NOTE: I sent a version of the following to Amy in a DM and she encouraged me to repost here as a comment.
First - thanks so much for the very kind words re RUAC. Really appreciate it. One minor correction - no need to address it in your article- just more of an fyi. I actually kicked off RUAC (Rise Up and Carve) in Feb of 2019. We’d grown into quite a substantial global community well prior to Covid & lockdowns. We did take the opportunity when lockdowns started, to reach out to all the spoon clubs we could find to offer ruac as a way for them to either continue their ‘local’ meetings using ruac or to just hang & find others to carve with regardless of trying to meet virtually with their club. i.e. We had a well established platform built on Zoom that we could offer to assist them, but Covid & lockdowns weren’t the impetus for ruac. I did it mainly to help myself in developing a daily carving habit, as well as to give something back to the spoon community that welcomed me. It quickly grew with the help of so many others to be way bigger than I ever imagined initially.
Now - fantastic article and so much is going on in my head reading it in the wake of reading Sean Hearn’s (sp?) - Huron Spoon Company - IG post about ‘giving up’ carving, shutting down and seeking a regular FT job. My heart aches for the emotional turmoil I see so many talented and hardworking crafters go through to try to figure out how they can make a living with their craft and survive. I’ve watched craft for decades - and have been of those ‘trapped’ in a FT professional career watching enviously from the sidelines thinking ‘someday I’ll escape and be a pro slöjdare!’ So naive in many ways. So much respect for those who try. So much hurt and prayer for those who feel ‘failure’. So much awe for those who try and succeed in making it work. Everyone’s definition of ‘success’ will vary. In my mind - all have been successful in so many ways. But - I am grateful that I’ve had a career that let me lead a comfortable existence, raise a family, and experience the depth & joy of craft as a hobby. Maybe someday I’ll do it as an avocation, but for now I support those I can while I learn and grow and just create for fun. Keep up the fantastic work with this substack, and Cut The Craft. 👏👊❤️🙏
Hey Chuck! Thank you so much for posting this. I think it's really important to clarify things when they are obviously incorrect! haha. I definitely should have chatted with you about the origins of RUAC. I'm not sure where I got that information. It was probably an assumption. Sneaky.
Anyway! Yeah, I guess this essay was less about a comprehensive history of "Slöjd" and more of a critique or perhaps observations based off my experience. I also have had a few phone conversations with other craftspeople who aren't slöjdaires and they have the same issues around making a living. Regular woodworkers write for publications and write books, teach and make. For me- it's just a little too much to have to keep straight. I don't (currently) have a partner so I'm the only one making money. Willow, while she is fearless and spunky, has yet to pull in money (she's my dog). :) This year of forced slow-down with my broken finger has helped me move from the burnt-out anxious crafter to ask my self a handful of important questions. The first being, "Is this creating stress or relief?" in the context of making a living it was 100% stress. In the context of creation it was occasional relief. The relief is in the process and the flow created by doing what I love. So I think now, with the addition of a FT job I will have some space to finish up IOUs first of all, and the few custom projects that have been on hold while everything in my body was breaking over and over. The second question was "How does social media/customer expectation influence what I make?" Am I making from my heart or am I making for...(fill in the blank)? I think this is closely related to any normal craftspersons' relationship to what they make. Sometimes you have to do things you're not thrilled with in order to get by. I'm cutting out the extra "get by" stuff and letting my job pay for that. This way I can focus all my creative energy on one thing at a time and just do it for the pure joy of it- which I believe will result in better work anyway.
Thanks for your thoughts, Chuck. I love hearing them!
That Otto Salomon excerpt gives me some useful language for my questions about my own life and craft. Thanks for that. (And thanks for giving me MORE to add to my reading list. Jeez.)
A lot of my thinking over the past couple of years has orbited the concept of balance. How do I find a balance between screen time and craft time? How do I find a balance between a career that pays well and a hobby that I want to take seriously but that pays--for me, right now--nothing? (Really, these two questions are the same question.) I've been very stressed at times, feeling like I can't free up enough time to make the progress I want as a craftsperson because of this pesky full-time job I have. It's freeing to remember the freedom that comes along with that: I can keep my craft focused on "educational slöjd" and development of myself as a person, without the practical side of it mattering, at all. I don't want to brag, but I'm really good at turning things I love into obligations. So any way to cut back on "shoulds" is welcome.
