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Welcome to the NYC Japanese Woodworking Newsletter!
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NEXT MEETUP |
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Thursday, May 14th, 6-8pm @ Nihonsan Tools |
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Please share this website with anyone you know who may be interested in joining our community and let us know if you have any questions or feedback. At the bottom of this newsletter, you will find further options to manage your subscription. |
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Fun with Fine Woodworking in CT!
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Nihonsan was invited to be a vendor at the recent Fine Woodworking New England convention on May 1 and 2 this year. We were excited to be there, among 100s of woodworkers and more at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking run by Bob Van Dyke, and introduced Nihonsan and Japanese hand tools and techniques to many of them. We did great sales and connected to a lot of folks. If you know me then you know how much I value community building and meeting people, and I got to do that for two days straight! I wasn't there alone - head instructor Will O'Connor was fanboying and teaching all weekend, instructor Vaishu seemed to know everyone there of course, and Eli was the man with the plan. Thanks to everyone who helped out - carrying, loading, unloading, and more. We hope to do this event again, and more like it moving forward.
In addition to sales and fun, some strategic wins:
- Nihonsan's booth was next to our friends at Mortise and Tenon - an incredible craft journal about hand tool woodworking and more. Check it out if you don't know them, and we will be selling some of their books now, take a look next time you are in the shop.
- We convinced Brandon Gaffney (pictured above) to come and teach some guest class at the shop soon! At the convention he taught a class on the beautiful art of Magewappa - traditional Japanese bentwood boxes.
- We also got to know our other booth neighbors, the folks from the Purple Heart Project. They are an incredible non-profit organization run by military veterans that offer free training in hand tool woodworking to combat veterans suffering from PTSD and more, as well as supplying them with tools and workbenches, all at no cost to the vets they serve. The woodworking is a part of the therapy and healing the vets need, and it works wonders. A great org to check out!
As we look for more opportunities to take part in these regional and national events, we are thrilled to invite students and customers to come with, so let us know if you are interested, or know of any events we should look into! |
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One of Brendan's beautiful Magewappa boxes |
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Excited to announce that our first order of carving tools from Michihamono, our newest vendor, has arrived! We have a small selection of tools including small gouges and straight chisels, right and left-handed carving knives, detail knives, tabletop carving benches, sharpening accessories, and more. The tools will be online soon, and are in the shop now, stop by and check them out. We are adding more dates for carving class, and have a few special guest instructor classes coming up as well! |
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Podcast Listeners! |
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Be sure to check out the Mokuchi Studio Podcast, hosted by Yann Giguere, available on Spotify. On the show, Yann interviews Japanese woodworkers about their journey into woodworking, their process and more... |
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If you have a story you'd like to share in the newsletter, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at will@makegoodwood.com. Enjoy!
—Will O'Connor |
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Intros and welcome to Jess Chase, our new kumiko instructor! Jess works primarily in solid domestic hardwoods, building pieces one at a time in her Red Hook studio. Her process centers on decisions of scale, joinery, and form, always in service of how a piece will be lived with rather than speed or trend. Rooted in Arts and Crafts principles, the work allows form to emerge from how pieces are joined. Influences from Japanese woodworking appear most clearly in the proportion and resolution of those connections. |
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And last but not least by a long shot, meet Miro Fraser, our first ever Nihonsan shop manager! Miro will be covering the shop Thursdays and Sundays, and is helping run everything from scheduling classes to inventory control. It has been massively helpful to have Miro's help at the shop, which will allow us to grow what we can do and offer. |
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