By TORY DENIS
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WESTMINSTER WEST, Vt. — Vermont cabinetmaker Gail Grycel has a mission: To teach women the craft of woodworking, and to show that anyone can master the skills of the trade if they want to, regardless of what culture has said over the decades.
“There is such a ripe desire here” from women to learn the craft, Grycel said on Wednesday at her Twin Birch Woodworking studio in Westminster West. “They are showing their daughters and their friends.”
For more than two decades, Grycel has been teaching woodworking to women and girls, helping them master the tools of the trade while creating finished projects.
On Wednesday afternoon, she was in her small studio workshop at the end of Grassy Lane. Nearby was a staircase with a set of built-in cabinets in progress, and standing racks holding a wide variety of wood in planks and pieces.
Grycel said she has lived in Westminster West for 22 years, and has been a full-time cabinet-maker for 32 years. She has been teaching classes for about the past 26 years.
Growing up, she did not learn the craft at a young age. She came from a “gender-specific” household, with a mother who liked to sew and a father who taught woodworking only to her brothers, she said. At the time there were no options to take a woodworking or shop class at school, which for girls only offered skilled trades such as nursing and home economics courses.
“No one even tried to buck the system,” she said.
With no option to take shop, she focused on music in high school and into college. In 1979, she received her bachelor’s degree in music performance on oboe and then went on to study with the English horn player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Then, however, “reality collided with my heart and I knew that I would be miserable if I continued on that path,” she said.
Rather than spend a lot of time in a practice room, Grycel knew she wanted to explore other creative outlets. In 1981, she picked up a book on women carpenters.
“I was floored,” she said.
She decided to move forward and learn more about the craft.
“It was hugely empowering to me to learn I could do this, and do it well,” Grycel said. “I said, ‘I bet there are a lot of women out there like me, who have been told that girls can’t do it.’”
In 1984, after moving to Harvard, Massachusetts, she took a part-time job as a paid apprentice in a cabinet shop to supplement her income along with music gigs. She spent 10 years working in the shop, learning the skills of the trade.
“The two men who owned it were willing to teach, and over the 10 years and eventual full-time position I had with them, they held the roles of employers, mentors, friends, family and colleagues.”
About 4 or 5 years after she began working at the shop, she decided to take evening classes on woodworking through adult education.
“The male shop teacher said, ‘No way. No women in my shop,” Grycel recalled. “And then the director said, ‘Public school, public salary.’”
That did it. She got to take the classes.
At one point during her time as a cabinetmaker, a friend asked if she had ever considered teaching woodworking, and said she felt that many women might want to learn these skills from another woman. Grycel began teaching woodworking classes through adult education programs, and in 1999, began offering the classes from the studio in her home wood shop.
Since then, she has expanded to offer mobile classes, classes for girls’ programs, for students of charter schools, and through individual and group home-school instruction.
She also clarifies that the reason she teaches classes to women is “not anti-male,” but that it is a different learning process.
She said she has heard from some female students who mentioned that if the classes had been gender-inclusive, they might not have been as comfortable taking them.
The skills that women can take away from the classes are multi-fold, she said. They learn in the eight-week classes the basics of woodworking, basic machines such as the table saw, jointer, planer, drill press and miter saw, and some hand tools, design and safety. They also learn the design process, types of wood, and the language of the craft, which helps when talking to contractors.
The students also design their own projects, and while some create small finished items — a spice rack or a photo frame, for instance — others go on to build coffee tables, end tables, bookshelves, wooden beads, floor lamps, bed frames and cabinets.
At this time, she is the only person giving this type of small, hands-on woodworking classes for women in this region, she said.
People come from an hour or more away sometimes to take the classes. She has had students from western Massachusetts, Wilmington, Keene, New Hampshire and other areas.
Her workshop is tucked away into the woods, but clear directions on her website — including local landmarks — help travelers find the place.
Grycel said her materials come from a variety of sources, depending on what type of wood she is using and if it is a custom project, which may require a trip into other parts of Vermont to bring back more supplies.
Grycel will again offer spring classes for women, starting in April. The Beginning Woodworking for Women class is designed for those who have little or no experience working with tools and wood.
While learning in a supportive environment, women will have a chance to “explore their practical, problem-solving sides, hopefully let go of societal and family messages that women can’t work with tools, and learn some skills that can be transferred to other projects after the class is over,” Grycel said.
Participants can design and make a small project of their choosing. The eight-week Beginning class sessions will be held at the TBWW studio on Monday or Thursday evenings starting the week of April 23. Daytime classes are possible with three participants. Open Studio sessions continue for those with some experience and will run by appointment. All classes are limited to four participants each.
A fee of $290 covers instruction and general supplies. Wood, hardware and any special items needed for the chosen project are not included. Participants can acquire their own wood, or have Grycel purchase the wood for reimbursement.
Grycel also offers Open Studios for returning woodworkers, March through June by appointment, with fees based on the number of hours.
For more information, class session options or to sign up, visit www.twinbirchwoodworking.com or call (802) 536-5034.
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