I tried hard to think of an insightful question to end this comment. But I'm feeling more reflective than inquisitive. I'm grateful for your perspective.
"I don't want to brag, but I'm really good at turning things I love into obligations." Ain't that the truth for me as well! Honestly, it's always been about finding balance for me too. One of the double edged swords in my life is my curiosity. I am SO INTERESTED in absolutely everything. I want to know everything there is to know about everything in the world. I can't imagine how that would cause an imbalance. haha.
But, also, it is hard to find balance when you have a full time job. It's certainly taken me several months to hit a stride. I was really having a hard time writing because I write much better in the morning and as the day goes on my writing brain starts to shut down. I work a day-shift, so it's been rocky.
I can't imagine what it's like to also have young kids and want to have a craft practice. Life is crazy! I guess that's why it's so important to have a way to stop, breathe and center yourself no matter what is being thrown at you.
The realization that I don't need to have any expectation around how to "be a craftsperson" has been pretty nice. Even a dude in the 1800s was like - "Yeah, don't expect to compete with industry. This is to accumulate skill and become better people." I guess the Arts and Craft's movement had a lot to say about that too- I wish I had the time to read more of what William Morris had to say about industry and craft. Obviously, he was also a hopeless idealist when it comes to making. All that just comes full circle to my point though- we're not really drawn to this for the money. It's fulfilling something else - something deeper. So it's alright and also perfectly valid to make something because it feels good and not heap a bunch of crap like making money from it to make it "authentic".
Thank you Amy for that excellent review of Sloyd in the USA. I follow and have learned online from most of those individuals that you mention. I was most fortunate to take a week course on spoon and bowl carving from Drew Langsner at his Country Workshops in 2014. Great Sloyd training there.
NOTE: I sent a version of the following to Amy in a DM and she encouraged me to repost here as a comment.
First - thanks so much for the very kind words re RUAC. Really appreciate it. One minor correction - no need to address it in your article- just more of an fyi. I actually kicked off RUAC (Rise Up and Carve) in Feb of 2019. We’d grown into quite a substantial global community well prior to Covid & lockdowns. We did take the opportunity when lockdowns started, to reach out to all the spoon clubs we could find to offer ruac as a way for them to either continue their ‘local’ meetings using ruac or to just hang & find others to carve with regardless of trying to meet virtually with their club. i.e. We had a well established platform built on Zoom that we could offer to assist them, but Covid & lockdowns weren’t the impetus for ruac. I did it mainly to help myself in developing a daily carving habit, as well as to give something back to the spoon community that welcomed me. It quickly grew with the help of so many others to be way bigger than I ever imagined initially.
Now - fantastic article and so much is going on in my head reading it in the wake of reading Sean Hearn’s (sp?) - Huron Spoon Company - IG post about ‘giving up’ carving, shutting down and seeking a regular FT job. My heart aches for the emotional turmoil I see so many talented and hardworking crafters go through to try to figure out how they can make a living with their craft and survive. I’ve watched craft for decades - and have been of those ‘trapped’ in a FT professional career watching enviously from the sidelines thinking ‘someday I’ll escape and be a pro slöjdare!’ So naive in many ways. So much respect for those who try. So much hurt and prayer for those who feel ‘failure’. So much awe for those who try and succeed in making it work. Everyone’s definition of ‘success’ will vary. In my mind - all have been successful in so many ways. But - I am grateful that I’ve had a career that let me lead a comfortable existence, raise a family, and experience the depth & joy of craft as a hobby. Maybe someday I’ll do it as an avocation, but for now I support those I can while I learn and grow and just create for fun. Keep up the fantastic work with this substack, and Cut The Craft. 👏👊❤️🙏
Hey Chuck! Thank you so much for posting this. I think it's really important to clarify things when they are obviously incorrect! haha. I definitely should have chatted with you about the origins of RUAC. I'm not sure where I got that information. It was probably an assumption. Sneaky.
