When people watch me work, I mess up more. I work too fast. I skip important operations. I can’t concentrate.
All of which should make you wonder why I ever aspired to be a C-list woodworking celebrity.
When we bought our shop on Willard Street in 2015, I fell in love with the building’s enormous windows, which flood the front room with natural light. But what I didn’t fully realize when I signed the deed was that the windows work both ways.
As soon as I set up shop in the front room, passers-by paused to watch me work. On weekends, entire families would line up at the front windows, pointing and talking about what I was doing at that moment (which was mostly trying not to poop my pants – think Kegels, Chris).
In the morning, the sex workers on the first shift would peer into the window. They would stay to watch if I was working at the lathe. (Sex workers love turning – don’t let anyone tell you any different.) In the afternoon, kids from the elementary school down the block would stop at the window on their way home from school, probably to see if I had stabbed myself.
And at night, couples would swing by after dinner or drinks to see the mangy monkey (me) sweep up the mess.
The attention was unnerving for the first couple years. I thought about installing shutters I could close while I work to keep people’s eyes off me*.
Our bench room.
Then one day, I just got over it.
In fact, maybe my daily performances are a good thing for the craft. I’m not alone. If you start at Pike Street and walk down 9th Street, you’ll see upholsterers at work at 9th and Greer streets – Turner Upholstery. A sign and laser shop across the street – Grainwell – is incredibly busy churning out custom work and retail items. Next door to them is CVG Made, where Steve does a little bit of everything, from slabs to joinery to furniture and built-ins. Then there’s us – the hand-tool monkey show at 9th and Willard streets. And then a few doors down is Main Strasse Upholstery – another upholstery shop.
All this craft work is within one short block.
Maybe one of those kids walking home from Carlisle Elementary will pass through this corridor and see something that sticks in their head. A beautiful wing-back chair coming together at Turner’s. The wild plywood scraps that pile up outside the laser shop. Steve’s forklift. My weird chairs.
We are all a reminder that people still make stuff for a living. We are here every day, and we aren’t going anywhere. (Unless you want to see some turning out back – just kidding.)
— Christopher Schwarz
*We do have sun shades that we use to keep the early morning sun off the students and benches. But those don’t offer privacy.
You are a LAP-dancer
If I were an old retired man, and I lived nearby, I would make a folding chair and sit in front of said window all day to watch you work. If, at some point, you’d try to befriend me (the constant spectator), I would most likely hit you with my walking stick. Let’s not get too familiar.
Picturing Oscar LeRoy from the Canadian sitcom Corner Gas. “J@ck A$$”
Have you thought about or tried putting mirrored tint on the inside of the windows? That way you can look at yourself all day long while you work. Also you won’t know if there’s anybody outside looking at you so they will truly catch you in an adulterated version of yourself, kind of like a sex worker working in one of those peekaboo booths. I would definitely pay good money to stand outside and watch that.
https://indie88.com/the-loretto-chapel-staircase-was-a-miracle-of-old-world-craftsmanship/
Christopher,
Check out this staircase
Would look great in your shop
I’ve seen it in person. It is indeed lovely.
Here in my small Kentucky town there are several empty storefronts. One was originally a hotel but was a restaurant when we moved here eleven years ago. We have for many years thought about renting a piece and setting up my shop in it. I’m not sure the residents upstairs would appreciate the noise downstairs. It would make a great shop.
Our neighbors are very happy with us. We make a lot less noise than the bar that was here before us. Plus fewer arrests and knife fights….
Less knife fights,…
That’s only because I haven’t taken a class there yet.
Hahaha. I know you. And “Knife-fight” Nickerson you’re not. More like Chuck Nicerson.
Beautiful shop.
Keep up the performance art!
Maybe, just maybe, one of those “peeping toms” will be inspired by your actions and become a woodworker.
Or a junior sasquatch
Zoos always charge admission. Maybe there’s another business opportunity here.
