To our incredible network of students, teachers, followers, fans, loved ones:

Fireweed is a wildflower that can grow quickly in areas burned by wildfire. In this way it is adaptable to change and supports renewal. Fireweed Community Woodshop aims to be a space that can equally thrive in times of change. The world is ever changing, and organizations that can change with it can help build alternate futures together. 

We are writing to inform you that Jess Hirsch, our founder and Pollinator (executive director), has stepped down from her role at Fireweed Community Woodshop. As a board, we’ve had time to prepare for this transition and we thank Jess for her stewardship of Fireweed and for giving us this opportunity to reimagine our future. 

It is with great enthusiasm and gratitude, that we announce that Board Member Leah Van Tassel has taken on the role of Interim Pollinator. She will run the organization while the board takes on a leadership search. Leah has volunteered, provided admin and financial support, and taught classes at Fireweed Community Woodshop since 2018. She has deep knowledge of the organization and has worked closely with Jess over the past few years to support the organization. We are confident that Leah will successfully lead the organization through this time of transition. 

Fireweed would not exist without Jess’s incredible vision and tireless work. Under Jess’s leadership, Fireweed Community Woodshop has changed its name to better reflect its inclusive values, became an official 501c3 nonprofit, occupied two different physical spaces, shifted multiple times with COVID-19, and developed a vast and caring community of instructors, students, and supporters. Anyone who has taken a class from or talked about Fireweed with Jess knows the care they have built into everything that is core to the organization. 

Fireweed Community Woodshop is still a relatively new nonprofit and over the past year, the board has developed values that drive decision making, solidified policies and procedures, and refined its vision for how best to empower marginalized genders through the art of woodcraft. It is with that strong base that we can cultivate the sprouts of the future of Fireweed Community Woodshop. 

We thank you all for believing in and supporting Fireweed Community Woodshop. As more seeds are planted in the coming months we will share those with you and hope that you stay with us as we water them and watch them grow. 

Sincerely, 

Fireweed Board

Eleanna Mathioudis Goudey is a passionate community builder who loves learning any and every new skill she can. Currently, she is delving into broom making and wood carving! She has volunteered in different non-profits in the Twin Cities area, helping with volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and outreach. Professionally, she works in data analysis for a non-profit health insurance company. Her work focuses on understanding more about the needs of insurance members and then finding new ways to meet those needs. Eleanna combines her professional skills and passion for handcrafting to supporting the vibrant Fireweed community. 

Hello! I’m Jeanette. I have been carving for 4 years ever since I took a spoon carving class from Jess. I caught weaver fever from another amazing instructor, Beth, and have been making baskets for almost a year now. I co-teach sharpening at Fireweed and will co-teach bowl carving there soon. Besides Fireweed, I have taken classes at the American Swedish Institute, North House Folk School, Woodspirit Handcraft, and Milan Village Art School. This summer I got to harvest birchbark with Beth up near Grand Marais, learn bowl carving from Swedish instructor Beth Moen, and build a stool up in Ashland, WI. I work at the American Swedish Institute as a studio classroom tool sharpener and event support staff. I love my job working in a Minneapolis library. I also bike year-round, read lots, and grow native plants. My wife and I live in the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapolis with our cat, dog, and four chickens. My favorite tool is the Julia Kalthoff axe and I love axing out bowl and spoon blanks in my backyard. Craft connects us to each other- the act of slowing down and working with our hands opens up space for relationships to form, I’ve seen it happen over and over again, especially at Fireweed. Fireweed recognizes that they are a part of an imperfect society and I value the work they do to imagine a better future. I learn more about how to be a supportive member of our community every time I gather with friends to create.

Anastasia left the world of financial analysis and business development to cultivate an elemental foundation within herself to engage in a life of making. She studied at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship as well as completed a certificate program at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. Anastasia is building a woodworking practice in St. Paul that combines her curiosity of traditional furniture and the much more dynamic, more iterative, more instinctive design that surfaces at the workbench. She also is active in assisting local furniture makers when they need an extra set of hands and baking at Laune Bread.

