A Visit from the Wood Whisperer
This past week, I put the finishing touches on my new shop build just in the nick of time for a visit from one of my longtime woodworking heroes, Marc Spagnuolo, of Wood Whisperer fame. His book, Hybrid Woodworking, was one of the first, most influential books on woodworking I've read to date, joining Chris Schwarz's Anarchist's Toolchest at the top of my favorites list. His YouTube channel and Guild Projects have been inspiring and instructing burgeoning woodworkers since 2006.
A few months ago, when Marc asked me to design a project to teach in his Guild, I jumped at the chance. The timeline of the project definitely lit a fire under my tushie, because I needed to have a fully functional shop in order to build a fully functional project on a short timeline, so the days the past few weeks have been long and the sleep short as I worked feverishly with my good friend Nick Piloto to get my new shop to a useable state. Of course ever the procrastinator, I was still cleaning the house in my JAMMIES when Marc arrived to my house two hours earlier than expected last Friday. Of course, every girl dreams of meeting one of her heroes in an unshowered, unkempt, jammied state, so that was definitely ideal. Marc instantly calmed my jittery nerves, however, and after he graciously allowed me time to clean up a bit, we got right to work filming and building the writing desk I'd designed (read- jotted some notes on a napkin) for our four day build-off. In between camera takes, there were a lot of laughs, a lot of good conversations, a lot of hard work and thankfully, only a few mistakes, all of which were easily fixable and fantastic teaching moments to boot, and we ended up with a truly beautiful Mid-century Modern Style Writing Desk.
The joinery is rock solid, the shape closely follows the wood grain, and I've got a fancy new desk to sit at while I finish writing my book, edit videos, and answer the 500 emails I need to catch up on in between springtime farm work. Stay tuned for a build-a-long blog post with the desk, a shop tour, and more in the upcoming week. If you haven't already, hit the subscribe button so you can be sure to stay up to date.
