Behind the scenes: Hammerstone Carpentry School is filled with empowerment

Hammerstone is tucked away, about 20 minutes outside of Ithaca/Source: Syd Pierre

When I was 11 or so, I went to a week-long summer program at Leonardo’s Basement, an eclectic craft/workshop space for all ages. My mom no doubt was terrified at the sheets of metal strewn around, the power tools and the general frantic energy of the place. I, on the other hand, loved it.

Walking into Hammerstone Carpentry School for Women brought back some of that same feeling, with the lingering smell of sawdust and the carefully labeled boxes and racks of tools lining the barn walls. As soon as I found out about the school during my research process when I was trying to find story ideas this fall, I knew I wanted to learn more about it.

Just a handful of the tools available at Hammerstone/Source: Syd Pierre

The experience of reporting on this story was both empowering and inspiring. It made me feel like that 11-year old kid again, surrounded by women and folks who were defying stereotypes — operating all sorts of machinery, hauling lumber, problem solving about drill bit angles and screw sizes, among other things.

In the same way I loved hearing about the collective experiences of the artists at the State of The Art Gallery, I loved watching the participants of the Table Saw class I attended work together, cheering each other on when they assembled a new corner of their apple crates, commiserating about brother in laws or uncles or other men in their lives who didn’t think they could help out with trade work projects around their homes. This tied into Hammertone’s philosophy of teaching women-only courses “to give women a safe environment to learn, absent preconceptions about what they may or may not know or may or may not be capable of.”

Participants of the Table Saw class listening to Maria Klemperer Johnson, Hammerstone founder, give instructions/Source: Syd Pierre

Two of the participants I talked to were taking classes at Hammerstone so that they could renovate their homes themselves, without needing a contractor or outside help. “I was holding a lot of flashlights in projects that other people were doing,” Kelly Cobb, a student in the class and a teaching assistant at Hammerstone, said. “But now I'm excited that I can do my own projects and help other people learn how to do projects as well.”

The atmosphere was exciting, supportive, safe and filled with strong people who wanted to learn and wanted to, as the Hammerstone website explains, “use their bodies and minds for creative and useful ends.” Who knows, maybe I'll end up taking a class there in the spring!