Margaret has nearly 20 years of experience in accounting and finance
and currently serves as Controller at Westminster Presbyterian in
downtown Minneapolis. Prior to that she worked for the Metropolitan
Council Environmental Services division as a Financial Analyst and
spent over 15 years at YWCA Minneapolis where her final role was
Finance Manager. She has worked extensively with grant writing,
budgeting, and reporting as well as all aspects of accounting and
finance for non-profit organizations. Margaret loves 10-keys,
spreadsheets, budgets, and financial modeling and seeks ways to share
those skills with organizations rooted in social justice. Outside of
her love of learning new excel formulas, she relishes getting in way
over her head on home renovation projects, traveling and exploring
nature, and dancing in the kitchen while trying out new recipes.

Rachael Rivard (She/Her)

Rachael is a biostatistician with the Center for Evaluation and Survey Research at HealthPartners Research Institute.   She loves numbers, puzzles, problem solving and most importantly making things work.  Before she moved to the Twin Cities she lived in Madison, WI where she was the founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Dresses That Heal which used the wedding industry to raise money for women overcoming breast cancer.   

Her interest in woodworking initially began with home restoration and DIY projects.  One project led to another and she began looking for a community who shared her interests and came across Fireweed.  It’s an honor to be of service to the organization’s mission to ‘empower women and non-binary makers through the art of woodcraft’.   Every word of that statement feels like we’re building a stronger community together and she’s brought all her tools.  

My name is Rachel Ryan (she/her) and I was born and raised in Minnesota. The first time I took a Shop Class was sixth grade and I stayed with it until eighth grade. The only reason I stopped? There wasn’t a single female that walked in to the Shop Class on the first day of school in ninth grade and I felt very out of place, so I immediately withdrew the next day.

Crafting things with my hands is a talent I miss, so much, which is why I decided to apply for a position to be on the board. I having a community of people I can look forward to seeing. One thing I learned in 2015 when I attended a soirée in San Diego I volunteered at for four years was what community really is about. Showing up — not just for you, but for others, too.

I have an Adirondack chair I made in eight grade that still remains in my patio where I reside in St. Louis Park. 

Firewood Shop is a community I’d really appreciate being a part of, no matter how small of a part I’d play. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Alice (she/her) has over ten years of experience working in fundraising for various non-profits, including Pro-Choice Minnesota, The Nature Conservancy, Panthera, Ocean Conservancy, Waterfront Alliance, and Texas Climate Jobs Project. She  is currently the Foundations Manager for Food & Water Watch. She has a master’s in environmental journalism from Michigan State University. Alice lives with her spouse, two human children, two cat children, one rabbit child, and various fish children. She sews, knits (just a beginner!), and once built a boat.

Leah Van Tassel is a personal chef in Minneapolis trained at The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York focusing on health-promoting seasonal foods, supporting individuals and families with autoimmune diagnoses, and navigating food intolerance, allergies, and specialized diets. She has a small in-home bakery, Junco Bakehouse, specializing in gluten free seed and nut breads. Leah also works at EggPlant Urban Farm Supply using her knowledge as a home gardener, amateur food preserver and backyard chicken enthusiast to help others create nurturing food and spaces for themselves and the environment. She previously worked at a non-profit community development organization in Wisconsin, and has volunteered, provided admin support, and taught classes at Fireweed Community Woodshop since 2018. Leah is re-applying for her 2nd term as a board member. She is Fireweed's Treasurer.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Fireweed Woodshop seeks apprentice to work in our beautiful 2000 square foot studio and assist a multitude of exciting classes while developing their own course work. We are looking for a 30 hr a week apprentice. 

Our ideal apprentice is a person that is passionate about woodworking and wants to educate others. They are driven to create equitable spaces in the woodworking industry and a socially conscious individual to support the needs of our students. 

