This post is part of a series revealing the table of contents of upcoming Issue Twenty. 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 is open now.
To get Issue Twenty when it ships in early April, 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 is coming your way soon!
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Photo: Peter Forbes
Joshua A. Klein – “Circle of Influence: Bill Coperthwaite’s Joy in Making Things”
Many of us can trace our early inspirations in life and handcraft to a few influential people. Whether it was a grandfather with an open workshop door, a writer with a captivating way with words, or even a host of a home-improvement television show, those influences can stick with us throughout our lives. We find ourselves returning to their wisdom again and again, even after they’re gone.
For author Joshua A. Klein, that formative influence was a man who wrote a book. William S. Coperthwaite, a headstrong visionary who lived in an off-grid yurt on the coast of Maine, spent his years traveling the world in an obsession with handcraft. He sought beautiful ways of doing things and simple means of self-reliance in a world caught up in convenience and entertainment. A few years before he died in 2013, he penned A Handmade Life, a book in which he invites his readers (sometimes winsomely, sometimes impracticably) to consider his idealistic vision. That book changed Klein’s way of thinking.
For Issue Twenty, Klein offers an homage to the man and to the book. Examining Coperthwaite’s ideas, he describes how he was moved by “a call to actively participate in making a better world through exercising personal agency.” And a large part of that agency is found in making beautiful things. Klein takes several of Coperthwaite’s designs and adapts them to his own use, sharing how making inspired furniture and handcrafts offers a way for anyone to add ordinary beauty to their lives, and draws out lines of meaningful connection to this thoughtful, encouraging, and joyful man.
Subscribe now to reserve your copy of Issue Twenty.