Hi Chris,
Watching skilled craftspersons at work is inspiring to me. Some of us learn better by seeing a process than by reading about it. Please just keep the windows clear to watch you and Megan working, and perhaps give impetus to a new generation of woodworkers. Also, should you have an uncontrollable gastrointestinal urge, some Depends may help you “scrape” through.
Seriously, your teaching in all forms is most appreciated. Thank you.
Cheers,
Michael O’Brien
As a kid, I remember the old timey candy stores in a few towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills in CA. To me, woodworking with hand tools allows a perfect duplication of that. If I were to ever open a store in our small downtown main street (sell furniture, some quality tools and books including LAP), I would for sure put the workbench in front of the windows. Best way to attract attention and advertise the business. Would also have free coffee and donuts so the retired locals could come in have a cup of Joe, shoot the breeze a bit. The sale of small items would be for those that are in town for wine tasting at local vineyards. The tools and books wouldn’t cost as much and might have some appeal as gifts. All good problems to think about.
I want to have a sign made with the first line of this blog on it. I’d hang it in my shop. I hate having people watch me work unless I am specifically trying to teach some one how to do something specific.
I too know why the caged monkey throws feces. It’s because the artisanal application of fresh, free range feces just gives chairs that Authentic(TM) Far East Wales finish the buying public goes wild for.
Indubitably in the affirmative
LOL! Glad you got over it. I’m pretty sure the Maya Angelou reference was on purpose too! Nicely done!
The caged monkey throws feces because rocks are unavailable.
Thanks for writing Ingenious Mechanicks. Building Saalburg keeps me out of trouble.
Most elementary (and high school for that matter) schools don’t have shop classes nowadays, and the closest the students ever come to seeing or doing any craftsmanship is gluing popsicle sticks together in an art class.
When I was growing up, I could watch the Woodwright’s Shop on my local PBS station.
I think they cancelled the show at some point, although with streaming, I can still thankfully watch episodes on the PBS website.
Youtube now provides similar content in some ways, but you sometimes have to be very specific about what you’re looking for, or luck out.
Watching Wood being turned is a similar fascination to watching Omnium Bicycle racing. It just fascinates some people.
Your words are poetry.
The Covington Craft Zoo. One entire block of educational entertainment. Open daily. Admission is always free.
Serious question, did your renovating the building and moving the business there kick start the growth of businesses in your one block area or were they established prior to your purchase?
Just curious. I’ve seen it happen before. Sometimes it just takes one business investing in area to make a difference.
Not exactly. Grainwell and CVG Made were here before us on 9th Street.
What I think we did was we removed a sometimes-sketchy bar from the environment. We’ve been here for seven years (as of this week), and neighbors still talk about how things have changed because we are so boring. No nightly visits from the police. No ambulance runs. No fights spilling into the street. (To be fair, the bar wasn’t always rowdy. It was basically a community center at one point in the 1970s.)
So we’ve brought some stability to this end of the Main Strasse Village. And that is fine by us because we live above the shop so we appreciate the quiet.
Cottage industry at its best
For some reason Kafka’s “Hunger Artist” came to mind, a totally unfair, irrational and unjust comparison, but there it is.
When I get tired of watching glue dry I sometimes go and watch other people’s glue dry and sometimes I will learn something. People ask me questions all the time and I tell them that Amazon does not make everything
I tell them that Amazon does not make everything
I am immediately suspicious. I just got 57 hits for ‘left handed aviation wrench’ on their site. 😉
I have to agree with you. I’ll often watch or read how to build some item I would never be interested in building myself knowing that there is usually at least one way of doing something new/different in the process.
Learn something new with every post. I’d like to say this is the first time I learned something about sex workers and woodworking.
I know a guy who wears a long black robe everywhere…..he had to get used to it too.
The issue you originally had of passers by watching you work are common place, it struck a cord with me when you said ‘Then one day, I just got over it’, I have a family member who appears to show some signs of Aspergers syndrome, they have been like this ever since their young years, as a father you try to encourage them to take steps to form behaviour to normalise the things they find difficult, the point being the initial discomfort of people watching you work subsides if you put yourself in the situation regular enough. All down to psychology and how the mind works.