Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Watlington.
Sarah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story of how I became a woodworker is pretty logical if not linear. I have always possessed strong spacial, math and design skills which led me to study interior design right out of High School. Through design, I was introduced to the trades. I was immediately drawn to building, but as a young woman in San Diego, I didn’t find many opportunities to learn. Soon after school, I moved to Bay Area. There, through a strong DIY punk culture, I was able to explore power tools and discover my love for building on my own terms. I built shacks, treehouses, trailers, shoddy punk house renovations, you name it, anything I could do to keep building. In 2012, friends and I started a warehouse space that included a woodshop. By then, I had fallen hard for the craft of furniture making and wasn’t interested in much else.
In 2017, after years of self-education, I attended the Krenov School of Fine Woodworking in Ft. Bragg, CA. There, under the tutelage of master instructors, my skills increased tenfold and I was fully indoctrinated into the cult of the craft(my words). The year prior to attending the Krenov school, I moved to Los Angeles where I accepted any wood related work I could find. During that time, I met some great people, one of whom was RH Lee who then held my current position as Project Manager of Offerman Woodshop. Lee moved on to other things and after my return from school, Offerman offered me the position. I’ve been there ever since.
I am very content building furniture as my profession. It affords me a lot of creative, intellectual and physical satisfaction. Outside of furniture, I plan to dedicate time this coming year to exploring non-functional abstract sculpture. And while I worship wood as a medium, I also look forward to exploring other materials like plaster, concrete, resins and metal casting.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Speaking generally, there are a number of challenges that any aspiring woodworker can face. Acquiring the tools necessary to practice the craft can be a struggle. To do so, one either needs a lot of money or a lot of patience. I have spent years in my acquisition, finding rusty gems in flea markets and auctions. It is also really useful to learn how to make your own.
Formal education can be cost prohibitive as well. Most of the schools are private and pricey. There are some exceptions though. My alma mater, the Krenov School being one. While it is a full immersion program that requires one to move to Ft Bragg, CA and not work for nine months, the school itself is through the community college. This means that the classes are very affordable and one has access to grants and fee waivers. Cerritos College here in LA has a great program as well.
The fundamental question of who is allowed to become a woodworker is itself the greatest struggle. While woodworking has historically been very (white)male-dominated, the demographic has been shifting and there far more women and non-binary people in the field. I have benefited from this inclusion. Far more work is to be done, though, in breaking down the racial and class barriers of the field. That’s a really big project, but imperative that we tackle in whatever ways we can. One very small initiative is that in September, friends and I will be launching a raffle fundraiser for BIPOC scholarships for the Krenov School. It will all be done through Instagram so check out the @thekrenovschool for information.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m grateful to be plugged into a wide woodworking community here in LA. Like previously mentioned, my main gig is at Offerman Woodshop. I’m in charge of the commission furniture that comes through the shop, starting at design and bidding all the way through build execution and install. We focus on high-end functional furniture. The shop is owned by Nick Offerman, the actor. Not only is he talented onscreen but he’s a great woodworker, as well as a supportive boss and friend. Uplifting women into positions of power has always been a big part of his shop ethos. That is pretty rare in the woodworking world so I’m grateful for his commitment and support.
My secondary gig is teaching woodworking classes at Allied Woodshop in Downtown LA. Our classes range from single day to 10-week courses for all entry levels. We teach mostly adults, but I’m hoping to lead more youth classes in the future there. Representation matters, so to be the face of woodworking for young kids, especially for girls, helps them see that they too can follow this path.
And then adjacent to those two spaces are a network of other great projects that I’m glad to support and be plugged into. One being WouldWorks, a non-profit run by a few of my Offerman cohorts. WouldWorks provides woodworking instruction and work opportunity to the unhoused community here in LA. Angel City Lumber being another. They salvage trees that the city takes down and would otherwise become mulch, and turns them into beautiful lumber. SideStreet Projects is a fully mobile non-profit that teaches woodworking to children out of converted school buses. I could go on!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Well, an infinite number of things, but also nothing. I appreciate Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of Eternal Recurrence. It is mostly just a thought experiment which posits that we’re in an eternal loop with no choice but to relive this exact same life ad infinitum. Presented as a challenge, it asks: “If what I’m doing right now is what I have to do for eternity, am I sure it is what I should be doing?”
Contact Info:
- Website: sarahwatlington.com
- Instagram: @sarah_watlington
Image Credit:
John Lichtwardt
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