Fireweed is a 501-c3 non-profit located in the Prospect Park neighborhood of  Minneapolis. Our organization offers small one day workshops to multi-week workshops on various woodworking projects. We specialize in craft, furniture building, and handy-person classes. Woodworking is an intimidating craft. Fireweed creates a comfortable environment for people of all abilities to try out new skills.

BIPOC Makers are strongly encouraged to apply.

DETAILS:

Start Date Feb 14, 2023

Ending August 14th, 2023

Schedule will vary based on classes (nights/weekends)

Tech time will be during weekday hrs

Deadline to apply Feb 1st, 2023

After apprenticeship the position of contract instructor will be offered. 

6 months total, 30 hrs per week, $20/hr 

This is a 1099 Contract Employment Opportunity

Month 1 & 2: 20 hrs per week with instructors assisting in class, 8 with tech, & 2 hrs of training

Month 3 & 4:  15 hrs per week with instructors, 8 hours with tech, 2 hrs of training, and 1 hr with instructor 1 on 1, 4 hrs of exploration

Month 5 & 6:  6 hrs a week assisting classes, 4  hrs teaching workshops, 8 hrs with tech , 12 hrs per week for exploration

TRAINING

• Tool safety training- basic tools to complex tools

• Instructor Observation followed by instructor 1 on 1 time

• Teaching pedagogy- workshop on how to teach in a non-hierarchical way

• Gender Inclusion training- pronouns and etiquette workshop

• Accessibility Training- workshop on how to make woodworking more accessible to different bodies

• Racial Equity Workshop-how to navigate white supremacy within woodshops

• Core Skills to teach: How to be a good teacher, How to take care of tools, How to structure a class

ASSIST INSTRUCTORS- Help instructors with multiple classes

TECH HOURS- Repair and maintain equipment

EXPLORATION TIME- Open time to develop course work & experiment with materials and tools

BENEFITS

• Tool Access

• Shared Studio Access

• Networking with makers & instructors

• Networking with Educational Organizations & Cultural Institutions

• Access to free material

• Direct Shadowing of multitude of classes

• Culturally responsive trainings

• Free Professional Development Classes through Springboard for the Arts

• Future instructor role 

QUALIFICATIONS

Woodworking experience - due to the short nature of this apprenticeship some prior exposure to tools is helpful. You do not need to be an expert, but its helpful if you have had some basic experience. Even a powertools 101 class helps!

Socially Conscious-we are striving to make a safe woodworking space and want to make sure our students are supported. Its essential to understand the importance of trans inclusive language and want to be actively involved in dismantling white supremacy in the woodshop.

Desire to teach- you don't have to have teaching experience, but a desire to build community and share knowledge will fuel you in this position.

SELECTION PROCESS

Phone Interview/Zoom interview with Jess

In-Person interview at the shop with Nia (Education Coordinator) & Jess (technician) & Board Member

ABOUT Fireweed

Fireweed fosters community and individual growth through woodworking classes, fabrication, volunteering, and celebration. Our inclusive and exploration-centered approach empowers women and nonbinary makers to build a new culture in woodworking.

We currently have a board of 12 members, 3 part time employees, and one beautiful 2000 sq ft studio. We have approximately 900 students taking classes per year with up to 17 classes per month. In the past 5 years we have had over 40 instructors teach at the woodshop and online, some zooming in from China and Brazil. Many instructors run full time furniture making businesses in addition to teaching. 

Racial Equity Committee Statement:

Woodworking and craft spaces in the United States have been predominantly cis, male, and white. Fireweed Community Woodshop recognizes that, much like in the natural world, diversity is good for the stability and flourishing of any ecosystem. We believe that we must be proactive in dismantling the white supremacy that exists within the woodworking space but also encourage and support people of color within our space and empower individuals and communities of color outside of our space. We are committed to growing a space in which everyone feels a sense of belonging.

To Apply Feb 1st & Email to fireweedwoodshop@gmail.com

Write us a letter of interest with a resume or a short bio. 

