PORT TOWNSEND — Six students graduated from an intensive woodworking class last week after learning skills that can be applied either as a life’s vocation or as a serious hobby.
Offered at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking at Fort Worden State Park, the 12-week course is the first step toward the school’s earning its vocational instructional credentials, which it hopes to do within the year.
The course was structured for the first eight weeks, after which time the students were allowed to improvise.
Using their hands
“We started with a core of hand-tooled woodworking because, with hand tools, you need to understand how wood works and where the grain is,“ said school founder Tim Lawson. “If I need to take a thousandth of an inch off, I can do that in seconds, but you can’t do that with a machine,” he said.
The students had varied backgrounds in woodworking but are all leaving with enhanced abilities, Lawson said.
Among the students was Dianne Roberts — a professional photographer, writer and publicist who formerly served on the staff of the Northwest Maritime Center — who wanted to develop a new skill.
Roberts said “a happy confluence of random events” led her to the class.
“We had finished the capital campaign and I had a window of time, and I wanted to learn how to do something with my hands,” she said. “I got a small inheritance that I wasn’t expecting, and Tim came along and did a good sales job and here I am.”
Roberts designed and built a prototype for a bench that will be created for the upper deck of the maritime center in honor of her husband, mountaineer Jim Whittaker, for his contributions to the center.
Whittaker, who was the first American to climb Mount Everest, was the honorary chairman of the capital campaign that raised $12.8 million to build the maritime center.
Roberts said she intends to build the final bench but hasn’t figured out how that will happen.
“I don’t personally have a shop, so I just need to work out the logistics,” she said.
She said it was “an incredible privilege” to learn from Lawson; Jim Tolpin, an internationally recognized woodworker and an author; and John Markworth, a well-known cabinetmaker.
“One of the main reasons that I was there is that one of my favorite things to do is to learn from experts. I love to be around good teachers.”
Another student wanted to enhance her musicianship.
Kia Ochun, a 19-year-old banjo player, wants to learn how to make her own instruments.
Her project during the class was to build a curved space that would be mounted on a wall and serve as an end table for her high bed.
“These are steam-bent pieces that are glued together,” Lawson said. “There are very few professional woodworkers who can begin to do this.”
Next intensive course
For the next intensive 12-week course, which begins in October, no woodworking experience is required.
“We are looking for people with enthusiasm, determination and good problem-solving skills,” Lawson said.
They also need to have a certain amount of time and money; the ability to commit three months to learning the craft and the ability to pay $6,100 tuition.
Lawson said there is a lot of interest from potential students.
“People are calling us from all over,” he said. “We’ll see if that turns into enrollments, but we’ve had a lot of people just checking out the class.”
Lawson said the school breaks even in offering the classes, which are seen as an investment in the future direction of the school.
The classes will be offered twice a year for a total of 24 weeks, so shorter courses and workshops will be scheduled for the remainder of the year.
The transition to becoming a vocational school, which will enhance a student’s ability to find a job, requires an increased generation of paperwork with regard to registration and paperwork as well as writing a more structured curriculum. State licensing is also required, which the school will pursue.
This is a benefit because it will allow graduates to seek careers in fields such as historical preservation.
Looking ahead
Graduates of last week’s class said they weren’t sure where their new skills would lead them.
“I didn’t come here with the intention of knowing what I would do with it,” Roberts said. “I came here to just immerse myself in something. I’m sure it will lead to something that I will be able to incorporate it into my life in some way.”
She does know that the prototype bench will go toward furnishing her son Joss Whittaker’s next apartment, as he has just been accepted in the University of Washington’s archaeology doctorate program this fall.
Ochun also doesn’t know where her new skills will take her but feels they will benefit her throughout her life.
“I’m happy with what I created,” she said. “Although I did get stressed about some of the details.”
For more information about the school — which is in Building 315, Battery Way at Fort Worden State Park — and all its classes, or to register for the next intensive class, visit www.ptwoodschool.com.
For more information on the intensive class , phone 360-344-4455 or email info@ptwoodschool.com.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
