Stories behind the project

Hello and welcome to Hungry Woodworker, a humanistic exploration of woodworking, purpose, and making a living. I’m Taliesin and one thing I do when not working is write; some of which gets edited into essays and shared every other Thursday. Thank you for being here.

Today I wanted to share the notes from last weekend's presentation about the project I've just finished working on. While I didn't follow these notes exactly, most of what is here was conveyed (at least, that was my intent).

The presentation went well and I enjoyed talking with people about this work; so much of my time is spent in solitary pursuits (either in the shop or at my desk writing). While I do get to work with my dad, many hours can pass in the day without me ever sharing a word with another human being.

This generally suits me fine, however, life is better with diversity—in this case, other people's words, thoughts, opinions. My mind gets a little stagnant when left to itself for too long. So I'm grateful for those who came out to join me last Saturday.

Josiah, my partner and willing accomplice on many of life's great adventures, took some photos from the event. Here I am, cradling a butcher block and telling stories.

I hope your next two weeks are filled with good stories, good people, and the opportunity to wrap up at least one big project. ❤️

Crafting gifts and building community

My name is Taliesin, thank you for joining me this morning.

I’ve been woodworking for about five years now, mostly working with my dad who lives in Money Creek and is patient enough to teach me what he knows.

I live here in Winona with my partner, Josiah, and our two kids.

Most mornings Josiah and I sit and chat as we drink our coffee. Generally about the day to come or the kids or something pressing on our minds. I'd say we just about solve all the world’s problems each morning. (If only everyone else could see things our way!)

One morning Josiah told me that he was struck by how easy it is to overlook all the effort and work people put into their lives. Not the big things we usually think about—he was talking about the things we usually take for granted.

A friend introduces you to their husband or wife, you greet the person, and then move on. I'm sure we've all experienced relationships that took quite a bit of work and effort.

Or it could be a mention of a project just completed.

Josiah’s comment got me thinking about how fascinating it can be to pull back the curtain on something seemingly complete or tidy or done in someone’s life and examine what it took to get there. Which is what I’d like to do with you for the next few minutes.

I’d like to share a brief explanation of this project, a short history of how it came to be, and a bit about the objects you see around you today.

Last summer, I reached out to Habitat for Humanity serving Winona County to see about the possibility of working with them on an arts project.

My goal was to learn and use my skills building furniture and decor out of wood to make items of use and value for families moving into their new homes. I saw this as a learning opportunity that would put the fruits of that labor to good use. And I saw this as a strand in the thread of my own life, of the years in my childhood in which I had lived in poverty, often on the move, but which is far different from the home I now have.

The people working at Habitat were lovely; gracious in talking through ideas, which led to a project of creating eight home dedication gifts for new homeowners.

I am so grateful to SEMAC—this whole project is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. This was the first time I’d ever applied for an arts grant. Indeed last year was the first time I began to consider myself an artist.

I had a sense for some of the items I wanted to make and the Habitat coordinator arranged a chance for me to meet with one of the families in their program so I could learn more about their experience and find out what items might actually be useful.

Here I want to pause and touch on that brief history I mentioned before—the why behind this project.

I’ve thought about the idea of home a lot during my life. And I’ve lived in all kinds of dwellings, from a bunkhouse on a horse ranch to apartments to a house on the edge of civilization in the Mojave desert, to a two-person tent with my mom and my brother.

I’m no mathematician but that’s at least one more person than such a dwelling comfortably fits.

We didn’t own many nice things then, which I didn’t think much about. But nowadays I’m learning to make nice things and I think a lot about what it means for a space to have such objects.

How fine a thing it is to eat at a table that doesn’t shake when you cut your food.

How much love is imbued in a desk or box or cabinet made to certain specifications.

How the grain on a headboard can evoke the cosmos so that when my child looks at it before laying their head down to sleep they can dream of traveling the galaxy.

Even a few nice things in your living space can remind you of your inner loveliness and that you deserve quality and function. You deserve an heirloom.