Include 3 references (they do not have to be from a professional experience, but someone that can speak to your character). Include name, email, and phone number.

 Funding for this activity is provided by the Office of Arts, Culture and the

Creative Economy in the City of Minneapolis

Nat (she & they) 

Nat is a trans and nonbinary Korean-American maker with six years of professional experience in large-scale art fabrication, shop instruction/maintenance, studio management, and living and working in communal settings. Her/their experience spans nonprofit, education, and production environments in both rural and urban areas in multiple states. She/they are passionate about building inclusive shop environments, and the role these spaces play in challenging ideas of what a highly competent and skilled designer, fabricator, artist, or builder looks like.

Key experiences:

• 2016-2018 Apprenticed with Chico MacMurtrie, a Guggenheim Fellowship awarded robotic artist, and designed and built inflatable robots in Brooklyn, New York and Bisbee, Arizona. She/they managed shop, and led a production team in fabricating large-scale inflatable architectural forms intended to arch over the US-Mexico border.

• 2018-2019 Artist intern at Franconia Sculpture Park. Provided fabrication services for local production shops and artists. Also maintained nine studios and two galleries for Bethel University’s Art Department.

• 2019-2021 Helped establish Western North Carolina Sculpture Center, a nonprofit art organization as part of a six-member team of artists and builders. Converted an old gym into a 10,000 sq foot art studio, cleared a mile of trail for artwork and campsites, maintained 4 acres of sculpture park, gave tours, helped artists-in-residence make large-scale artwork, led artist interns in park work, and conducted public events and iron pours. 

• 2019-2021 Exhibit Technician at Catawba Science Center. Led six overlapping exhibit planning committees, refitted the maintenance shop into a production shop, built two grant-funded exhibits from scratch, and procured material donations for conservation-based workshops. 

Nat is currently a shop instructor and technician for UMN College of Design, and volunteers with both Fireweed, and Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center.

Jules Bunch (they/them)

Jules Bunch is a visual artist working across media while investigating the phenomenology of life’s patterns and cycles. Jules received their Master of Fine Art in Sculpture and Intermedia at the University of Iowa (May 2022) and their Bachelor of Fine Art in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois (May 2013). They are currently a resident artist fellow at NE SCULPTURE | Gallery Factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Jules also serves as the program assistant. 

“I enjoy sharing my skills and collaborating with artists, makers, scholars, and inquisitive people. I am especially interested in sharing my skills with machines and Arduino programming for interactive lighting and kinetic art. The application of mechanics, motors, sensors, pumps, fans/blowers, and lights plays a major role in my art installations, and I enjoy helping artists activate their art by utilizing these tools.” 

Key Experiences:

• Taught Sculpture I and Elements of Sculpture for three years at the University of Iowa (2019-2022)

• 6+ years of professional experience in 3D design and construction site management (2013-2019)

• Served on the board of the Underwater Club at the University of New South Wales in Randwick, Australia (2012)

• Served as committee chair of Public Relations of Twin City Derby Girls in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (2014-2018)

• UIowa Public Digital Arts Grant recipient (2021-2022)

• Cork County Arts Council Grant at Greywood Arts, Killeagh, Ireland (2019)

Stephanie Lunieski (She/ her)

Stephanie is a woodworker, sculptor and runs her studio furniture company, Lefty Design Co in Minneapolis, MN. She attended the nine-month woodworking program at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship as well as assisted summer courses there. Stephanie teaches at Fireweed Community woodshop and she believes everyone deserves to experience woodworking and the empowerment that comes with crafting something with your hands. She has seen first hand the way a welcoming space like Fireweed can nurture individuals to grow in an open and non judgemental environment and would love to help to Fireweed continue it's mission and grow in the community. 

