Now, the 50-plus person guild includes hobbyists as well. And the basic economic driver is custom furniture for second home or first homes up here.”Īt first, the 30 or 40 members were all professional woodworkers, many of whom live on commission work. “The Berkshires is kind of the center geographically of our guild, and there’s lots of people who come over from New York state, up from Connecticut, down from Vermont, to be part of our guild. And that was the spark of the idea, let’s get everyone together and have a group and have meetings," said Peter Thorne, the guild founder. “Twenty years ago, actually probably 22 years ago, a friend of mine who had a shop in Great Barrington, a lot of snow collapsed the roof, and there was a fire, and I basically got on the phone and called up my group of woodworking friends and we gave him a small check in order that he could buy some hand tools. Like many creation myths, the Berkshire Woodworking Guild’s origin story begins with a fire. Woodworkers in Berkshire County will gather in Stockbridge, Massachusetts this weekend for their annual show.
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