Jesse Mainwaring has been an apprentice since March, 2003.
Jesse on his experience:
There is no possible way to summarize an apprenticeship at J. D. Lohr Woodworking and that is its greatest strength. While an apprentice I have not only become a very competent and confident woodworker and furniture maker, but I have learned all aspects of home construction, I have learned to teach, helped develop a DVD woodworking program, and even learned to sail on the occasional trip to Lake Nockamixon. Over the past two years, very seldom has one week resembled next. The work is rarely easy, and the tasks rarely simple, but it is the challenge that makes an apprenticeship here such a singular learning opportunity. After all, one does not enter furniture making to live a sedentary life, nor does one seek to educate themselves without a challenge.
Of all aspects of the J. D. Lohr apprenticeship, perhaps the most rewarding to me has been aiding Jeff in the numerous woodworking classes taught here each year. You may think you know a skill, but in teaching you quickly find the holes in your knowledge. This allows you to fill them much faster than you would through your own experience. Students often bring a different perspective that forces the teacher to approach a problem from a new angle. Teaching is a learning experience for both the student and the teacher, and helping Jeffry teach has allowed me to progress much more quickly than I would have otherwise.
The true reason to become a furniture maker is purely subjective. We choose our paths because of individual motivations. However, what unifies most woodworkers is a true love of the material, and the excitement of working in a medium that does not allow itself to be fully predicted. The trick to doing it professionally is to preserve that excitement while operating a business. Jeffry has done just this and his enthusiasm makes an apprenticeship here immensely rewarding. The work here is done under a true master, both as a woodworker and a teacher, and I have a hard time imagining a better person to learn from and work with. I came to Jeffry as an apprentice with little knowledge, but will leave here as a friend and colleague, very confident of my own abilities as a woodworker.
You can contact Jesse through email at: JesseMcX@aol.com