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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