#carpentrix

“latch of blood”

How to Become a (Woman) Carpenter

Oh, and I finished carpentrix ‘s book the other night.  It’s full of insights regarding the nature of craft, and labor, and learning.  It garners the Lachrimaestro seal of approval for truth in woodworking. :)

I am no expert on decision-making. I balk and second-guess, and my brain is very good at making detailed maps of worst-case scenarios. Leaving the life I knew for something else was frightening and disorienting, which is exactly as it should be. But on the other side of those fears and confusions, once the dark clouds of question marks gave way, slowly but surely, I found fresh challenges and rich satisfaction in learning to use my hands to build. In making the leap, I learned to trust the voices inside that urge for change, to listen and respect the gut-sense. This summer, in the midst of building an 800-square-foot deck, working hard in the sun, chopping boards of Black Locust which had been milled only a few days before, I stepped back in disbelief. I never would've expected this to be my life, and I am so glad that it is.

- carpentrix in Cosmo!

Trash and Treasure IV

The near pile, with my fishing cap on it for scale, is oak. The far pile is white pine. This is the nicest wood our land has given us. We want to use it for outdoor benches, for a giant slab of a refectory table on the terrace or screened porch, for panelling in the library and our offices. As I've said before, I'm hoping to enlist the furniture making skills of my daughter, Carpentrix, in this enterprise of furniture from the land's own woods.

The business of using the raw materials from the site in permanent and visible ways in the house isn't just a kind of conservation. It's more a way of marking and celebrating the land's gifts and natural beauty with the rough stone and wood repurposed as a reminder of what we have temporary domain over.