My hope with this project is that I could make a few nice things for people who are moving into new homes, sometimes into new communities, to help them feel more at home and a sense of belonging.

I can’t change most people’s circumstances. Certainly can’t do anything about people’s backgrounds. More often than I’d like I feel powerless in the face of massive structural problems.

So I thought about what I could work on, and that is this notion of belonging, to which all living creatures, I believe, are entitled. And I want to make items that in some small way let people know that they do belong and this house is made all the lovelier by their presence. Making some sturdy, practical, visually appealing items is my contribution to this notion.

Which leads to the items you see around here. In a moment, I’ll stop talking and you are welcome to walk around and check them out. I’ll be happy to answer any questions I can and to babble pleasingly to those questions I can’t.

First I want to say that all of these items here are made from wood that comes from this area and was milled by my dad at his farm. I am fortunate to get to use wood that is sustainably harvested, often trees that have fallen or needed to come down for their own health and those of the surrounding trees or have been left by loggers who didn’t think the wood had any value.

One of the first items I made was a butcher block. This was a great learning piece because last fall I was commissioned to design and build a kitchen cabinet and my clients wanted an 1 1/2” thick butcher block for the counter top. Having never made one before, I wanted to work on my technique for straightening and gluing up boards.

I used Cherry for this one, mostly because I love Cherry, but also because it’s a fun hardwood to work with. It’s more forgiving than Hard Maple, but still so delightfully solid, and it smells great.

Keeping with the kitchen and learning, I made a couple of cutting board sets in stands. One in Cherry, the other in Maple with a Black Walnut stand. This design comes from the master woodworker Paul Sellers, who offers online workshops. I wanted to learn new hand tool techniques while also making practical stuff, and this project offered that. I got to use a spokeshave, block plane, rasp, and file on these.

As part of my grant, the coordinator at Habitat helped me connect with one of the families they were working with. I got a chance to meet the family's matriarch and learn more about her story and what kinds of items would be useful. She said that lamps would be very welcome, as her kids didn't like to sleep in the dark. I'd never made a lamp before but was excited to try.

First I made several wood blocks to practice on, like these here. I got the basic idea from a lamp Josiah's great-grandfather had made and that we have in our house. I took that design and then made a couple of lamps, all while trying out different hardware for the lightbulbs and shades.

One of the family's children liked Minecraft and I wanted to make a Minecraft-inspired lamp. I tried first gluing up different species of wood blocks, but it didn't look quite right. Then I decided to paint one to make it look like a torch from the game. Here I must confess that my own children were valuable educational resources while I was making that particular lamp. They gave me the idea for making a torch and were eager to spend time talking about Minecraft with me; I'd say I fully understood less than 5% of those conversations.

The other child in the family really liked pretty objects, princesses and flowers, I was told. And I spent a long time drawing and doodling and trying to come up with a lamp idea that would be flowing and graceful. None of my ideas were practical, though, and I was getting worried about how much time I had left when I came across a woodworking book by another master woodworker, Roshaan Ganief, who lives in Canada.

Her book included patterns and the steps to making a flower lamp and that inspired this lamp here.

For this I had to learn how to use a scroll saw, which was a deeply frustrating experience. My scroll saw broke. First just a band that was easily replaced, then the blade clamp, which was not replaceable because Delta (the company that makes that scroll saw) doesn’t make those parts anymore.

The scroll saw I borrowed also wasn’t up to the task, as it was near impossible to change the blade with any regularity. So I re-did the design and cut out the flowers on my dad’s bandsaw. That changed a lot about this particular lamp, but in the end it worked out.

So that is a little history of this project and how it came to be. I'm grateful to Habitat for Humanity serving Winona County for being willing to work with me, to SEMAC for supporting this project, to the Winona Public Library for hosting this presentation, and to you for taking some time out of your weekend to be here. And of course I'm thankful to my dad for teaching me and saving all the best scraps for me, to Josiah for being patient when I despaired in my ability to make that flower lamp, and to my kids for reminding me to spend time playing.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.