Hello my friends! I spent the last two weeks in Rockport, Maine attending a furniture building class at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. We learned a wide variety of foundational skills such as sharpening and using chisels and hand planes, hand cutting dovetail and mortise and tenon joints, wood selection, milling boards down to size using planers and jointers, and much more. The first week was mostly instruction and practice, the second week was the application phase when we used our newfound skills to build a bench or similar piece of furniture.
Taking this class, I immediately felt like I was back at RPI, living in the design studio. We had formal instruction from 9-5 Monday through Friday but given the two week time limitation, no one would have finished any build without getting there early, staying late after class, or both. It was fun for me to live and breathe woodworking for two weeks while I had access to a supremely well equipped shop and bench space to work.
There were 12 students in the class led by two instructors, and one shop assistant, which felt like a good teacher/question answerer - student ratio. The students came from all over the country and all lead different lives, but unsurprisingly, we fell into two main categories: retired or close to it, and young early career. Kinda makes sense, right? These are the kinds of people with enough expendable time to go hang out in Maine and build shit for two weeks. Overall I thought it was a really good group of people and I particularly enjoyed spending my lunch breaks and evenings chatting with a few of them. Amusingly, there were three Erin/Aarons in the class so we all bonded over our shared name.
The Center is a bit of a furniture haven. There are several buildings which host multiple concurrent classes. There are also fellows who live and work there for 1 -12 months. There is a lumber supply right on site and pretty much every tool you could think of. Once a week members of the teaching staff present slideshows of their work to the general public and there is a gallery which is usually full of pieces made by people associated with the school.
My birthday happened to fall on the weekend in the middle of class. On Friday night some of us went to a bar to celebrate and then on Saturday morning I went on a hike and got cupcakes with another friend from class. I rounded out the day noodling on some guitars at a local shop and making dovetails. What more could I ask for?
It was a bit of a mad dash to design, select materials, and build a whole item in one week. My piece was a little footstool that I plan to use as a footrest when I play guitar. Here are a few in-progress pictures. I glued it up at the end of the day on Friday and all I have left to do on my own is to put on finish. I was particularly proud of my dovetails, which are pretty nice if I do say so myself.
I hung around midcoast Maine for an extra weekend after class to do a bit more exploring. Camden, Rockport, and Rockville are all cute little coastal towns within a 30 minute radius. I particularly enjoyed Camden, which featured a cute little bagel shop, lots of little shops to wander including several antique stores, and a delightful waterfront where I spent several hours reading and enjoying the weather. I’m working my way through When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut. In each chapter Labatut explores a different scientific phenomenon. So far the best one has been the chapter on Karl Schwarzchild, the mathematician and physicists who solved the equations to prove Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Besides his contributions to science, Schwarzchild was just a fascinating person and I think after I finish this book I’ll look for a biography of him.
Before I arrived in Maine, I decided that I would wrap up the road-trip portion of my WalkAbout after the woodworking class. After almost 14 weeks on the road, I was ready to not be constantly thinking about where I was going next or where to spend the night. I made one final stop on my return trip to PA: Lowell, Massachusetts. Before the woodworking class, I happened to meet a woman, Tracy, vending at the first Friday festivities in Portland, Maine. She was a potter at a large artist collective and also the vice president, soon-to-be president of the adjacent makerspace in Lowell. She invited me for a tour if I ever found myself in Lowell and since I’m “a leaf on the wind” and can find myself wherever I want to be I took myself to Lowell on the way from Maine to PA.
The tour took place in the evening because unlike me, Tracy has a job and a schedule. So I spent several hours exploring Lowell before I saw the makerspace. Lowell is a former industrial town which once housed some of the biggest textile mills in the country. After the decline of manufacturing in New England, the town fell on hard times and is slowly on the rebound. For my RPI people, Lowell reminds me quite strongly of Troy. There is a similar “this was once fancy as evidenced by amazing architecture but is now a bit grittier” vibe. The exact immigrant demographics appear different, but there is a similar bevy of cool food options courtesy of the new residents. There’s even a university in town as well. Several of the old buildings associated with the mills have been turned into a National Historic Park so I got to wander through an exhibit about life in a mill town and see a demonstration of the mills in action. There I also learned that jack Kerouac was born in Lowell. Aside from the historical stuff, I also found a delightful independent bookstore and an insane 5 story library. The tour of the makerspace and artists studios was super cool and if any of you ever find yourself near Lowell during one of the studio open house weekends you should absolutely stop by.
I spent my final night on the road camping in a Massachusetts state park outside Lowell before completing the loop back to Pennsylvania. I have now been here for two days and I’m looking forward to just resting and working on hobbies for a few weeks. I’m especially glad to be reunited with my guitars rather than having to haunt random guitar stores when I want to play. The woodworking class reinforced for me just how much I like working with my hands and constructing things of my design. I’ve already found a woodshop in Philly that I’m planning to check out in the next couple days where I can hopefully continue to build things. After a bit of a rest here, I’m going down to Atlanta to visit family and explore for an unidentified amount of time. I’m also planning to get myself to Virginia at some point along the way to visit some friends there, as well.
I don’t know exactly what is next for me professionally. I’ve had a lot of time on this trip to think about what is important to me and what I want to prioritize for myself. I don’t know exactly where those things will lead me but I’m confident it will be a whole new adventure. Thank you so much for your messages of support and curiosity about my WalkAbout. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my explorations. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing about them.
Until the next adventure.
Song of the Week:
Heaven Is A Place On Earth - The Scarlet Opera
Nice dovetails! Looks great!
If you haven’t read this you should:
“Schwarzschild Radius” by Connie Willis
Welcome home baby girl. Your adventures have been fabulous to read about. I’m glad you had such a fabulous experience. Here’s to baking our joint birthday cake together.