Anyway! Yeah, I guess this essay was less about a comprehensive history of "Slöjd" and more of a critique or perhaps observations based off my experience. I also have had a few phone conversations with other craftspeople who aren't slöjdaires and they have the same issues around making a living. Regular woodworkers write for publications and write books, teach and make. For me- it's just a little too much to have to keep straight. I don't (currently) have a partner so I'm the only one making money. Willow, while she is fearless and spunky, has yet to pull in money (she's my dog). :) This year of forced slow-down with my broken finger has helped me move from the burnt-out anxious crafter to ask my self a handful of important questions. The first being, "Is this creating stress or relief?" in the context of making a living it was 100% stress. In the context of creation it was occasional relief. The relief is in the process and the flow created by doing what I love. So I think now, with the addition of a FT job I will have some space to finish up IOUs first of all, and the few custom projects that have been on hold while everything in my body was breaking over and over. The second question was "How does social media/customer expectation influence what I make?" Am I making from my heart or am I making for...(fill in the blank)? I think this is closely related to any normal craftspersons' relationship to what they make. Sometimes you have to do things you're not thrilled with in order to get by. I'm cutting out the extra "get by" stuff and letting my job pay for that. This way I can focus all my creative energy on one thing at a time and just do it for the pure joy of it- which I believe will result in better work anyway.
Thanks for your thoughts, Chuck. I love hearing them!
That Otto Salomon excerpt gives me some useful language for my questions about my own life and craft. Thanks for that. (And thanks for giving me MORE to add to my reading list. Jeez.)
A lot of my thinking over the past couple of years has orbited the concept of balance. How do I find a balance between screen time and craft time? How do I find a balance between a career that pays well and a hobby that I want to take seriously but that pays--for me, right now--nothing? (Really, these two questions are the same question.) I've been very stressed at times, feeling like I can't free up enough time to make the progress I want as a craftsperson because of this pesky full-time job I have. It's freeing to remember the freedom that comes along with that: I can keep my craft focused on "educational slöjd" and development of myself as a person, without the practical side of it mattering, at all. I don't want to brag, but I'm really good at turning things I love into obligations. So any way to cut back on "shoulds" is welcome.
I tried hard to think of an insightful question to end this comment. But I'm feeling more reflective than inquisitive. I'm grateful for your perspective.
"I don't want to brag, but I'm really good at turning things I love into obligations." Ain't that the truth for me as well! Honestly, it's always been about finding balance for me too. One of the double edged swords in my life is my curiosity. I am SO INTERESTED in absolutely everything. I want to know everything there is to know about everything in the world. I can't imagine how that would cause an imbalance. haha.
But, also, it is hard to find balance when you have a full time job. It's certainly taken me several months to hit a stride. I was really having a hard time writing because I write much better in the morning and as the day goes on my writing brain starts to shut down. I work a day-shift, so it's been rocky.
I can't imagine what it's like to also have young kids and want to have a craft practice. Life is crazy! I guess that's why it's so important to have a way to stop, breathe and center yourself no matter what is being thrown at you.
The realization that I don't need to have any expectation around how to "be a craftsperson" has been pretty nice. Even a dude in the 1800s was like - "Yeah, don't expect to compete with industry. This is to accumulate skill and become better people." I guess the Arts and Craft's movement had a lot to say about that too- I wish I had the time to read more of what William Morris had to say about industry and craft. Obviously, he was also a hopeless idealist when it comes to making. All that just comes full circle to my point though- we're not really drawn to this for the money. It's fulfilling something else - something deeper. So it's alright and also perfectly valid to make something because it feels good and not heap a bunch of crap like making money from it to make it "authentic".
It's a crazy world we live in.
Thank you Amy for that excellent review of Sloyd in the USA. I follow and have learned online from most of those individuals that you mention. I was most fortunate to take a week course on spoon and bowl carving from Drew Langsner at his Country Workshops in 2014. Great Sloyd training there.
Thanks again. Cheers, Michael O’Brien, Alabama
Thanks for reading, Michael. What a great opportunity! :)