Barbara (she/her) grew up in a small Wisconsin town, rooted in neighbors and community. She’s lived in Minneapolis and worked at the U of M since 1989, where she currently leads 50+ professional and student staff at International Student and Scholar Services (iSSS). She brings a wealth of leadership, management, financial (budgets over $4 million), strategic planning, crisis and grant writing experience (more than $3.5 million in training grants). Her earlier career including curriculum design and facilitating intercultural learning. She’s humble, a strong listener, and energized by teams working together. She hikes local and simple trails, in awe of the beauty of trees. She’s new to Fireweed and deeply impressed with its focus, energy, and mission. Growing up, tools were for her brothers. She’d like to contribute to the empowerment Fireweed makes possible and to participate in making something together. 

Heidi Wagner (she, her) attended a technical college for carpentry after graduating high school and spent years on construction sites as a carpenter and, subsequently, as a project manager. Much of her work in life shifted between manual labor and education. She earned a BA in visual art and American studies, an MS in construction management, and a PhD in design. This combination of building knowledge, book knowledge, plus artistic inquiry informs her life and creative process. 

Katie Speckman (she/her) has had many different jobs; currently a guardian ad litem for the last 3 1/2 years who advocates for children's best interest and wellbeing while in the child protection system.  Before that she worked at the Bell Museum of Natural History for 12 years as their Youth and Family Programs Coordinator and then Youth and Family Programs Manager.  Before that, she worked as a naturalist at different nature centers..  Her love of nature however started when she was a little girl and visited the National Parks with her family.  In college she later worked at Haleakala National Park and North Cascades National Park.  Katie has always found solace in nature.

Katie learned how to carve spoons about 5 years ago in this very class taught by Jess Hirsch. Although carving was something she always wanted to learn, Katie was initially apprehensive. She was told by her family that she wouldn't be able to handle an axe or a hatchet because those tools were far too dangerous and that this was something for old men to do who have already been whittling all their lives. Definitely not a growth mindset! Katie took her first class, joined carving groups online, and watched a ton of YouTube videos. She's been loving making spoons ever since. Katie finds spoon carving to be great for mental health. She now is teaching at Firewood Community Workshop.  Accessibility, Diversity and Community are important to Katie. 

Wu Hanyen (she/her) is a woodworker, movement practitioner, and educator based in Providence. Her studio Work in Use produces high-end movement tools that are meant to be displayed in the home and celebrated for its craft and materiality. Wu has a background in graphic design from the University of Texas and an MFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design. She is also an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Nicola (she/her) works on the People team at Fractured Atlas, where she builds policies and practices in mission alignment and that help create a great place to work. At Fractured Atlas she has also helped to operationalize the commitment to be and work towards being an Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive organization. She has an interest in generally making workplaces less terrible with a grounding in the hope that someday people’s needs will be met in a way not contingent on labor. With Fireweed she would hope to help strengthen the internal operations and build out policies and practices to match the vision to set up current and future success.

Originally from Minneapolis, she received a BFA in Art from the University of Minnesota and continues to stay creative through knitting, sewing clothes, and finding new crafts to learn. When not working or crafting, she can be found reading books, playing cozy games on her Nintendo Switch, finding new ways to explore the outdoors while living with chronic illness, and rediscovering the sights of the Twin Cities after time living on the East Coast. 

Erika Janik (she/her) is a writer, editor, and audio maker with more than 15 years experience working with and for mission-driven organizations. Currently, she is the managing editor of the Peabody award-winning environmental podcast Threshold, and is an executive producer and editor at APM Studios. She loves to dive down research rabbit holes, brainstorm, craft compelling stories, and connect people to information and tools. She previously founded the program "Wisconsin Life" at Wisconsin Public Radio, a multimedia storytelling program that shares the voices and experiences of people from across the state. Trained as a historian, she's been down many career paths but all united by a deep curiosity, a passion for learning, and an insatiable need to empower others with knowledge and experience. Erika has previously served on the boards of a variety of organizations including the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum, Recollection Wisconsin, Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, New Hampshire Humanities, and FairShare CSA Coalition, the latter of which she served as board chair for ten years. Erika has never met a craft she won't try. She loves knowing how things work and trying something new. Her current craft obsessions are garment sewing, basketry, tapestry, and building bookcases. Though new to Minneapolis in 2022, she admired Fireweed and its inclusive and inspiring mission from afar and signed up for a class immediately after settling in. 

