Wood shop update!

Some great news! My good friend reached out yesterday and told me the timing was meant to be, as his old friend Tom was getting rid of his scrap wood collection and some tools, as he’s moving across the country. We ended up with a good stack of reclaimed wood - mainly good for some groovy siding and scraps for shelves, etc. But now the match was lit! I can’t chicken out now, or give up and put this off like I’ve done for over ten years.

Tom heard I teach a lot every month but struggle to get help from bigger places to make classes more accessible to people with less, and how the lack of support with available safe tools forces me to produce ten of each - for each student in every class.

I teach a variety of classes, so you could imagine how minimal I’ve learned to live my life as most earnings go directly into my classrooms. For example, to teach one class - kuksa carving; I need axes, knives, gouges, adzes, saws, chopping blocks and hook tools. My vehicle is literally packed to the ceiling with everything including large tree trunks we carve and that can’t be safe. I can’t afford a proper large vehicle to literally cart an entire classroom around the country. Ironic as I’m teaching in very large classrooms, but they’re usually quite empty, so I have to fill them with Sloyd joy!

In a dream world I could just ride a little scooter from school to school because they all uphold a common standard of classroom materials. But alas I’m always told “It’s too complicated kid, who’s going to maintain them, who’s going to pay for them? Just double your materials fees!” As if hosing my students/patrons more solves the problem. In fact, perhaps this is why there is less and less enrollment happening all around. People show up expecting the hype they hear about. I certainly can do it with a 16 year old’s salary, so I think the piles of grants and profits from five classes a week can certainly contribute a least a little.

But after a decade of this endless cycle, and dozens of dozens of teachers nearing retirement, most have given up hope for that change. They’ve been at it for decades before me. This is just how that ecosystem works. I’ve decided to just do something about it. If I can do it, maybe it’ll inspire them as well, seeing that it’s not impossible and then everyone benefits. The best foot forward is to have my own personal work space instead of building up everyone else’s. I work outside year round no matter if it’s snowing, raining, or the suns scorching the earth. I have to make a proper living and continue my path, there’s too much at stake.

Last year I had a class coming up and one place had promised for over two years they’d finally put some love into this woodshop we started from scratch. We had a deal, if I put my name on it, promoted it like crazy, get people to fly in from around the world, filled all the classes monthly with a new loyal community, and volunteer a ton of time and research, they’d invest in it. I’m an artist, I don’t like spending my days in meetings brainstorming fantastic simple solutions when it falls upon deaf ears. I was forced to buy three Hans Karlsson adzes which ended up costing me $1100, burning up 100% of my earnings from that three day class. This is just one small Instance, and it only covered a third of one tool type that would be useful for a plethora of classes.

These are tools I will never use personally, and they require constant maintenance as they see a lot of miles. The tools should live at a folk school so every teacher and student could benefit from them. Teachers do not get compensated for all of the class prep, harvesting wild materials responsibly, and tool sharpening. It takes days. I can relate to school teachers, all the beautiful colorful decorations, and learning aids are often funded by their own small salary but they do it out of love, but it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s not really a huge investment to a lot of places when you see how much money is spent on other things. Again this may come off harsh and that’s not my intention at all.

I am an idea man, a Macgyver, and I am great at solving complicated problems with simple solutions. I also realize some places have bigger fish to fry and are focused on acquiring real estate, large staffs, maintaining a legacy or certain lifestyle, and other stuff above and beyond my pay grade. We support you, but need you too! But again, if all of us teachers with tiny pocketbooks can pull it off, certainly places can spare some small change to make big change. I’m not saying I want schools to give me tools, Im simply there to rent their space and work. What I had hope was they’d have their own tools, that are taken care of so when teachers show up they don’t have to buy more tools from the school store to teach a class, or grab available tools on loan and spend the entire night before class fixing horrendously damaged tools.

I’ve helped engineer simple but high end grinding jigs that any beginner can produce perfect results on. I know because in every class I teach, I have students grind their own tools on a Tormek machine. I helped develop such wallet friendly sharpening systems, they’re practically cheaper than a cup of coffee for the ones who have tighter budgets. When I’m told it’s complicated, I find solutions that one cannot argue with. I’ve decided to finally switch gears, and focus on having one iron in the fire at a time. It’s time to build myself a space, where I can accomplish so much more for the community.

I hope what I say can be heard with love and good intention. I think these places are great and do a lot. People have dedicated their lives to building those places, and beautiful things happen there. I’ve always supported them, and go extra out of my way to always promote them all. Heck I’ve been on national public radio in different countries, national TV many times, been in publications promoting them more than I do myself. I see how important these handcraft communities are. You wouldn’t believe the letters I’ve gotten how handicrafts have saved their lives. It’s something I take very seriously, but with care.

I don’t believe in competition and that’s why you see me going to every school possible, and showing up around the world at as many carving festivals as I can getting my hands dirty raising the sloyd flag with the best of them. If all I cared about was money, I’d get a real job instead of wondering if I’ll make it through another winter.

