Welcome Apprentice Class of 2018!

On Sunday, September 10, we welcomed the Apprentice Class of 2018!  They are diverse group coming from as far away as Missouri and London, England and as near as Round Pond, Maine (just down the road!).  They range in age from 19 to 65.  You’ll get to learn a bit more about them in our Fall Newsletter that should be coming out in late October.

The new apprentices spend their first two weeks at the Boat Shop following a pretty intense Orientation Schedule.  Each day contains a morning and afternoon “lecture” on topics such as hand tool use, drills and fasteners, tree identification, measuring and seamanship.  The lectures take up half of their day and the other half is spent working on hands-on projects.  Over their first two weeks, they will build both a self-designed tool box and a Shaker step stool.

At the conclusion of each week of orientation, we take the time for “Show and Tell” in which the apprentices present their projects and talk about what they enjoyed, what they learned and especially what mistakes they made in the midst of building their projects.  Describing their mistakes is actually the most important part of Show and Tell.  It’s not about being humble or embarrassed, but rather, it’s about recognizing that our greatest learnings typically happen when we figure out how to fix our mistakes.  This is not true just in woodworking, but also in life.  We do our greatest growing in the midst of working out our mistakes.

Enjoy these photos of our first Show and Tell….  (and remember almost all of these folks are beginning woodworkers!)