Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

by Gary Rogowski

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Author: Gary Rogowski

Publisher: Linden Publishing

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1610353145
ISBN 13: 978-1610353144

"Gary Rogowski leads us gently but surely upon the path to a type of success we may not have previously considered. (Hint: it involves blisters)." --Nick Offerman

In an era when there are countless competing claims on one's attention, how does one find the internal focus to be creative? For master furniture craftsman Gary Rogowski, the answer is in the act of creative work itself. The discipline of working with one's hands to create unnecessarily beautiful things shapes the builder into a more complete human being.

In the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Shop Class as Soulcraft, Rogowski's Handmade is a profound meditation on the eternal value of manual work, creativity, human fallibility, and the stubborn pursuit of quality work. Rogowski tells his life story of how he became a craftsman and how years of persistent work have taught him patience, resilience, tolerance for failure, and a love of pursuing beauty and mastery for its own sake.

Part autobiography, part guide to creativity, and part guide to living, Handmade is a book for craftspeople, artists, and anyone who seeks clarity, purpose, and creativity in their work -- and it's the perfect antidote to a modern world that thinks human labor is obsolete.

Review

"Reading Handmade is like sitting down with a friend full of stories and the hard-earned wisdom acquired in doing work he loves. Gary Rogowski is frank, affectionate, encouraging, unsparing, entertaining, and humble. He passes on to his reader a passion for making lasting things by hand, one creation at a time, a pursuit and skill little-honed and much-needed in our time." ―Colleen Morton Busch, author of Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire

"Exceptionally well written, thoughtful and thought-provoking, Handmade is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended." ―MBR Bookwatch

"We need more books like this ― more books about why-to instead of just how-to. Gary Rogowski does an excellent job of giving us a memoir of his own development as a craftsman, combined with a thoughtful exploration of the mindset that allows, or even compels, a person to have the discipline it takes to reach mastery step by step by step. In a world full of overnight Instagram woodworking stars, and YouTube 'masters,' Gary shows us how he has really walked the walk. I read it straight through, but repeatedly come back to Gary's book for another vicarious taste of a real master's life. Having been a professional woodworker for almost two decades, I find Gary's meditative memoir rings true to my own experience. Thanks, Gary, and I hope we can walk the trail together sometime!" ―Jim Dillon, Woodworking Instructor, Highland Woodworking, Atlanta

"This is a book to inspire anyone who wants to do work that has meaning and purpose. It is also about becoming a creative, compassionate, and forgiving person through the pursuit of excellence in one's chosen vocation; the journey to craft mastery becomes a journey of self-realization." ―Philip Koomen, furniture designer and maker, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Society of Designers

"A rich life's worth of journeys both at the workbench and upon the trail, Handmade can show us the way out of the woods, sure, but even better, it teaches us that maybe in the woods is the place to be. Gary Rogowski leads us gently but surely upon the path to a type of success we may not have previously considered. (Hint: it involves blisters)." ―Nick Offerman, woodworker and author of Paddle Your Own Canoe, Gumption, and Good Clean Fun

"Gary Rogowski loves to rock climb and also has a deep love for woodworking. Both disciplines require courage, concentration and a developed sense of method; one wrong step, one wrong cut. Gary's book delves into this synchronicity with enjoyable anecdotes of climbing and woodworking interlaced with serious discussion of the importance of focus, practice, patience and how we become masters of craft." ―Roland Johnson, contributing editor, Fine Woodworking, and author of Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Bandsaws

"In Handmade, Rogowski writes of his love of tools, patience, discipline, the beauty and behavior of wood, learning to forgive his daily mistakes at the bench, why he believes in maintaining exceptionally high standards, and so much more of use to all who care deeply about craft and practice." ―Foreword Reviews

"Offers lessons to fellow aspiring craftspeople and provides an inviting set of inspections into not the craft of woodworking, but the art of centering one's attention to allow creative forces to blossom. Craftspeople and any creative innovator will find this an inspiring, accessible read." ―The Bookwatch

"Gary Rogowski has written an engaging biography that traces his development from a youthful student searching for a meaningful path in life to a highly respected and accomplished furniture maker and teacher. Alternating chapters describe his experiences as a woodworker and as a hiker and mountaineer in his native Pacific Northwest, illustrating his view that the lessons learned in each endeavor are the same. They are lessons in the quality of thinking that allows one to overcome internal barriers to internal goals. While furniture makers will recognize many of the lessons learned as their own, this book will appeal to anyone who has worked hard to identify and develop their own gifts." ―Miguel Gomez-Ibanez, President, North Bennet Street School

"'Do good work. There will be evidence.' We would all do well to heed the advice of Gary Rogowski. He is one of those rare individuals who has come to peace with excellence. In this charming tale, he reveals a few of his secrets and plenty of his mistakes, so the rest of us might listen and learn. From tales 'of wood' to tales 'in the woods,' Rogowski's aim is true." ―Joyce Cherry Cresswell, author of A Great Length of Time, 2017 Oregon Book Awards winner in fiction

About the Author

Gary Rogowski is a furniture maker, designer, teacher and author. Since 1974 he has built public and private furniture commissions for clients and galleries nationwide. He was a contributing editor for Fine Woodworking Magazine for fourteen years and has written hundreds of articles and several books, including the best-selling Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery. He is also a playwright, novelist, and essayist. Rogowski has taught and lectured throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom, Iceland, and Germany. In 2015, he gave the first-ever lecture in English at the Ecole Boulle in Paris. Rogowski is the founder and director of The Northwest Woodworking Studio, A School for Woodworkers, in Portland, Oregon. In 2015 he founded a nonprofit organization, Woodworking Ideas Northwest (WIN) to mentor high school students at the bench

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Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction