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A Modern-Day Guild |
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Now 25 years old and 106 members strong, the East Tennessee
Woodworkers Guild has a method for helping its members assess
their progress in the woodworking journey.
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Venusian
House Plant created by Ralph Watts and Jerry Spady
of the East Tennessee Woodworkers Guild.
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Taken directly from the Middle Ages' guild structure, the first
two goals of the organization form the underpinnings of a jurying
process within our guild. This procedure is a formal, and pretty
much intimidating (for all parties concerned), assessment of
a member's work and an appraisal of whether it meets accepted
guild standards to qualify the individual for juried status.
There are those who argue that this amounts to an old-boy's-club
initiation, but I would suggest that the jurying process is
our quality control, providing our guild with a means to help
members raise their skills while maintaining traditional standards
of excellence within the craft. About 20% of our members have
successfully negotiated this and attained the juried level.
Because our founders had the foresight not to restrict membership
to purely professional woodworkers, this number will surely
grow in the future.
The
last founders' goal encourages guild members to reach out to
the public. This was likely anticipated to be both an educational
process for the public and an economic opportunity for the woodworking
participants. While we have had the occasional exhibition over
the years, our primary vehicle for public participation is the
Master Woodworkers Show. This is a regional juried show open
to all area woodworkers; this year (2009) marks the 15th undertaking
of the event. Typically about 25 to 30 highly skilled woodworkers
show their work to about 2,500 attendees.
From its humble beginnings, the East Tennessee Woodworkers Guild
has grown in both numbers and stature to become a respected
voice in the regional woodworking community. More important,
woodworking is alive and well in our neck of the woods.
Jerry Spady
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Other Articles from this Issue |
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