The Michigan Woodworkers’ Guild
Tell us a little bit about the guild
The Michigan Woodworkers’ Guild is a non-profit organization of approximately 300 members who enjoy making projects in wood. Members range from beginning woodworkers to professionals, primarily located in southeastern Michigan, who meet monthly to share their knowledge and to inspire each other to expand our woodworking skills. We are excited to be selected to participate in the 2013 Maker Faire to share our interest in all facets of woodworking with Faire attendees.
What will you be doing at Maker Faire Detroit?
Our guild will bring a variety of demonstrations of woodworking techniques as well as finished project displays to share with Faire attendees. The displays will range from projects that required months to build to some that can be completed in less than a day and range from the size of a canoe to size of your hand. Demonstrations will include furniture building techniques, inlay methods, wood turning, and canoe construction with eight demos scheduled each day to supplement continuous manned project displays. A children’s project opportunity to build their own toolbox/toybox for a small materials fee is also planned.
The Faire provides a great opportunity to meet new people, make new friends and to find people who share our interest in utilizing the beauty of wood for their personal enjoyment. We welcome new members of any skill level to build their woodworking knowledge through our meetings and special seminars on a wide variety of topics. The guild also offers mentoring opportunities to individual members to teach techniques and safe practices for woodworking. Our website provides additional information about our guild and the upcoming meeting locations and times.
As a maker, what inspires you?
As the current guild president I have a great opportunity to share experience and ideas with a broad scope of fellow woodworkers. We work together to solve woodworking problems and share skills and techniques. I enjoy utilizing my engineering background to improve tool designs and to build new tools to improve quality and to streamline building of projects. Guild makers are inspired by solving the woodworking concerns of fellow members and finding better ways to utilize the great beauty of the variety of available woods.
The Michigan Woodworkers’ Guild recognizes our obligation to help others in our community through “doing good with wood”. We have a long-term relationship with Children’s Hospital in Detroit where we donate hundreds of handmade wooden toys each year, build special projects to aid the hospital such as picture frames to brighten waiting rooms and ER, and to provide items for fund raising and patient orientation (doll size MRI machine).
What are you most looking forward to at Maker Faire Detroit this year?
Our guild looks forward to meeting fellow makers, the staff at the Henry Ford, and the thousands of Faire attendees.