It’s also thrilling work! Even more exciting when it finally clicks and you see a students eyes dilate and their arms get goosebumps! We got another on the team! But often it’s the teachers that make the big sacrifices to make the magic happen in the classroom. It’s not about schedules, real estate, the numbers, prestige, and constant grinding. It’s about getting the tools in the hands, the togetherness and the magic that happens when you put all that together with a fresh piece of wood, and some good intentions.

It makes it hard to get ahead, and I’m on a mission to build more than classes filling. I’m trying to breed the community we want to be in. Not just the playground or vacation spot for people well off who want to learn some new hobbies after retirement. They and that are important too. So many of my elder mentors feel nervous that I am one of the youngest teachers and they’re not sure who will carry their torch, as it’s so hard to make a healthy living pursuing this. I want to give people the skills and support to go off and build their own little shop, or even better - start a carving club in their own town! I will help you do that, and believe me, you can help pick people up, dust them off and they’ll pay that forward as well. It’s perpetual especially if you have good intentions. Besides, do you really want to be the only one having this much fun, all by yourself?

Tom gave me a couple hand planes, and some saws. It’s not everything but it’s something! He thanked me because he knew it wouldn’t end up sold for profit, or end in a junk shop or some painting of a farm on them to hang on the wall. They’d become inspiration vehicles, as I’ve always called them. It felt full circle. I’m often giving away my personal tools when I find someone in class that is having a hard time and doesn’t have access to tools, and can’t afford them. I tried to get sponsored by the tool companies I help make tons of money for but no one seems interested in this cause which is crazy to me. All I do is advertise for them, and to gift a tool can change a life. It costs them almost nothing but the there is tremendous value in this! How can I not sacrifice even the things I love when I see something in someone, someone like me back then that felt like they had very little help.

I still feel like that little me at the beginning. Maybe they’ll get this tool and change the world with it. Or start a small community of carvers and save people? I honestly cannot afford to do that, but someone has to be done. But somehow things always come around anyways and people have helped pick me up when I’ve fallen down. This to me is what community is all about, it’s not just some marketing term, even though sadly it often is used that way to sell something.

I came home so pumped up! So glad I just asked for help, which I’m bad at. We grow up striving to do it all on our own and how asking for things is a sign of weakness. But I can tell you how tall and strong that made me feel. That’s why I’m writing this and maybe it’ll rub people the wrong way but I can assure you, my intentions are good, and it’s obvious I’m here to help people. I just wish I had more big backing on this because I’m going to do it whether or not they want to hop on board.

A couple other people online asked how they can help. They decided to donate something towards the build, even if it's something tiny - which every little bit counts. A kind soul sent $100 last night and that is huge! I expected maybe $20 which still is big! That’s a sheet of plywood for the floor or a stool for a fellow traveling carver to sit on. It scared me a little knowing now this is real. That’s a huge level of trust in me, and also now I can’t turn back, I have to build this workshop.

Donate

Years ago I setup a donate button on my website but never promoted it as it felt weird asking.. For the folks that want to help, I was thinking it would be fun to chip carve your names on my shop wall! Etch the names as part of history, and to remind me every day when I'm working in there who helped build me up!

https://www.alexyerks.com/donate Please share this link!

I’m going to purchase some 2x4’s and plywood and every little bit counts! I’ve started to make some estimates and naively didn’t realize how expensive everything is.

It’s going to be fun learning some carpentry. I can carve spoons and such but I never learned proper woodworking. Ironic huh? I also want to try to document some of the build so people can follow along. Maybe it’ll help others stand tall, dream big, and make things happen instead of feeling hopeless. For now I’m going to start small. But if I had a humble workshop, I’d have a small space to teach, host other teachers and start my carving club. Once I can build up enough savings I’ll probably end up renting another space so I can host an even bigger club! To give people the opportunity to learn that can’t afford the dream vacation carving trip/class.

Not everyone can travel across the country and stay in the resort towns to take a class. What I’m actually looking at is quite small, but if you get a bunch of small axes together, we can fell the mightiest of trees! With that giant trunk, we can build a huge dugout canoe we everyone can fit in and that vessel can take us anywhere! Metaphorically speaking ;)

Again this is about building myself a small workspace, but little seeds grow into big forests. I can use this vehicle to build up other things and bigger dreams. But I have to start here. If you’re interested in helping, please reach out! I’ve been talking to people from around the world, and this is very exciting. We need more places to share and learn from each other. The more the merrier!

P.S. If you’re a tool maker interested in helping please reach out. I haven’t had any luck with finding the right channels of getting through to Tormek and Morakniv. Having a couple grinders would really streamline my class, my own personal carving journey, and think of how many more people I could teach how to sharpen properly. I’m often teaching 3 times a month year round.

I Need Your Help!