This post is part of a series revealing the table of contents of upcoming Issue Twenty-One. As is our custom, we’ll be discussing one article per weekday in order to give you a taste of what is to come.
The subscription window that includes Issue Twenty-One is open now.
To get Issue Twenty-One when it ships in early September, you can sign up for a subscription here.
If you aren’t sure about your subscription status, you can reach out to Grace at info@mortiseandtenonmag.com. Keep in mind though, if you are set to auto-renew, you never have to worry about getting the next issue of Mortise & Tenon. Issue Twenty-One is coming your way soon!
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Alex Ellis– “Seeds of Craft: On Replacing the Temporary with the Enduring”
If you could begin systematically replacing all of your mass-produced plastic and laminate household items one-by-one with handmade, personally meaningful things, where would you even begin? You’d first have to assemble a basic tool kit, then scrounge up some suitable lumber, and ultimately carve out a little shop space to begin working at it. Then there would be genuine struggles and formidable constraints that would cause any but the most committed to abort the mission.
But if you did persist at it, after several years, much of your daily life would begin to be surrounded with handmade things. Your dining table, chairs, clock, cabinets, coffee stand – all of it – would eventually be the products of your own hands. Your children would grow up with memories of you at the bench, choosing to build instead of buy. And by the time they became adults themselves, they would have developed a strong personal connection to the things they grew up using.
One such woodworker has undertaken exactly that path. Alex Ellis, based in Peterborough, England, has been filling his home with handmade things over the last five years. Working out of a 6'x6' shed, Ellis has made loads of furniture, several tool chests, benches, and all sorts of common household items from wood. He tells his story in Issue Twenty-One. Starting in 2020 with a simple seed tray project, Ellis has grown in skill and his projects have grown in complexity. His story is an inspiring example of genuinely productive handcraft, and we need more examples like Ellis. You are next. As he put it, “I encourage you to plant those seeds of craft for yourself – you may be surprised at what emerges.”
Subscribe now to reserve your copy of Issue Twenty-One.