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I’ve just gotten caught up on work (and made a dent in my Dutch tool chest build) after Popular Woodworking in America last weekend, and I wanted to recap my experience at the conference. With so many great speakers and a marketplace that begged to empty my wallet, it’s hard to pick my favorite aspects of PWIA.
First off, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who came to the event. It was extremely heartening to see all of the people who not only came to every class, but took the time to talk to our speakers after the classes were over. I know the speakers appreciated audiences that genuinely wanted to learn.
I spent the first day of PWIA running A/V for Roy Underhill’s “Coffin Making” and “Groovin’ on Mitered Boxes” classes. I had never met Roy until that day, so it was nice to see that he is exactly how you would hope he is when you watch The Woodwright’s Shop. He was incredibly kind, charming and hilarious.
I got to spare some time and walk by the Hand Tool Olympics. It’s a really cool event and I hope everyone out there had a chance to participate. Check out Rodney Wilson’s post about it here…
I was excited to attend both of Yoav Liberman’s classes on Saturday. In his first class on turning trash to treasure, he showed how he takes furniture that others have thrown out and repurposes the pieces to create something brand new. Yoav takes upcycling to a whole new level.
His second class was on knockdown furniture. Readers of Popular Woodworking Magazine are well aware of Christopher Schwarz’s campaign chair, but Yoav showed all different styles of knockdown furniture, from Mid-Century Modern chairs to gallery pieces made of glass.
Knockdown furniture is especially interesting to me considering I rent an apartment and have lived in three cities in the last two years (I’m staying put now, though). Every time I move, I think about how nice it would be if I didn’t have to carry a heavy dining table into the Uhaul. I have a feeling that I will be going down a deep rabbit hole researching and building knockdown furniture in the near future.
It was a whirlwind of a weekend. My mind is racing with all the new information, and I’m overdue for some shop time. Thanks for making PWIA so much fun.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
It was a great three days.
Do you know when the location for 2017 will be announced?