Celebrate The Knot by Pieter Mulder, Berkshire Head of School

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CELEBRATE THE KNOT Embracing the Uniqueness of Students

I

worked as a furniture maker for a few years in between my years in schools. What was intended as a self-funded sabbatical year from teaching soon became nearly three as I talked my way into Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers, a Shaker and Early American reproduction shop set tight to the banks of the Housatonic River in Cornwall, Connecticut. I had previously made a number of very average pieces that I had photographed very well. Such was my resume for the job. When I asked what day I should start, Ian responded heartily, “Just show up.” There’s a lesson in that all alone.

A few days later, I was warmly welcomed by a cohort of furniture makers, each of whom was long in experience and talent. They kindly overlooked my utter lack of both. I was eager, listened well, watched even better, and was willing to work long hours to move my apprenticeship along. Our

home today is filled with a number of pieces More lasting than the pieces themselves, however, were the that I made during my time there. An order for lessons I learned in this shop four two-drawer bedand the parallels I continue side tables became six, to draw to working with young since making two extra people in schools. didn’t add much to my time, and I was paid by the piece and not by the hour. More lasting than the pieces themselves, however, were the lessons I learned in this shop and the parallels I continue to draw to working with young people in schools.

The process of taking rough-sawn boards—at times cherry, tiger or birdseye maple, at other times mahogany and walnut—and turning these rough boards into handcrafted

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pieces of furniture was one of immense satisfaction.

I remember well the moments when I’d complete a piece but would delay sending it down to the finishing room just so I could take a long, lingering last look at it and remember from where it had begun a few short days earlier. It was often hard to say goodbye, even with my paycheck depending on it.

The rough boards would land downstairs in the wood room, stacked in slabs to dry true, two and three times as thick as the table tops or drawers they would ultimately become. I’d pick through these with an eye on their grain, their figure, their character, their ultimate potential. The best furniture makers, like the best schools, can see into the board, can know the potential lurking within, what is sitting just a few layers down on each side. Inside is the figure, the flame, a glow in the grain that would emerge if artfully tended, if nurtured, without rush, with an unwavering belief and an eye for the beauty that lay within.

In the best of boards, there are also knots that resist all attempts to control them, to tame them. So the knot remains, to stand alone from the rest of the piece. In doing so, a knot brings an element that preserves the uniqueness of

a custom-made piece.

Some furniture makers, “Celebrate the knot” is an like some schools, cut adage, however, well known to the boards short of the furniture-makers. So should knots, preferring long it be an adage well known to lengths of clear grain schools and their students. only, seeing a knot as a blemish or an imperfection to be avoided at all costs. “Celebrate the knot” is an adage, however, well known to furniture-makers. So should it be an adage well known to schools and their students.

Rough boards must be run through the planer and then through the sander to bring an important and needed consistency to them so that they can be joined with other boards to make a whole. But there will most certainly always be knots, and these knots can live within the same expectations of consistency, of culture, of character. These boards can still come together to be joined with other boards to create a beautiful whole. • — Pieter Mulder; Head of School, Berkshire School

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