A NEW BEGINNING
"I laid open the side of my index finger once when I was eight or so --- was introduced to minor woodworkings at a young age by building miniature, load-bearing, balsa wood structures for an elementary school program. At first glance I was wide eyed and suspended in disbelief --- I remember promptly trying to hide the shock from my face and that deep cut in the armpit of my shirt. Didn’t want to have seen that horrible sight, bone and all, and especially didn’t want to lose my newfound privilege of working with wood. Thankfully somebody saw me and we butterfly-bandaged it up --- no stitches that time around but surely a lasting reminder to be careful from then on.
As I got older I took on little projects of my own, learned from my fair share of mistakes and found a deep love for working with my hands. My Papa was a cabinetmaker for the large majority of my youth and would bring home hardwood scraps us boys could use. Our Mama, too, was an artist, worked as an architectural house renderer among countless other jobs. We, my siblings and I, owe much of our collective artistic eye to their outlook and hands-on perspective in our upbringing. Our family was a poor one, to put it lightly, and I always marveled at my parents’ ability to make something out of nothing. I once halfway whittled a wooden swan for a would-be, seventh grade sweetheart of mine out of white oak, not realizing I’d chosen the damn near hardest wood there was --- frustrated, I threw that one in the fire. In those early summers I’d repurpose little scraps of wood found across the road in the abandoned dairy barn, would build wooden boxes and skateboarding ramps using spare tools --- mostly handsaws, an archaic power drill and an early, battery powered jigsaw that held charge for a solid thirty minutes a day. A few years later saw me through woodshop class, building sets for high school theater related projects, engineering flywheel powered, one-man vehicles with my friends, egg launchers, telescoping structures, wooden contraptions abounding. For a sophomore physics project, an especially good friend and I built a miniature ‘steam engine’ using pressure and temperature change to get our little car going. You name the medium, I was hooked.
Today I work in as many hands-on situations as I can muster. I’ve had heavy work in timberframing, built out a two-story, indoor warehouse space in Brooklyn, re-shingled roofs, re-sided houses, headed logging contracts, renovated entire properties, general contracting and painting a plenty, the whole nine yards. I still enjoy sweating the small things, too --- whittling, woodburning, fine carpentry, illustration, leatherwork --- so long as I can get my hands on it, every project is my new favorite endeavor and a new, methodical way to work. I’ve always felt that it’s been in my blood and bones this entire time, lingering in those wee, little finger bones I caught a quick glimpse of when I was young and just getting started. Most of all, I’d like to think my parents taught me well --- I still reuse scraps of barn wood, still try every day to make something out of nothing, still get my kicks from an honest day of work. This is the hard day's labor that let's me sleep, make's me feel at home wherever I go.
Welcome to Ravelwood. Welcome home."
- J. Mettler, Owner
