Lisa started woodworking when her daughter Maya was twelve. She started teaching Maya when Maya was fourteen. Maya is now twenty-two and has been building furniture professionally for two years. They share a shop – a 400-square-foot addition Lisa built to the back of her garage eight years ago – and have developed a working relationship that is part mentorship, part collaboration, and part the completely unique dynamic that develops between a parent and a child who have spent years doing something demanding together.
The shop is organized around their different work styles. Lisa is a slow, methodical hand-tool worker – her primary bench is a traditional French Roubo in hard maple that she built over two summers. Maya is faster and more machine-oriented – she taught herself CNC work from YouTube videos two years ago and has now added a Shapeoko 4 XL to the shop’s machine collection, positioned in a corner where it can run unattended while they work at the benches. The two approaches coexist in the shop the same way they coexist between the two people: with respect, without competition, and with genuine curiosity about the other’s methods.
The pieces they make together are different from the pieces either makes alone. Lisa’s influence: traditional joinery, careful material selection, patience with the process. Maya’s influence: willingness to experiment, comfort with digital tools, speed on the production aspects. A recent collaboration – a walnut media cabinet with hand-cut dovetail corners and a CNC-routed grill panel – represents both influences clearly. The dovetails are Lisa’s. The grill panel is Maya’s. The cabinet is theirs.
“I didn’t set out to teach her woodworking,” Lisa says. “I set out to spend time with her in the shop when she was bored at fourteen. Fourteen-year-olds aren’t bored if you give them a chisel and explain what it does.” The rest followed. Are you woodworking with a family member? Tell us about your shared shop practice.