Registration for the M&T Pre-industrial Immersion Workshop is now open! The event is scheduled for June 8-12 here at our shop in Sedgwick, Maine. Our first week-long workshop last year was a great success, and we can’t wait to do it again! One of our students said, “The last week was filled with fantastic food, great discussions, and amazing people. I learned so much, but these new friends truly made the week what it was and are what I have come to cherish most.” The application can be downloaded and printed here. Please note that it must be postmarked no later than March 20th. We want these workshops to be unique, with an emphasis on educational value, skill growth,...
This podcast episode (listen above) is all about filling you in on our incredibly intense summer. Between the workshop with our six students, Issue Seven shipping out, and our hand-tool-only timber frame blacksmith shop, we’ve been out straight busy. Also, in this episode, meet Grace, our new team member. You’ll hear our enthusiasm for the whirlwind of events that happened as well as the new projects we’re working to wrap up now! A new book, a documentary film, and another apprenticeship video all on the horizon!
We have just finalized the selection of students for our 2019 workshop, and are over-the-moon excited about each of one of them. When we announced our vision for the workshop last month, we hoped that we would get at least six applications so that we could fill every slot. As it turns out, we received over 10 times that many – all of them incredible. It was hard selecting from this heap of letters because it wasn’t like we were sorting the good from the bad. There was nothing to cull. As we started reading through them, we decided to focus on discerning where the candidates were in their lives and the goals they hoped this workshop might help...
We are now taking applications for our Summer Workshop taking place June 17-21. After writing all week about the philosophy behind this five-day workshop, we are finally posting the application here. As explained in Wednesday’s post, the reason we are taking applications is because there will be no charge to students. Instead, we have set up a work exchange arrangement in which our six students will spend two days helping Mike and me work on our projects around/on the shop followed by three days of instruction and bench time. Before filling out the application, please make sure you read each of the posts about the workshop linked below: M&T SUMMER WORKSHOP: JUNE 17-21, 2019 DEMOCRATIC WOODWORKINGA PRE-INDUSTRIAL WOODWORKING IMMERSION AN EXPERIENCE MONEY CAN’T...
This summer’s workshop is an experience money can’t buy. Let me explain the three factors behind this: First, although Mike and I have long harbored enthusiasm to one day host our own classes, we knew ourselves well enough to foresee that it would be hard to juggle another thing on our plate. We still have a number of shop construction projects to do (windows, final doors, wood shed, back porch, outhouse, etc.) that represent a lot of hours. On top of that, every week we have people ask us when the next “Apprenticeship” video (which has been under snail-paced production) is coming out. And it goes without saying that producing our magazine does not happen overnight but consumes the majority...
Some woodworking classes are project-based while others focus on building skills. Though we do plan to send each student home with a completed item, the emphasis in our 2019 summer workshop will be development of broad competence. Our goal is to deepen understanding of pre-industrial woodworking through hands-on experimentation in the shop. This could be compared to language immersion. Immersion in a foreign country teaches you practical, on-the-ground linguistic skills in a way that technical book learning never can. This is because a large percentage of communication is nonverbal and culture-specific (facial expressions, gestures, postures, tone of voice, etc.), and developing this kind of tacit knowledge is essential for full comprehension. Contrast this with the awkward, rigid speech from many...
As we start to share more information about our upcoming summer workshop, Joshua and I are struggling to contain our enthusiasm. We’ve discussed this idea over many cups of coffee during the last year-and-a-half, and are excited to see it’s finally coming together. But some might be wondering why we are beginning to host workshops at all. Wouldn’t we be better off spending all our waking hours breaking up arguments over David Pye or double-iron planes? The way we see it, teaching workshops perfectly fits our philosophy of empowering individuals with handcraft skills in today’s increasingly complex technological society. But we’re not the first ones to attempt to find a better way. The Industrial Revolution incited several movements pushing back...
I just got back from Washington where I taught a 5-day “Table from Rough Boards” workshop at Port Townsend School of Woodworking. As I was catching up with Mike and spring cleaning my tool chest yesterday, I’ve had much to think about regarding this class and teaching in the future. I loved my week in Port Townsend. It is a quaint and beautiful town and the weather was perfect during my stay. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend PTSW for woodworking education. They are one of the few schools that provide a full razor sharp kit of tools for every student and the staff is attentive, friendly, and talented. My teacher’s assistant, Raphael, is an especially wonderful asset to...
Hand tools are not slow. This afternoon, after Mike and I ditched the granite work because of a downpour, I went to the shop to prepare table parts for a presentation I am doing on Friday at the Yale University Furniture Study (Registration full, sorry). The presentation is titled “Efficient Handcraft” and will focus on pre-industrial methods for efficient furniture making. I will bring parts of a table at each stage of the process so that I can demonstrate the whole process in the time allotted. This afternoon’s prep involved ripping out two legs and two rails from rough-sawn pine, planing both legs square, laying out and chopping two of the mortises, tapering one of the legs on two sides,...
