BRATTLEBORO — For many of us, the smell of a freshly sanded piece of wood can be sublime, an intuitive sense that humans have been smoothing, planing and shaping wood by hand for hundreds of generations before power tools.
The smell of wood is often the first that reaches our senses, but we are also stimulated by the look, the feel, and sometimes even the sound and the taste of wood.
And when you walk into a woodshop filled with busy people murmuring to each other or laughing or intently turning a small piece over and over, all those senses are picking up multiple signals and the result is a sense of peacefulness and joy.
Maybe it’s the smell of the wood, the organic compounds and essential oils, or maybe it’s the different soft hues of the colors of the wood, or maybe it’s the smiles of the people who are creating this wondrous chaos at HatchSpace on the third floor of 22 High St.
“We’ve taken a tree that looks like a log from a woodpile and shaved it into a chair,” said Sang Curtis, from Gilsum, N.H.
Curtis was one of a dozen people enrolled in a first-of-its-kind eight-week course, “From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture and Products Intensive, at HatchSpace, designed for all levels, from beginner to craftsperson.
Curtis, who is self-taught, makes items and donates them for auctions to benefit non-profit organizations. She also makes special items for family members, and most of the time she works alone.
She joined HatchSpace because she wanted to learn more about the craft but she also wanted to meet folks with her same interests.
“I’d already been doing stuff, but I wanted more community around it,” she said “This really created a community.”
The intensive course, which meets five days a week, is a 300-hour program rooted in an integrated approach of study. It offers participants the opportunity to study wood as a material, as well as practical methods of furniture and product design through sourcing, designing, drawing, cutting, sawing, joining, bending, and gluing.
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Elizabeth Moriarty shaves some wood for a run of a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive. Purchase local photos online.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Elias Stegeman checks the levels of a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Eli Coughlin-Galbraith makes a mockup of a chair back on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Charles Thompson, an instructor at HatchSpace, shaves wood from a chair back on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Ali Wilder takes measurements for a chair back on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer PHOTOS: Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Elizabeth Moriarty shaves some wood for a run of a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive. Purchase local photos online.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Elias Stegeman checks the levels of a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Eli Coughlin-Galbraith makes a mockup of a chair back on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Charles Thompson, an instructor at HatchSpace, shaves wood from a chair back on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Students work on a chair on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Ali Wilder takes measurements for a chair back on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, as HatchSpace held its first full-time program in woodworking called From Forest to Woodshop: Furniture & Products Intensive.
Kristopher Radder Brattleboro Reformer
Over the eight weeks, the participants spend all day in the workshop or on field trips with a rotating roster of instructors.
They will also gain hands-on experience with a variety of tools, from hand planes to CNC machines, and milling equipment to laser cutters.
During the first two-week module, the participants worked with green wood. In the second module, they’re building a Shaker-type table, said Erin Bell, who is teaching the second module with Heather Tauk.
Bell, who has been teaching at Hatch Space for three years, started a furniture business in White River Junction about a decade ago.
“We wanted to do a much more intensive approach open to more people,” said Bell, about the new course.
In the first two weeks, the participants worked with hand tools and green wood, learning about tree identification and finding wood in the forest. They’ve also learned how to shop for just the right piece of lumber, and a visit to a local mill to find a slab for a tabletop for another project is also part of the curriculum.
Towards the end of the eight weeks, the participants will use all the skills they’ve learned to build a freestanding cabinet using everything from hand tools to power tools, depending on their preferences.
With Bell and Tauk, the students are now making a single-drawer side table
“As a female who’s been in a lot of male-dominated industries, it’s a big deal to be able to not just see other women doing it, but to learn from them,” said Bell.
She said many of the participants just want to learn how to use tools confidently in a non-judgemental workshop.
“It can be hard for a lot of people, myself included, to walk into spaces that we feel estranged from. The whole goal is to give them an exposure to different ways and modalities of approaching projects so that they don’t feel policed on how they are going to approach what they want to do.”
