I thought I would update everyone on my recent shop move. This has been my fourth move in four years….
Over my relatively short custom woodworking career, I have had the need to move shops several times but always for the same reason. My first shop was my parent's garage in Alvarado, Texas and it was there I first started experimenting with woodworking. At that time of my life, I was helping my mom take care of my dad who had had a stroke a few years prior. I decided to start tinkering in the garage (still within earshot if my dad needed me) to feel like I was still accomplishing something. I had always worked from a young age and not have a paying job was something that felt strange. That garage is where I started Brown Wood Craft and started selling some really quite terrible things on Etsy. Inevitably that situation couldn’t last forever and after some deliberation, my mom decided to sell her home and move into something more manageable for her and my dad's situation.
After moving the small assortment of tools I had acquired onto a trailer, I put a tarp over it and parked it in my sisters back yard. I questioned if I would really ever have the opportunity to woodwork again. At that time I trusted that if woodworking would be in my future God would give me an opportunity to pursue it, and if not I would look to other options as I had really only scratched the surface of the craft. I was given that opportunity in a very real way by mentioning my situation to a friend and him immediately upon hearing it texting a close friend of his who had a hobby shop on his property. He asked if I could possibly work out of the space and one week later I found myself standing in a huge shop with a beautiful SawStop table saw in the middle and a man I had never met offering me not only a space to work but the use of his tools. It was an incredibly humbling situation and one I will not soon forget.
After further developing my skills in this gifted space for about a year and a half the owner of the property decided to move in order to downsize space and responsibility (he had a couple of acres of property there in Burleson) to be able to spend more time with his family. I found myself with about a month to figure out what I needed to do and considered if woodworking was still something worth pursuing. But yet again a new opportunity arose through another friend who took up the cause of finding me a cheap rental space. I moved my shop to a 400sf low ceiling shop at the end of a small driveway in a suburb just north of Fort Worth, yet again behind a friends house. This is the point where I really started to sink my teeth into furniture design as a potential full time career. And April of last year I went full-time with furniture design and custom woodworking.
By this point in the story, I’m guessing you can figure out what happened. My landlord needed to move and I needed to find a space once again. I honestly felt quite discouraged at the news as I felt like I was really starting to utilize the small space well and the thought of moving again seemed overwhelming.
With a few months notice I started asking around to see if anyone had a potential shop space they wouldn’t mind renting to a small time furniture maker and I was met with an incredible effort from not only my friends and family but also my small Facebook following to try to find me a space. It was again a blessing that I will not soon forget and I was incredibly humbled to have such tangible support. I ended up reconnecting with an old friend and former client that had a space and a desire to see me succeed. So I moved into his small outbuilding that was in a former life a small air conditioning businessman’s shop and have really enjoyed the space so far. It has high ceilings, white walls, small windows, and some room to grow until my journey hopefully brings me to some warehouse space in the future.
Until then I will continue to build furniture and thoroughly enjoy every day I get to do it! Thank you everyone who has helped me get this far and thank you for following me on this journey.
