As far as I know, I am the only professional stone sundial maker in the United States. I also make and sell colorful porcelain on steel sundials, painted wall sundials, and stained glass sundial windows. Additionally, I create sundial designs for those clients who wish to make their own sundials, and I often work with architects and contractors who build them.

Unfortunately, with the perfection of mechanical clocks, sundial design and construction have nearly become a lost art and science. Few people have seen a well-made sundial that keeps the correct time. They are rare since there are only a handful of sundial makers in the world who understand all of the math required and who are able to design and manufacture custom-made sundials.

I began making sundials in 1992 after an artist friend gave me an old book on sundials. Born into a family of teachers and artists and interested in astronomy and nature, I was amazed to find out that it was possible to design very accurate beautiful sundials of all shapes and sizes. I saw them as the perfect combination of art and science. With time on my hands, I began designing and constructing sundials as a hobby that quickly turned into a business.

I was awarded The Sawyer Dialing Prize in 2002: "In recognition of (John Carmichael, Jr.'s) efforts to bring dialing to the high tech world of a leading solar Observatory (Kitt Peak, Arizona), and his demonstration that it is still possible in the modern world to prosper as a traditional craftsman of high quality heliochronometers."a precise sundial that shows
Standard (watch) Time directly

Astronomical laws demand that sundials be designed specifically for the location where they will be used or else they will not function correctly. Using the latitude and longitude of its location, I calculate and draw precise designs for the stone and brass work using Computer Aided Design (CAD) requiring hundreds of spherical trigonometry computations. But I still do all the artwork by hand. Most of the typical garden-variety sundials for sale today are mass-produced from castings and are sold everywhere and are therefore, usually inaccurate. Unfortunately, this has contributed to the reputation that sundials are unreliable. My sundials are so accurate that you can set your watch by them! And many do much more than just tell the time. Some also tell the date, sunrise and sunset times, solar azimuth, altitude and declination, and compass points.

People are amazed that they can even tell time at night on my dials by using the shadow from moonlight! In The Sundial Owner's Manual, I give you detailed instructions on this and other useful information such as sundial history, theory, installation, operation, maintenance, basic astronomy, and sundial references – along with a weather-resistant copy of the Equation of Time.

I make several different types and sizes of large stone sundials for placement on garden pedestals. I spend many hours meticulously cutting, shaping, carving and polishing them entirely by hand from individually selected slabs of thick, beautiful Arizona flagstone. I carve and engrave the stone with diamond tools and chisels to make all sorts of different artwork and useful scientific markings.

In 1997, I received a copyright for the gnomon the shadow casting mechanismof my horizontal sundials. My gnomon is unique in that it is a thin brass cable held taut by a heavy, decorative counterweight. Unlike traditional solid gnomons, my cable gnomons don't obstruct the view of the sundial face allowing more room for engraved artwork, and making the sundials easier to read from any direction.

I paint the engraved portions of the stone and seal and polish the stone to a beautiful, mirror-like and weather-resistant finish. I won't go into the countless steps it takes to make one of my dials, but I can tell you that it takes a minimum of four weeks to make each one. Gold plating of brass work is available upon request and special stones are sometimes available too.

I constantly strive to improve my sundials' accuracy, legibility, artwork, and materials, and I'm always developing and offering new sundial types for purchase. By special request, I will occasionally design child-friendly, interactive human shadow sundials or huge "monumental sundials." These are very large public sundials. Some are so big, passengers can read them in passing aircraft!