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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Nev Jones – “Building Resilience: Green Woodworking & Mental Health”
We live in stressful times. And whether experienced directly through traumatic events or in passing via news headlines or social media doomscrolling, this unease affects us all. It seems that peace and quiet are hard to come by these days, and many are suffering as a result. Is there some way that handcraft can help?
Psychologist and author Nev Jones recently journeyed around the globe to find out. After receiving a Churchill Fellowship for his studies, he left his home of Australia and visited green woodworkers, writers, teachers, and handcraft gatherings on multiple continents to see how the simple act of shaping wood by hand changes our outlook. A 20-year Army veteran himself, Jones understands the deep-seated burdens that many bear today. For Issue Twenty, he shares some of the encounters he had in his journey – and how he is optimistic about the possibilities of teaching woodworking for healing.
“Arguably, resilience grows as a consequence of increased competence,” he writes. When a person is enabled to express creativity through personal skill and the use of simple tools, their confidence grows and their outlook changes. New connections are made – mental, relational, and with the natural world. The outlet of green woodworking can become a powerful tool for finding wholeness again.
Subscribe now to reserve your copy of Issue Twenty.