I have learned so much and feel like I have come quite far in the last 8 weeks, but what I learned very well is that there is always more to learn. I am a big believer in the workmanship of risk. It supports my belief that perfection is not an attainable thing, and it really shouldn’t be the goal anyway. I plan to continue on this journey and see my shop time as a part of living, not the rare treat I once did. I hope to continue to build out my skills, indulge my curiosities, make interesting and functional things, and never stop learning. 

My woodworking journey is just starting as I feel I have a strong foundation to build upon. I wished I had taken a class of this type earlier. The structure of the classes with short videos showing techniques followed by the office hours questions and answers was a significant help during the session. As much as anything, the open comments and discussions in the forum was inspiring, for me, during the classes. The openness of the classmates sharing their successes and struggles was encouraging and showed that we were all working towards the same goals. 

Working methodically through the entire process also has been a deeply rewarding aspect of the apprenticeship. Previously I’ve sharpened tools as a means to an end. Stopping for a week to focus on sharpening as the end in and of itself, and taking a chance on freehand sharpening, has made me a better sharpener. Similarly, after pausing to focus on each step individually -- stock preparation, joinery, assembly, sourcing wood, and finishing -- I’m more confident that I can stitch these tasks together in the context of a bigger project.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Mortise & Tenon Apprenticeship. I have been enabled with skills, confidence, and habits to create hand-crafted wooden artifacts. The very fact that I developed skills in my home workshop, using my own tools, in a schedule and pace that married with my current lifestyle, meant that I seamlessly integrated craft into my daily life; the course truly did achieve what it set out to do, to cultivate craft. Having a schedule built with a progressively coherent series of short, daily activities, meant that it was very easy to spend regular, productive time in the workshop. It is now very natural for me to wander into my workshop and pick up the tools.

The format of this course really works and is a great approach to online learning.  The combination of the forums and the office hours, really give this a more personal touch.

The biggest thing I loved about the class is it made me make time, held me accountable, encouraged me to go beyond the base course, and to think about why craft is so important to me.  Craft isn't just about what you can make, but what you are made of.

Homework assignments in this course forced me to shift my “knowledge” of joinery from theoretical concepts in my head (or stored on a server somewhere) to knowledge stored in my body. At the end of each week, I started to feel whether my saw was plumb, whether I needed to whack the chisel more softly, whether my plane blade needed to be honed. At the same time, the readings for this class clarified for me why I am building in the first place. 

Eight weeks of regular craft work taught me one lesson above all others. Craftsmanship cuts both ways. Embracing the daily habit of hand tool woodworking revealed that, with every stroke of a plane or chisel, the wood shaped the worker in equal or greater measure. Through such transformative experiences, The Mortise and Tenon Apprenticeship Program was a joy, a challenge, and exactly the gateway to the thoughtful practice of handwork that I hoped for. Viewed holistically, this apprenticeship inspired precisely the drive, confidence, and curiosity I sought to invigorate when I signed up. For years, I explored pre-industrial craft by fits and starts. The accessibility and framework of this course allowed me to advance that irregularly acted upon wonderment into intentional daily practice and study. I now dedicate regular time each week to work at the bench. 

I found the most freeing part of this apprenticeship was coming to true acceptance that there is good rough work and that good rough work has something of beauty within it. It is in this good rough work where the tool marks speak. Prior, I felt a need to hide these qualities in my work as clients and viewer may see these as marks of unskilled or lazy work. And some may still feel that way, however, now I feel a kinship with this type of work that I feel confident in telling the stories of these marks as something to draw attention to rather than from. I found this hit home during the green woodworking week, through the use of the axe and the rawest example of the medium I felt a transfer of an ancestral knowledge and energy.