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Craft Was a Community Practice
It’s a strange thing that woodworking is considered a solitary endeavor today, because craft throughout history was a community practice. Whether it was hewing timbers for the Johnsons’ new barn, harvesting hay before the clouds roll in, or quilting at the bee, people of the past knew that work was more enjoyable and turned out better when done together. Neither modernist individualism nor Taylorist reductionism has changed this fact. Get together with your friends. Embrace craft as a social activity. I’ve long been intrigued by the fact that much manual labor throughout history has been carried along by hearty communal singing. Author Richard Henry Dana wrote in his 1841 memoir, Two Years Before the Mast, “A song is as necessary...
The Possibility of the Unknown
Blaise Pascal wrote about gambling and how it grips us because of the thrill of risk – if every roll of the dice was known, it would lose its power. The idea of taking on risk speaks to something deeper within us. When we as woodworkers split open a log, there’s always the possibility of the unknown. Our effort may reveal rot or some beauty never seen before. Hand tools are a means of connection that bring us into close contact with the risk found in nature. Never before in our history have we been surrounded by so many faux materials – imitation leather, marble, or wood, without any of the risks or quirks of natural materials. We can even...
