Notes From The Shop

Issue 1, July

Hi ,

Over the years, we’ve all come to expect what a standard woodworking or maker video looks like. A YouTuber builds a project, films key steps along the way, and posts a video of the process. In order to garner attention from the crowd, we might hire professional camera operators, editors, and workshop staff. We might experiment with multiple camera setups and special effects. We obsess over thumbnail images and titles. We continually search for new ways to tell the story of a project within a tried and true format that accounts for almost all project videos on YouTube. I know, because I’ve done this for years.

But what if we looked at woodworking videos completely differently? Instead of telling the story of projects, what if we told the story of woodworking?

As many of you know, on the first day of the lockdown here in the Bay Area, I shifted the format of Woodworking for Mere Mortals to something new. I decided to build a printer stand for my office with no time schedule or due date, nor did I have a clear idea of how I would tell this ongoing story. I just knew that I didn’t want to make a "project video".

I stripped everything back, bringing you with me into the design process, and soliciting your suggestions and advice. In a way, I wanted to tell the story of my woodworking experience in real-time. If I wasn’t able to accomplish much in a given day, I’d simply post a video of everything I did up to that point. We’d resume the story tomorrow. The printer stand would get done and we’d have time for other things along the way. Woodworking shouldn’t be on a time schedule.

More than 100 days have passed since I began the Lockdown Woodworking series and it’s taught me that online woodworking can be far more intimate than we’re used to. I’m not as interested in showing you something that I built, but rather having you virtually accompany me in my shop as I build.

In these videos, I still keep the story of building a project central, but there’s more room to interact with viewers in a less mechanical way. You help me solve problems and come up with creative ideas. I get distracted with side projects involving my cats and talk about the ABCs of woodworking. We tell jokes, talk about movies or weird Amazon deliveries...you know, the kind of stuff people would be chatting about while working together in a workshop.

There are a lot of rough edges and some awkward editing in these videos because I’m trying to avoid having the video be the thing. The ongoing story of woodworking in my shop and the connections we make are far more interesting to me.

With this newsletter, I want to take what I’ve learned over the past three months about being part of a community and drop it into your inbox once a month. I want to feature some of the amazing contributions, tips, and creations from YouTube viewers, and by the amazing family of Weekend Woodworker members.

We can all agree that 2020 has been a rough ride, so it’s my hope that my little bubble of woodworking can provide you with a few minutes of fun and distraction when you need it. It’s a message you can spread too...be the person who brings fun and joy to others. We need it, and you might notice your year improving.

Have a great month,

- Steve