Woodworking co-op, We Actually Make Stuff, opens in Longfellow

By JAN WILLMS

The large building at 3307 Snelling Ave. S. does not yet have a sign outside. Its surroundings are quiet. But step inside and you will find carpentry tools, woodworking equipment, lumber and unfinished logs.  For just six weeks, this has been the home of We Actually Make Stuff, a woodworking cooperative.

Jason Holtz, Laurie McKichan, and Richard Helgeson build customized furniture in this space. Tom Caspar, who teaches woodworking classes, is also part of the cooperative. Amy Hubbard, who has another job but is a hobbyist woodworker, rents a small space in the building. And Sam Devine, a general contractor, has an office here.

Holtz said he comes by this career naturally since his dad is a carpenter and his grandfather was a carpenter. “While I don’t build houses, I do some things my dad doesn’t do, and vice versa,” Holtz said, “but there is some overlap.”

Photo right: Jason Holtz standing by 14-foot table he is creating from slab. (Photo by Jan Willms)

He started by studying pre-architecture at the University of Minnesota. “I ended up in a woodshop in a design class, and here I am, over 20 years later.”

Photo right: Laurie McKichan making plans for furniture pieces. (Photo by Jan Willms)

McKichan was a theater major. “I was bored, looking for things to do. I had always liked crafts, and I took an intro to woodworking class. I built a coat rack, and I was hooked,” she said. She and Holtz both apprenticed for the same furniture maker in Chicago, but at different times.  They connected when they returned to Minnesota, and then McKichan met Helgeson through some friends. She said they all got connected “through this crazy web we weave.”

Caspar has been in the picture all along. “My career goes back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth,” he joked. After graduating from college, he and some friends opened the Malt Shop in south Minneapolis.

Photo left: Tom Caspar working with a plane from the Civil War era. (Photo by Jan Willms)

“None of us knew anything about restaurants, and I didn’t know how to use a hammer,” he recalled. “But I got put in charge of fixing the rickety furniture in the restaurant, and I found out I like it.  After burning out on the restaurant business, I got really lucky and found an apprenticeship with an old-time furniture shop, Eric’s Interiors. I worked there, and then for ten years on my own. I did custom-made furniture for a long time and found out how difficult it is to make a living on your own.”

He then was offered a position as editor for American Woodworker Magazine, where he remained for 15 years until the magazine folded last year and he again found himself on his own.

“While I was an editor, I hired Laurie, Jason and Richard at different times to write stories,” Caspar explained.

“I’m teaching classes because that’s what I like to do best,” he said. He offers individual and group instruction in woodworking at Woodcraft Supply in Bloomington. He also teaches at a school in Maine.

“I had previously been with another woodworking co-op like this, but with a few more members, called the Fourth Street Guild. That group has now moved to northeast Minneapolis.

“There are very few operations like this in the entire country,” Caspar noted.

“It works if you get along,” Holtz added. “First and foremost, a commercial space like this is expensive, as is the equipment. As an individual, it’s hard to justify this amount of space.”

But for a co-op, it is less costly and more effective. The woodworkers don’t have a showroom to display their wares because they are doing mostly custom work. “We don’t have a lot to show,” Holtz explained, “because everything we build is sold before we make it.”

Each furniture maker has his or her own website showing work samples.

“We don’t build kitchen cabinets over and over again; it’s one-of-a-kind,” Holtz said. “We found it a lot better to band together and try and struggle together.”

“This co-op gives you community and gets you out of the house,” McKichan said. “For us, it works because we’re older. We have established ourselves. And we have been together long enough that we know each other’s idiosyncrasies.”

Caspar said the co-op moved to the Longfellow area from a location in St. Paul. “We were gentrified out of our area in St. Paul,” he said. “It used to be low rent, but with the light rail the rent went up, and we had to move. Also, this is local for Richard and Jason and me. Jason lives just a couple blocks from here.”

Helgeson builds a lot of church furniture; McKichan does arts and crafts, and Holtz calls himself the slab guy. He is currently working on a 14-foot long table that he is creating from a slab of wood.

“I do a lot of built-in work,” he said. “I’m not opposed to doing small jobs others don’t want to do. I get a lot of work from my own neighborhood, like a replacement entryway in Longfellow.”

McKichan said she has a client who bought a sofa and is having her take it apart and make it into two different chairs. Another client had an old sofa and wanted it made longer.

Caspar said he likes to teach woodworking by using early tools. He has a plane that he demonstrates that is from the civil war era.

The group agreed that their first challenge will be to figure out what winter brings.  “Our heat used to be included in the rent,” Holtz said. “Now we will be paying that separately.”

“And we’ll have to shovel sidewalks,” Caspar added.

Although the co-op does not have specific hours, someone is usually there during the day if anyone wants to drop by and see their operation in progress. Some of their customers will stop by to see them work or ask questions.

“We are more expensive than Ikea,” McKichan said. “But it’s custom furniture. We want to make the expectations clear of what the client is getting, so everyone is happy.”

Websites for the woodworkers are as follows:

—jholtz.com

—lauriemckichan.com and

—richardhelgeson.com