(The current board having fun post board retreat)

We are on the hunt for some awesome human beings to join our board! Its our first time adding new members as our current cohort has been volunteering for the past 2 years! We are so pumped to grow the crew by adding 3-5 new members!

What we are looking for:

Fundraising Skills,  Racial Equity skills, Finance Skills, Marketing Skills

That said you may have a skill that we didnt even know we needed. All are welcome to apply.

How to apply:

Fill out this form and we will contact you for a zoom or park walk to get to know you and answer all the questions you may have. Next steps would be putting together your information to have the community vote in the new members! We hope to have voting in December. 

More info like term lengths etc is available in our Recruitment Packet!

Fireweed has started on VIRTUAL classes again, and we are attracting to add some in-person classes!  With that in mind, we want to keep everyone as safe as possible.  Please read over our COVID POLICY below:

COVID policy for indoor classes: 

• everyone wears masks, regardless of vaccination status
• students must be vaccinated OR have received negative COVID test results within 72 hours of class. 

COVID policy for outdoor classes:

• masking requests will be communicated by the instructor of that course and according to their needs
• students must be vaccinated OR have received negative COVID test results within 72 hours of class. 

If you are unable to come to class you are registered for because you are unwell/showing symptoms, get in touch and we'll work something out together.

*if you have any questions or clarifications, let me know :)     fireweedwoodshop@gmail.com

Fireweed is pausing on classes this summer to make a start on our little library of FREE video tutorials.  We are hoping to grow it as time progresses.  What kind of content?  It is all centered around woodworking of course!  We are going to start with a set of four videos released by next year.  We have plans for three of them, but we would also like some feedback from you - our community!  Head over to our Instagram (@fireweedwoodshop) to share your ideas with us.  We will take a vote in the next few months.  

We are also using this time to partner St Paul Public Parks to offer spoon carving classes for the BIPOC community.  It's been a wonderful expansion and we are super pumped!

Hello folks! It’s Nia here with an exciting announcement. WE ARE CHANGING OUR NAME! But before we get to that, I’d like to spend some time on the why and how of our renaming.

Women’s Woodshop was born in the aftermath of the 2016 election. On the day that the website went live, 45 was sworn into office and the Women’s March was about to make history. It’s estimated that somewhere between 3 and 5.5 million folks marched in different cities across the United States. Women’s Woodshop started here in Minneapolis with a birch bark weaving class taught by the legendary Birch Bark Beth. Our grand opening went viral and the space was packed shoulder to shoulder despite having very few tools. The shop slowly filled up with tools and students. We experimented with many models while always centering on putting tools into the hands of women and non-binary makers. We had a residency program, a very short lived artist talk series (Thank you Mara), holiday sales, our entrepreneur program offering space to others wanting to workshop their workshop (donation based), and we even skateboarded after hours. But Women’s Woodshop would not exist without our founder, Jess Hirsch, a name and face that is sure to be familiar if you’ve hung out much at the shop.

Jess is an artist and a woodworker and at time of the shop’s conception she’d spent the last fifteen years of her woodworking career navigating spaces that were mostly male. Sometimes she’d have tools taken out of her hands by other students in a class and was definitely on the receiving end of harassment at big box stores and lumber yards.

Women’s Woodshop was created as a space in which folks didn't have to contort or conform or make themselves smaller or bigger to fit into. It was created as a space in which we could learn and exist with a sense of belonging. I think the name Women’s Woodshop is emblematic of the time in which the shop was born. Women’s Woodshop was an act of resistance. The name was almost oxymoronic. Women and woodshop were not words we often saw side-by-side.

Despite the name, the shop has never been and was never meant to be exclusively for women. Over the last couple years the majority of our classes have been intended for women and non-binary folks. We’ve had all gender classes too. The shop is a space for folks who have historically existed on the margins of woodworking spaces due the identities that they hold and for folks that have never felt welcomed into a woodshop despite their identity.