Heather Tauck, who’s been a woodworker for 13 years, lives in Hatfield, Mass., and has also been teaching at HatchSpace for three years.
“The students have some experience, but the curriculum is set up so that they don’t need to have any,” said Tauck.
The participants are coming from all over the Northeast and most of them are staying the entire eight weeks in Windham County.
They worked with a chair maker in those first two week, using ash to create green ladder back chairs, she said, using tools such as draw knives, spokeshaves and shaving horses.
“They worked really hard,” said Tauck. “Now we’re getting them up to speed on how to use joiners, planers, table saws, and bandsaws safely.”
Meanwhile, their current project is a Shaker nightstand with dovetail joinery.
“It’s a classic project … a rite of passage for any woodworker,” said Tauck. “That was the beginning of my own journey in 2011.”
She said getting to partner with HatchSpace on educational programs has been “a total dream,” and part of the reason is the energy of the participants.
“It reminds me why this is really special,” said Tauck.
Eli Coughlin-Galbraith, of Brattleboro, participated in the Trailblazers Program, a trades training program, at the Hatch Space as an introductory course.
Over the past year, Coughlin-Galbraith has been building tiny houses.
“I am absolutely using Hatch Space as my entry into carpentry,” they said.
Coughlin-Galbraith, who has been a tailor for more than a decade, first considered becoming an electrician, but then talked with a HatchSpace representative during a Pride Day in Northampton, Mass.
Chris Park, who opened Hardwood Alchemy in the Bronx three years ago after years as a financial consultant on Wall Street, said he’s a self-taught craftsman.
He does mostly custom woodwork — bookcases, cabinetry, bench seats — for customers’ specific needs and stays quite busy.
“Being self-taught, I have felt there were gaps in my understanding … some tools that I hadn’t worked with yet,” said Park.
Luke Junod, who said he’s “wanting to become a woodworker,” is from northern New Jersey and heard about the course from a friend who lives in Brattleboro.
Just out of high school, he has been doing general labor in the construction field.
“I was doing some carpentry, but it wasn’t really what I was looking for exactly,” he said. “I am more interested in fine woodworking.”
Elias Stegeman, from Western Massachusetts, has been working some general contracting jobs with a friend — decks, windows, fences — which takes a fair amount of skill, he said, but he wants to do even finer work, and with hand tools.
“This week we’re doing these really precise tables and it’s very exciting to me,” he said. “It’s foreign and new.”
“I really want to level up my skills,” said Ali Wilder, who was also an instructor for Rosie’s Girls. She said she was excited to take classes from “the A-Team.”
“Getting to learn from these people is such an experience,” said Wilder.
Tim Hunsicker is in Southern Vermont, coming from Minneapolis, for his second course with HatchSpace.
After his first course, he was looking for a new work desk and couldn’t find anything he liked, and his brother asked him why he didn’t build his own.
“My brother said, ‘You just made a table. Why don’t you make a desk?”
He started building that desk but quickly realized “I didn’t know that much.”
He decided to take the eight-week course so he can hopefully finish that desk.
“It occurred to me that this was not a bad skill to have, and I really love the look of wood,” he said.
He, like the others, has really enjoyed all the different people in the class.
“It’s great to see people coming in like Chris, who has a business, and other people who have construction experience, and then people who have no experience, like me, and people who have a lot of experience but don’t have professional experience.”
“It’s very inspiring to have people come from all different directions and all different ages,” agreed Curtis.
“It’s something that we care enormously about here at HatchSpace,” said Shelton Walker, executive director, “making inroads for those who historically have been unwelcome or underrepresented within workshop environments or the trades.”
Walker said other courses HatchSpace will be offering include a new intensive course focused on carpentry and the construction trades next year,
“These career-focused intensive training programs will be in addition to our usual roster of short-form adult courses and youth summer camps,” she said. “It’s clear to us that more and more folks are seeking out not just any training program, but ones that take an integrated approach, ones that move from the forest to the workshop and from hand tools to automation, and we are really proud to be in a position to fill that gap.”
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