Category: Lost Art Press Storefront

As a favor to the Early American Industries Association (EAIA), we’re opening the Lost Art Press storefront in Covington, Ky., this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The EAIA is holding its annual meeting this week at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Ky. I wish I could be there, but I have books to edit (more on our progress this weekend). On Sunday, members will be driving home, and so we are opening the storefront for the curious.

If you are also curious, you are welcome to stop by as well. I’m working on a Danish Modern chest of drawers in some incredible curly oak and will have that on the bench – not to mention all our books, T-shirts, posters, stickers and a few leftover tins of Katy’s soft wax.

The storefront is at 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41017.

If you are looking for a reason to tempt your spouse to make the trip, dangle Otto’s brunch before them. The Benedict Otto’s with a side of goetta is something I dream about. Get there early – it fills up. If you get closed out there, try the brunch across the street at Main Bite. Or at Keystone a few blocks away.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Lost Art Press storefront at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky., will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday. We’ll have all of our books on hand, plus stickers, posters and shirts that are exclusive to the storefront.

My daughter Katy will be there with some of her soft wax that she held off from selling on etsy this week.

Also fun: John will be there as will Raney Nelson from Daed Toolworks.

What will be we be doing? Good question. I just finished up a big project and don’t have anything on my bench at the moment. This week has been all about sprucing up the facade at the building. We’ve been replacing glass and trim to bring in more light and prepare for our new custom door, which is on order.

I was going to build the door myself, but decided that you guys would rather have “Woodworking in Estonia” in your hands.

If you’re coming down to the store, there are a couple new places to eat you should check out (plus some I haven’t mentioned before). All are easily walkable from our store.

Son & Soil. Best Cubano sandwich I have ever had. Great coffee. Great everything.

Lil’s Bagels. These are available before noon at Point Perk on Pike Street before noon only. I love to see neighborhood gangbangers walking around with bags of these bagels on Saturday. Good food isn’t just for the mustache-wax set.

Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar. The biggest selection of bourbon I’ve seen. If you have any bourbon fantasies (Elmer T. Lee, Pappy etc.) this where to get them fulfilled. Great prices and a fantastic patio.

Otto’s. Best brunch in Covington. And Saturday is the best day to go because it’s not as crowded.

— Christopher Schwarz

After six months of not teaching, I can say it’s unlikely I’ll ever go back to teaching again. I’m getting an incredible amount of work done on furniture, writing, editing and research. And I’m sleeping better.

But as much as I enjoy The Hermitage, I know it’s good to have some human contact from time to time.

So this is a reminder that we will have our doors open at 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41011 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 14. We’ll have all our books there, plus free stickers, T-shirts that are exclusive to our storefront, letterpress posters and we will spray paint the dividers on your butt, if so requested.

My daughter Katy will be there selling some soft wax, and John (the other half of Lost Art Press) will be there, as will as Raney Nelson of Daed Toolworks.

I’ll also be opening the storefront on Sunday, May 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. so that members of the Early American industries Association can stop by on the way home from the organization’s national meeting at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.

Here are the days we will be open for the rest of 2016:

May 14
June 11
July 9
August 13
September 10
October 8
November 12
December 10

We might open one day during Woodworking in America (Sept. 16-18), but it will be tricky to manage because I am teaching the entire weekend and John will be working the Lost Art Press booth during the Marketplace. So stay tuned.

— Christopher Schwarz

When Roy Underhill opened his fantastic school in Pittsboro, N.C., the core idea was to spread the doctrine of handwork to woodworking students in the local community and around the world.

But something else happened that I saw first-hand.

After teaching at The Woodwright’s School a half-dozen times (and watching Roy, Mary May, Tom Calisto, Elia Bizzarri, Bill Anderson and many others teach there), I saw something even more amazing than 12 woodworking students building stuff by hand.

I watched hundreds of passers-by – non-woodworkers and non-students – become captivated by the craft by merely stumbling in off the street to find people merrily engaged in handwork.

Roy has always welcomed visitors with open arms. The first time I saw this happen I thought it was disruptive to the teaching process. Then I realized how wrong I was.

“The true mission isn’t just in teaching enthusiastic woodworkers,” Roy told me. “It’s about showing the community that woodworking is alive and well.”

Those words have been heavy in my mind as we renovated the storefront for Lost Art Press. Yes, it’s the place I work every day, building furniture and stabbing split infinitives through the heart. But it’s also the chairs in the window. It’s showing the neighbors that handwork is alive and well. It’s in meeting four other makers on our block who make things with wood for a living.

This is why I didn’t build a shop in the country (though that solitude would be appealing). There’s work that needs to be done. Not just at the bench but in the community as well.

— Christopher Schwarz

We’ll have our Lost Art Press storefront open this Saturday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with lots of interesting stuff going on all day. Here’s the short list.

• I’ll be finishing up a pair of staked chairs from “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” I assembled one chair today and will finish that with soap finish. I’ll assemble the second chair on Saturday with hide glue and wedges.

• My daughter Katy will be selling her soft wax in 4 oz. tins. We have wax there so you can try it out on planed wood.
• We’ll have a fair number of damaged and blemished Lost Art Press books at a significant discount. These blemished books are sold for cash only.

• Free “Disobey Me” stickers.
• Store-only red T-shirts from “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” These are American Apparel shirts printed locally in Fort Wright, Ky., and we carry size small to 2XL.
• Our full line of Lost Art Press books.

The storefront is at 837 Willard St. in Covington, KY 41011.

Note that a lot of the above items are exclusive to our storefront only. The quantities are too small or odd to allow us to put them in the online store. So stop by and say hello.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you are looking for other fun things to do in the city this weekend, check out this calendar of events.