Woodworkers expanding -- and rebranding -- the framework of tradition
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Sep. 30—New Hampshire has a wealth of great furniture makers, but there's a glaring problem they hope to change.
"Look around and what you see is a not-so-young organization of mostly men," said Elliot Savitzky, the new president of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers.
He and other artisans say the industry as a whole needs an infusion of new generations to lower the average age, draw in more women and represent a broader range of gender and diversity.
Getting started
With one kid a college graduate and two others now on their own campuses, Kensington mom Amy Sanderson was looking to fill some freed-up time. She started classes at the Homestead Woodworking School in Newmarket and also is a member of Port City Makerspace in Portsmouth, where she uses the workshop and volunteers as a bookkeeper.
So far she has made a pair of Shaker end tables, a mid-century modern TV stand and a miter box with drawers.
She is one of more than 70 woodworkers who submitted work to the inaugural New England Woodworking Competition, which culminates in a public unveiling at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center and Planetarium in Concord on Saturday, Oct. 21, from 5 to 10 p.m.
"I'm learning as I go — from lathes and hand tools to power tools. I could be there for a hundred years and still not know everything," she said. "I'm doing it for a challenge for myself and to see what everyone else is making."
Furniture Masters David Lamb, Owain Harris and Garrett Hack will judge the entries, with one category devoted to youth.
It's a step toward sending the message that woodworking and other crafts are a much more creative outlet than scrolling through an endless stream of selfies and memes.
DIY — at any age
Laurie Farrell, the sole woman on the woodworkers guild's board of directors, is a full-time veterinarian who started learning about woodworking as a side hobby.
"I'm in my 60s and just started a short time ago," she said. "Anyone at any age can learn how to do this."
Farrell's father got her interested in wood carving around 2014.
"I was looking for something to do in the wintertime when it's cold and snowy," she said.
The Bradford resident is submitting a carving of a kingfisher bird for the upcoming competition, which so far has more than 75 entries.
A former guild president, she is heading up efforts to diversify the guild, hoping to draw in under-represented groups that may not see themselves mirrored in New Hampshire's largely White population. (The guild also draws members from Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.)
"This is Elliot's dream, to make it more inclusive and make anyone feel welcome," she said.
Out of 745 members in the guild, 42 are women. Still, Farrell sees more getting involved and she believes that number will get a big boost in the next 5 to 10 years.
The key is to give people a glimpse of what is possible, including mentoring programs, classes and events, as well as a peek and some advice from well-established professionals.
"We're not getting any younger. We need to evolve and be sustainable. I want to continue that legacy," added Savitzky, who takes a lot of continuing education classes and courses on woodworking at Boston's North Bennet Street School, a trade school specializing in traditional crafts.
David Lamb lends a hand
Lamb, a Canterbury master furniture maker, often shares his expertise and technique with those working toward a career in woodworking.
"When you get raised on a landline phone and a TV with rabbit ears," there may be a better feel for the importance of preserving traditional skills, Lamb said with a laugh.
But in general lots of people aren't aware that there are so many opportunities to learn about woodworking, whether as a hobby or profession.
His own journey has had some interesting turns, starting with growing up at Canterbury Shaker Village, a religious community that was established in 1792 and has operated as a museum since 1992. The Shaker style of furniture was a hallmark of their belief of putting "their hands to work and hearts to God."
"My mom got remarried and we moved (there), not as Shakers but basically my parents were hired as caretakers and eventual curators and education director of the museum as it developed," he said. "The village was surrounded by all this history and artifacts — Shaker furniture and antiques."
Lamb already was interested in woodworking when Alejandro de la Cruz, a Spanish-born and traditionally trained furniture maker as well as neighbor and friend of the family, knocked on the family's door and asked Lamb if he would be interested in an apprenticeship.
After three years under his tutelage, Lamb went to Boston University to study furniture design, and then came back to the Granite State to set up his own shop, where he began fusing American Federal and Rococo elements with his now familiar innovations and intricate design work.
His commissions include a piece in the Currier Museum of Art's collection in Manchester. The light-colored secretary — with four broad drawers beneath a large two-doored hutch, was crafted in 2020 out of birch, poplar and pine. The tall, light-colored piece is topped by intricately carved scroll work and ornate leaves.
In another twist, Lamb and his wife, Janet, live in the same house in which his mentor once resided.
The Cape has an 1840s look but documents he found indicate it could have been built as early as 1810. The Shakers had moved this house twice down the hill, and it's been at its current location since 1858.
De la Cruz had built a shop in about 1960, with recycled windows, doors and even the floor from an old gymnasium at St. Paul's School.
The Lambs tripled the size of that shop by rescuing and dismantling an 1890s timber-frame mill structure in Belmont and rebuilding it piece by piece in Canterbury.
It has an old-time feel, with wood dust mingling with a collection of antique woodworking machines, most from the John White Company between 1860 and 1910 — some of them in working order.
"It's not ultra modern and squeaky clean," he said. It has a sense that it's "been there for 100 years. It's the effect I want — of time-honored traditions."
"It's a journey from 1972 to today. It's been 50 years of being totally absorbed into the world of furniture making," he said.
Through it all, Janet Lamb has been an integral part of the operation, handling all the veneer and surface work by hand while the bulk of David's job is hand work in dovetailing, joinery and carving.
"There's not a single piece of work that has come out of my shop that she hasn't been involved in."
