craftsman Archives

(Q&A with Jessica Brown, owner, Wood Thingamajigs whose shop can be found on Facebook and at www.woodthingamajigs.com)

How did you get involved in woodworking in the seventh grade?

The students in my school were given the choice between wood and metal shops or cooking and sewing classes. Given that I had already learned to cook and sew from my Mom and Grandmother and having spent countless hours watching my Dad do various carpentry projects around the house, the obvious choice for me was to give the shops a try. From the moment I walked into that wood shop and smelled the delicious wood aromas, I knew I had made the right decision.

What equipment and main tools do you have in your shop?

Delta Table Saw and Planer
Kobalt compound miter saw
Jet band saw, drill press, dust collection system
26” Shop Fox dual drum sander
Various Dewalt, Craftsman, Ryobi, and Porter Cable power and hand tools
Assorted pipe and bar clamps

How and when did your business, Wood Thingamajigs, come into being?

Every year my then boyfriend (now husband) and I exchanged one handmade Christmas present. For Christmas of 2015 my present to him was some wood letter tiles spelling out various important words for us and our family. I spent countless hours in our garage and our attic hand making more than 100 tiles. After Christmas, we posted a picture of my handiwork on Facebook, and one of our friends said I should start a business making them. I decided to give it a try as a business in April 2016.

Why the name?

After thinking about starting the business for a while and asking other people if it sounded like a good idea, I decided to go for it. We were sitting on the couch one afternoon throwing around ideas for a name for the business. In the brainstorming, it was asked “well, what will you make?” Wood stuff, wood items, wood thingamajigs.

What types of items do you make? What is a “pet novelty?”

We make everything from outdoor yard games to furniture. Our pet novelties consist of feeders, furniture-style dog crates, cat trees, and leash holders.

What is the largest or heaviest item that you have made? What is the smallest? What is the most special or unique?

The largest and heaviest item that we have made so far is a custom, solid-cherry 12’ 3” dog crate with four separate compartments. This was co-designed with our customer and made to match her existing dining room furniture. The piece we made is used not only as a dog crate, but as a buffet or sideboard. Our smallest product is a hand turned, exotic wood wine bottle stopper. The most special is definitely the wood letter tiles that started this whole adventure. One of our favorite things to make is a cutting board. We like to integrate different species into the boards into unique designs. We love walnut, but we also use maple, cherry, paduak, and purple heart to name a few.

Who are your customers?

We have a broad customer base consisting of everyone from brides to businesses.

Do you have another fulltime job?

Yes, at this time I do have another fulltime job as a purchasing manager for a local additive manufacturing company.

Why did you join the U.S. Army, for how long, what did you do for them, where were you stationed?

I grew up in a family where nearly everyone served. I knew from a young age that it was something that I wanted to do. Right after high school, I enlisted in the National Guard as Military Police. A few years later, I applied to and was accepted into West Point. After graduating, I served at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. All together I was in the military for 16 years.

I see you are from Massachusetts. How did you end up in Ohio?

When I left active duty, I was married to a man who was from Northeast Ohio.

How did your current husband’s love of woodworking start and is the shared interest one of the things that brought you together? What is each of your roles in the company?

Jason’s love of woodworking also started at a young age working with his father remodeling an old farmhouse. He likes to remember the first time I showed him my limited shop when we first started dating. It is a fond memory for him. Our mutual love of woodworking brings us together. A few years ago I had surgery, and as I was healing and able to move around better we decided to make a project together. It was our first joint endeavor. It is lovingly referred to as “the project” in our family. We have had a few people ask to purchase it over the years but the sentimental value is priceless. When it comes to the business we share responsibilities for our orders. I tend to manage more of the business side of it, as well. We love to sit together and brainstorm the next project or the next step in expanding the company.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Our inspiration is found in a variety of places. Sometimes the grain of a wood catches your eye and says it needs to be an end table. Other times walking through the wood mill we will see a slab that just begs to be made into a bar top. Our inspiration is to be able to live a life where we love what we do and love going to work every day. A place where the work isn’t work. The cliché if you love what you do then it isn’t really work truly applies to our company.

What is your artist’s/maker’s philosophy?

“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.” Louis Nizer

What do you do when you’re not woodworking?

Dream about woodworking

Kevin Morin Eldred Passage boating

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Kevin Morin)

What do you do for a living?

I’m mostly retired. After my divorce, I left the business that I built in the ex-wife’s hands but I’m still a co-owner. Age-wise (later 60s), I have some health-related limitations due to welding work for many years in the oil field. I do CAD work, wood and metal sculpture and some welded aluminum boat work but not 9-5 five days per week.

How did you get into art and making?

I’ve always been interested in drawing from before I went to government school in the 50s. My father introduced me to tool use, and by my teens I’d learned to build models of balsa wood of my own design. In the 70s, I apprenticed with a local welder and then bought my first power supply and began experimenting, learning other modes of welding after starting with stick. As I worked in the trades I realized I could use my trade skills to build art or furniture; so, I began to experiment in those areas- eventually I began to build welded aluminum fishing boats for the local salmon fishery.

What do you design and make?

I’ve designed houses for friends, furniture, sculptural pieces, vehicles for specific tasks, welded aluminum boats from 3-feet long to 36-feet long, and built all these items in wood or metal over the years.

How did you learn to do this?

Most often, I’ve read on a tool use subject, then purchased a modest-cost version of that set of tools from wages, then worked with the tools to increase my skills and finally invested in more sophisticated and higher-precision tools, and that progression was parallel to the quality improvement in my projects. I have worked in the welding trade in both oil and gas as well as boat building, and I did some finished carpentry/joinery in both the commercial and housing market, as well as designing and installing the interior of a few live-aboard-sized boats.

What artists, designers or makers do you most admire?

I don’t know the names of the people whose work I most admire. I may see their work once in a while online (Pinterest) or receive an email with someone’s project pictures. However, I can’t say I really know their names but often can recall their ‘hand’ when I see another piece of that artist’s work.

What inspires you?

Like most people who imagine ideas of objects to build, I have a semi-constant stream of ideas that appear as color 3D images in my mind’s eye. I believe that my ideas come to me from outside my own perception but not sure the source except that is seems to be external. Shape is the primary influence that inspires me. I like flowing streamlined shapes. They appeal to my aesthetic sense of design.

So I’m inspired by the grace of the forms of animals in motion, as well as the grace of the lines of some vehicles or furniture to design and build my take on those flowing forms.

What do you do when you aren’t working or making art?

Not much work these days. Arthritis slows me down. I spend lots of time drawing on the PC using various CAD applications. I’m learning to cook and find that enjoyable to prepare dinners for the family. I read a lot and sketch constantly, as I refine ideas and explore concepts that may be worth building.

What advice do you have for others?

Most industrial-skills-related art that I see online lacks strong design fundamentals. I think the skill of most people doing this work is much higher in the related trade or tool use than in the conception and drawing skills. I’d suggest more time and priority be given to the development of the ideas, forms and content.

What is your personal philosophy?

My philosophy about art is that the creation of physical pieces that originate in our imaginations should be for the enjoyment of the viewer, user, collector. As the builder/maker, I have my own enjoyment of the process from conception to creation; so, once a piece is complete I’d like to have made something that will be a “thing of beauty; forever.”