New Year’s Resolution: Take a Shop Class
Katherine Sharpe
Ah, New Years' resolutions. It's easy to roll your eyes at the tradition, but it's hard not to make a few, at least quietly to yourself. Despite (or because of) all its wonders, the holiday season can leave us feeling sluggish of body and spirit by the time it's through. So it feels only natural to anticipate the end of the holidays by hatching a plan to break free from the torpor and get oneself back in tune.
Getting more exercise is a popular plan, of course, but I've been thinking about a resolution that will give a workout to my hands instead: I want to take a shop class. Just something that will get this city-dweller's design mind working, and of course those two other opposable appendages. I think that making---real, physical things, that is---is satisfying in a way that few other activities can be, and I want to carry a little taste of that into 2010.
Below, for my inspiration and yours, a few classes in the New York City area that have tickled my fancy, and some class-taking resources for places farther afield.
Here in New York, I'm looking at 3rd Ward, a freelance workspace and full-service studio center that's been around for years in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and has recently opened a second location a little closer in on the L line. They offer dozens of classes in areas from electrical circuitry, to graphic design, to computer skills. What tempts me now: they have a wood shop and a metal shop. I'm looking at a jewelry class, Intro to Silversmithing (four 3-hour sessions, $290), and an introductory metalworking class called "Night Welding" (three 3-hour sessions, $250, pictured above); the course description notes, "We guarantee at the end of this course, you will feel like more of a bad ass." There's also a shorter class called "Concrete Creations," where students will pour a small concrete tabletop while learning the principles of how to design and create larger poured-concrete projects like desks, countertops, or architectural pieces (two 3-hour sessions, $165).
The Educational Alliance in downtown Manhattan offers art classes, and also teaches welding, a course of nine almost-three-hour sessions for $325. Students will "learn oxy-acetylene gas welding techniques to create metal sculpture or furniture of [their] own design."
I also aim to attend a Craft Night at Etsy Labs. The weekly event is on hiatus through January 8th, but normally, every Friday evening from 4 to 8 Etsy welcomes crafters to its space at 55 Washington Street in Brooklyn (guests can attend virtually, too) for a project demonstration and group crafty free-for-all. (Bonus: the event itself is free for all, too.)
That ought to keep me busy in New York. Here are some shop-class resources for other cities.
In Boston, the North Bennett Street School offers serious classes for people who are serious about making: they give degree programs in cabinet and furniture making, violin making, and the like, but they also host workshops for amateurs, in a variety of fields including bookbinding, locksmithing (!), calligraphy, and woodworking. Their three-month "intensives" are the stuff that dreams are made of, in my opinion, anyway.
In Vermont, Yestermorrow Design-Build School offers classes ranging from an afternoon to a couple of weeks. Because the school is located in fairly remote Waitsfield, Vermont, students who are not local usually sleep over in the school's dorm facilities and take board at their awesome organic kitchen. Courses cover design and building processes from the micro (like a single piece of furniture), through a whole single building, up to the level of planning whole communities.
In the Bay Area, Techshop is a 15,000-square-foot membership-based workshop with all kinds of equipment for members to use, including high-tech CNC and milling machines. Even non-members can visit and take classes. Many are one-offs---a boon to the busy.
Is there a great place to take shop classes in your city? Add it in comments.
And if you're looking for words to inspire yourself or others about the value of handiwork, I recommend Matthew Crawford's book Shop Class as Soulcraft, which came out in 2009. Similar in spirit to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (up to and including being partly about maintaining motorcycles), it's updated for the age of computers, outsourcing, and "knowledge work." Warning: May make you want to quit your job and become an electrician. You can also check out the article that gave rise to the book, at The New Atlantis.
Happy (and handy) New Year to you!
Getting more exercise is a popular plan, of course, but I've been thinking about a resolution that will give a workout to my hands instead: I want to take a shop class. Just something that will get this city-dweller's design mind working, and of course those two other opposable appendages. I think that making---real, physical things, that is---is satisfying in a way that few other activities can be, and I want to carry a little taste of that into 2010.
Below, for my inspiration and yours, a few classes in the New York City area that have tickled my fancy, and some class-taking resources for places farther afield.
Here in New York, I'm looking at 3rd Ward, a freelance workspace and full-service studio center that's been around for years in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and has recently opened a second location a little closer in on the L line. They offer dozens of classes in areas from electrical circuitry, to graphic design, to computer skills. What tempts me now: they have a wood shop and a metal shop. I'm looking at a jewelry class, Intro to Silversmithing (four 3-hour sessions, $290), and an introductory metalworking class called "Night Welding" (three 3-hour sessions, $250, pictured above); the course description notes, "We guarantee at the end of this course, you will feel like more of a bad ass." There's also a shorter class called "Concrete Creations," where students will pour a small concrete tabletop while learning the principles of how to design and create larger poured-concrete projects like desks, countertops, or architectural pieces (two 3-hour sessions, $165).
The Educational Alliance in downtown Manhattan offers art classes, and also teaches welding, a course of nine almost-three-hour sessions for $325. Students will "learn oxy-acetylene gas welding techniques to create metal sculpture or furniture of [their] own design."
I also aim to attend a Craft Night at Etsy Labs. The weekly event is on hiatus through January 8th, but normally, every Friday evening from 4 to 8 Etsy welcomes crafters to its space at 55 Washington Street in Brooklyn (guests can attend virtually, too) for a project demonstration and group crafty free-for-all. (Bonus: the event itself is free for all, too.)
That ought to keep me busy in New York. Here are some shop-class resources for other cities.
In Boston, the North Bennett Street School offers serious classes for people who are serious about making: they give degree programs in cabinet and furniture making, violin making, and the like, but they also host workshops for amateurs, in a variety of fields including bookbinding, locksmithing (!), calligraphy, and woodworking. Their three-month "intensives" are the stuff that dreams are made of, in my opinion, anyway.
In Vermont, Yestermorrow Design-Build School offers classes ranging from an afternoon to a couple of weeks. Because the school is located in fairly remote Waitsfield, Vermont, students who are not local usually sleep over in the school's dorm facilities and take board at their awesome organic kitchen. Courses cover design and building processes from the micro (like a single piece of furniture), through a whole single building, up to the level of planning whole communities.
In the Bay Area, Techshop is a 15,000-square-foot membership-based workshop with all kinds of equipment for members to use, including high-tech CNC and milling machines. Even non-members can visit and take classes. Many are one-offs---a boon to the busy.
Is there a great place to take shop classes in your city? Add it in comments.
And if you're looking for words to inspire yourself or others about the value of handiwork, I recommend Matthew Crawford's book Shop Class as Soulcraft, which came out in 2009. Similar in spirit to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (up to and including being partly about maintaining motorcycles), it's updated for the age of computers, outsourcing, and "knowledge work." Warning: May make you want to quit your job and become an electrician. You can also check out the article that gave rise to the book, at The New Atlantis.
Happy (and handy) New Year to you!
