Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield, Vermont offers over 80 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design. Now in its 35th year, Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Our hands-on 1-day to 3-week workshops, certificate programs and semester programs are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Processing the Process: A Woodworking Certificate Recap Through the Eyes of Ben Murphy

Back on campus for an early-May Timber Framing class, recent Woodworking Certificate graduate Ben Murphy has had some time to let the WWC experience soak in. With a few weeks distance from the program’s finale, he is finally ready to process what the 11-weeks meant to him.

His freshest memories and emotions emanate from the final week of the program, a mad scramble to pull together his projects in time for the final day’s presentations and graduation. “I was a little out of it for the final show,” he says. “I didn’t sleep that much during that week, especially the night before when I was working hard on my cabinet. I had an old shirt on with blood and stains on it.  Right before the presentations, I washed my hair in the sink, then changed quickly into a collared shirt. So I cleaned up pretty quickly right before the show.”

But upon entering the Main Studio, magically transformed into a furniture gallery featuring the impressive creations of the eight graduating students, the exhaustion quickly turned to exhilaration. “It was amazing to see what everyone put together in the final days,” Ben said. “It was cool to see what everyone came up with and how different all the projects were.”

Those projects included chairs, coffee tables, Krenov-inspired cabinetry, stools, a roll-top captain’s desks, hand-carved spoons, and even a harmonigraph, a simple machine powered by weights that, with one push, creates increasingly complex geometric pen drawings that are consistently stunning to the eye.

Much of that creative energy, and the necessary skills to support it, stemmed from the program’s instructors. “I really liked the structure and balance between instructors. We had one instructor, Justin Kramer, who was great, for the entire three months, and then we had professionals rotate in every week. It was very useful. We got to see a bunch of different perspectives and a lot of ways of doing things, and the professional perspective was really useful for me.” Ben also feels that the school’s roots enhanced the program. “The design/build emphasis at Yestermorrow is something you don’t see in a lot of programs.”

The result is a new-found confidence. “I now feel comfortable walking into any shop, mocking up a design and pretty much making whatever I want, so the program was comprehensive and long enough for that. It helps you figure out if you would want to continue with this and, also, what direction you want to go. I now know that I definitely do not want to stop [working with wood]. The curriculum was diverse and touched on so many different things. Now I’m doing a timber framing class. Because I took the woodworking program, I am getting so much more out of timber framing. It’s all joinery, mortise and tenons, and pegs, but it’s just on a massive scale.”

Before turning back to the timber in front of him, Ben adds a final thought about his Yestermorrow experience. “Yestermorrow is a community. It’s great. I met a lot of people that I will be friends with for a while. Everyone is passionate here. The instructors are all really passionate about what they are doing. They’re excited, and the students are always excited,” he says. “It’s really nice to be in that environment.”


-- By Nick Tuff

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