This name change has been a long time coming. We are aware that the word Women in our name has in some ways detracted from our mission. Not all of our community feels that they belong to that word, or that word belongs to them. We started brainstorming on the name change about a year ago, a task that proved more difficult than I initially anticipated. We were searching not only for a name that speaks for us, but a name that speaks to us. The process forced us to assess who we are and what we are here for.

In late February, right before the world got different, we settled on a name—Fireweed Community Woodshop.

Fireweed is a wildflower native to Minnesota. Throughout central and northern Minnesota you are sure to find it in bloom in the summer. Once you know it, you know it. You’ll see it running along roadsides or on the outskirts of wooden areas or sprawling across grasslands— bright pinkish, purple flowers growing up the stem of the plant. Fireweed gets its name from its status as a pioneer species. After a wildfire it is one of the first things to grow. A single plant can produce over 80,000 seeds in a year and its seeds are fluffy and can ride far and wide with the wind. Fireweed begins the process of nurturing depleted soil back to health, starting the chain of ecological regeneration.

We settled on the name Fireweed and then a pandemic happened. Facing rent payments and the reality of not being able to hold classes for the foreseeable future, we decided to leave our physical shop space on Standish Avenue. I think anyone who’d ever spent time in that space (and especially anyone who's ever made it to a busy open shop) knows that although it had it’s charm, we’d grown out of our starter spot. There were some tears, but instead of resisting change, we let it happen. Leaving the shop space never meant leaving behind the mission. We pivoted with the pandemic. We went virtual with the classes that we could and canceled and refunded the ones that we couldn't. We took this rent-free downtime as time for future planning. Our transition board voted on restructuring from an LLC (which I’ve often jokingly called our not-profit model) to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

On May 25th, George Floyd was murdered by a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. This tragedy brought the racial injustice and trauma that has long existed in our city and around our country to the forefront. After taking time to process, we as a group made a commitment to reappropriating and sharing resources that this work gives us access to. We’ve written a racial equity committee into our bylaws to ensure BIPOC liberation as a core value within our organization. This core value is also intimately intertwined with how we proceed as a nonprofit. Organizing ourselves as a 501(c)(3) is a beneficial legal structure to exist within, but we recognize the flaws within the nonprofit model as it’s typically understood. Fireweed Community Woodshop is guided by the principle of mutual aid. I often look to the words of the quaker abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier in understanding how mutual aid works— I lift you, and you lift me, and we’ll both ascend together. As we continue to grow, this principle will guide our practice. We are committed to transparency, an open and welcoming exchange of resources and ideas, and self-determination of our organization based on the needs and desires of our community.

Women’s Woodshop is what we were and Fireweed Community Woodshop is what we are now, but this becoming is a process. Over the next few months we will be transitioning our website and social media accounts to reflect this name change but also the organizational shifts that we’ve been working on behind the scenes.

Over the last ten months, the imagery of fireweed has loomed clear in my mind. I’ve found the fireweed a grounding symbol in this time of uncertainty and reconstruction. After a fire, after all the heat energy and destruction and breakdown of a burn, fireweed grows. Fireweed is a symbol of new life, it represents a new way of being. This is some symbolism I’d like to see manifested in Fireweed Community Woodshop for many years to come.

In light of the Covid-19 situation, Women'sWoodshop is expanding its offerings in the form of online fun. Our first offering is a free daily coloring sheet for kids that are stuck at home and adults that are bored too. Learn tool names and keep your hands busy for the time being. More soon!

COLORING SHEETS

Hand Tools, illustrated by Jess Hirsch: handtools-part1.pdf

Wood Block Printing Tools, Illustrated by Liz Walker : Printmaking.pdf

Hand Tools part 2,  illustrated by Jess Hirsch: HANDTOOLSPART2.pdf

Pliers, Illustrated by Jess Hirsch: pliers.pdf