieces of wood that I milled 30 years ago.”

In hopes of finally fulfilling his goal of establishing a woodworking business creating eco-friendly home furnishings and accessories, Dill has launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to raise the necessary funds to obtain computer-controlled, precision woodworking equipment.

Kickstarter is an online platform which allows individuals to request “backers” to pledge their financial support of a project or business plan and in turn receive a product for their support. The individual sends products, also known as “rewards,” to backers if the Kickstarter is successful. As of Friday morning, Dill had accumulated 54 backers and $8,726 of his total $18,000 goal. The project will only be funded if the minimum of $18,000 is pledged by 12 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14. Otherwise, Dill will obtain no funding and the backers will have no financial responsibility for their pledges.

As stated on the Kickstarter page, his goal “is to equip an efficient work space where I can develop my gifts and passions in order to earn a respectable living doing what I love. It is my intention to share this space with fellow designers on similar missions.”

Langley mayor Fred McCarthy said he has spoken with Dill and would like to see more artisanal businesses in the city, including Dill’s.

Dill explained that while he has developed processes which make his work much faster, he requires the use of the specialty machinery to continue to create his designs at a rate which makes them affordable to buyers.

Presently, Dill travels to a fellow woodworker’s studio in Graham, Washington to use the equipment he is unable to purchase out of pocket.

“My plan has always been to have a business making unique, fancy household furniture and furnishings in production so that I can bring the price down to a reasonable level,” he said, explaining that without access to proper machinery, he would need to make his pieces one-off, which would in turn create a necessity for a higher sales cost. With the machine, he can also easily adjust settings in order to fulfill custom orders for specific widths or lengths “on demand.”

The creations are practical tools and home accessories such as cooling racks, clocks, spring clips, cutting boards, cookbook/iPad stands, napkin holders and letter openers, all made of bamboo or scraps of wood which would have otherwise been headed for the waste bin.

“It’s really beautiful hardwood… . It’s just the excess,” he said of the scraps of wood he collects from businesses such as Eden Saw Wood in Port Townsend.

“I’m constantly going through their waste bins,” he said with a chuckle.

Dill gleaned his inspiration for the intricately patterned designs from the Grand Cathedral and Mosque of Cordoba, a Moorish architectural masterpiece.

According to National Geographic, Moorish architecture, a variation of Islamic architecture, gets its moniker from the Moors, a North African people who conquered the Iberian Peninsula — including what is now Spain, Portugal and the Pyrenees region of France — and several Western Mediterranean islands in the 700s.

According to Dill’s cohort David Gray, whose studio Dill lends for assembly, Dill’s designs and products are bold, intricate and “very much his own creation.”

Gray added that his amicable friend is fulfilling the dream of many, creating complex designs on a limited budget.

“He is a soul living on a different path than most of us,” said Gray. “He finds great pleasure in a simple life full of complex creations.”

“We are in such a plastic world,” Dill said, explaining that, although he has worked with plastic, metal and glass, he takes great pleasure in creating functional pieces from a more “sensual” and warm material such as wood. In addition, he said, there is something special about creating an item from pieces of wood, such as Honduras mahogany and black walnut which would have otherwise been thrown away.

“I’m creating something that people can have for the rest of their lives that would have otherwise been burned,” he said.

While the majority of Dill’s designs are ornate, he also creates simpler patterns for those who prefer a more modern look. In either case, his products are as functional as they are aesthetically pleasing.

“It is all geometry. It is like with dance where you have a basic pattern, a basic footwork, and two people,” Dill said. “How many variations can you come up with? It is about playing. This is about playing with ideas, seeing how many unique, usable designs I can come up with.”

“I like to call what I do visual spice,” Dill added. “I’m trying to add visual spice to your kitchen, to your home.”

If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, Dill will be able to purchase the equipment within five days — rather than waiting two weeks for Kickstarter to process the funds — thanks to a bridge loan from Whidbey Island Local Lenders. This will allow him to produce numerous pieces in time for the holidays.

To view Dill’s Kickstarter campaign, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/199880761/7th-century-inspired-home-accessories.