M&T: How is slöjd relevant to 21st-century society? JS: I think that people are probably just the same now as they used to be 200 years ago. We still want to try new things, to learn, to be more skilled, to express ourselves, and to show off. With slöjd, we can do all that by being producers and consumers at the same time. There was a philosopher in the 1800s, Friedrich Engels, who was one of the first to talk about that concept. He warned that the Industrial Revolution was going to cause social problems because the producers would be separate from the consumers and they would be alienated from one another. Instead of connection and unity, there would be...
“The pursuit of independence through making your own tools is a journey full of rewards. The broader a craftsperson’s competency, the more successfully he or she will be able to open whole new realms of creative possibility and manage hurdles that come along in the making process. This bitstock project brings together various skills that many furniture makers don’t get to exercise often enough: long accurate boring, turning, casting pewter, burning mortises, and utilizing naturally crooked branches. Even more, it is a joy to work with tools that reflect your own unique personality and individual aesthetic preferences, something we miss out on if our tool chest is filled with those identical to everyone else’s.” – Joshua Klein, excerpt from “The...
Dower Chest. ca.1780 Berks County, Pennsylvania. 23.16. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Painted furniture in the German-American tradition bears evidence of a deep craving for liveliness, mythology, and whimsy. As Fabian suggests, these chests “exhibit a full range of celestial and earthly subjects” with stars, flowers, hearts, horses, and peacocks right beside more fanciful creatures like unicorns, angels, and the elusive mermaid. Even the common house cat makes an occasional appearance. The decorators of these chests clearly wanted to incorporate the fullness of life in their work, though the intent of individual decorators in applying particular motifs is sometimes unclear. Fabian suggests that while there is much conjecture about these themes, “almost never are we given any clue...
“What we call green woodworking today carried no such particular distinction in the past. Vernacular woodcraft began in the forest, and made great use of the metamorphosing properties of wood as it changes from soft and saturated to hard and dry. Most everything a typical household needed, from treen to transportation, was produced through this process. Nowadays, much of that intimacy with this raw material has been lost as modern woodworkers turn to machines that rely on tame wood and massive infrastructure to function properly. But trees are not tame, and require knowledge and patience to work in the old way. There are valuable returns for the effort, not just in terms of fulfillment for the individual maker, but in...
“Slöjd makes my body strong, gives me a strong back and muscles – slöjd contains a rich diet for both body and mind. Also, I’m able to repair things when they break. That’s why I think of it as a survival kit – in a society where we’re trying to be sustainable and live more simply, craft can be a part of that restoration. When we make things, we want to take care of them – we’re not throwing them away after five years and buying a new one. This gives you a definition of what quality is. The urge for quality is also an urge for quality of life, where making and beauty give meaning to what a...
This weekend was incredible. We had a full house of close to 30 people in the shop, wrapping and shipping out Issue Six. We had people from all over New England, New York, and even as far as Minnesota. There was, as always, an abundance of incredible food (thank you, Julia and Andrea) and life-changing conversation. Even though I have experienced it with each issue, I was again in awe that most everyone that comes to these things seems to be deeply moved. During the week leading up to the event, Mike and I had several interactions with folks in town explaining what exactly it was we were doing over the weekend. We explained that we spend weeks preparing...
Today is the last day to get in your pre-order for Issue Six. After tomorrow, Issue Six will no longer have free domestic shipping and come wrapped in brown paper and wax-sealed trade card. If you don’t want to miss this pre-order window, You can subscribe today. or You can order Issue Six by itself. We are so excited about how this issue has turned out. There is such a rich diversity of content spanning conversations about slöjd, William Morris, George Nakashima, Revolutionary War chairmaking, German tradition painted decoration, making your own woodworking tools, and so much more. Despite the breadth, though, this issue has the strongest cohesiveness yet. There must have been something in the air, because each author seems...
In this episode of our podcast, Mike discusses his article “A Tale of Two Trees: The Radical Efficiency of Green Woodworking” in upcoming Issue Six. Mike presents a big picture view of procuring lumber by comparing industrial logging and milling with harvesting your own with hand tools. He makes the startling (and compelling) case that green woodworking is more efficient in the big picture than highly developed industrial processing. We discuss the value of curved branches, the genius of coppicing, and working the material before it dries.
Items Mentioned in this Podcast:
Issue Six
Dawson Moore – Michigan Sloyd
Look at what we’ve got: Issue Six has arrived at our storage facility! This means we’re now getting close to shipment to customers – we’ve got one week, in fact, to get ready for the big packing party. Monday, April 1st, after the weekend-long packing, we will be driving a full truck to the Post Office. (Joel, our awesome Postmaster, here at our tiny Blue Hill Post Office arranges for a special truck to be ready to receive our massive deliveries. Joel’s the best.) Our printer has been dialing in the printing of each issue better and better and this one is the best yet. I won’t get into the technical details, but basically, the premium uncoated paper (70# Finch...
We are excited to announce Issue Six is now available for pre-order in our store! (There is free domestic shipping on all pre-orders and subscriptions.)
If you don’t already have a subscription, you can sign up here.
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If you want to pre-order only this issue, you can do so here.
This pre-order window will close after Tuesday, March 26th. After that date, the shipping charge will be applied and there will be no brown paper and wax-sealed wrapping.
