Jen Kuhn was exposed to the skills learned in the women's carpentry workshops at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum during her early days in shipbuilding school. Talk about a crash course.
Kuhn, who is now in charge of the shipyard's apprenticeship programs, first offered the course at CBMM in 2012 while she was still an apprentice at the shipyard, and over the past decade it has enabled her to share her knowledge with dozens of women Share who want it. . to learn more. for techniques and tools important to his career.
"The goal of a course like this is to make things a little more inclusive and accessible," Kuhn said. “As a business woman, it would have been great if I had taken a shopping class while I was still in high school. He didn't even think about it. This course provides an opportunity to learn."
CBMM will hold a two-day carpentry workshop for women in March before moving on to a four-day intermediate course in July.
Kuhn will again be teaching women's carpentry at the shipyard March 11-12, teaching attendees the basics of buying wood, making a cut list, and using various power and hand tools to build a hammer . The class is full, but interested participants can join the waitlist at bit.ly/WomensWoodworkingWaitlist.
A four-day advanced course is being held at CBMM from July 21-24, during which participants will deepen the carpentry and joinery skills acquired during the introductory course to build a bench. Cost is $295 with a 20% discount for CBMM members and includes all tools and equipment. Registration is now open at bit.ly/JulyWomensWoodworking.
Kuhn models the women's woodworking program she previously taught at the Seattle Wooden Boat Center, which has been an ongoing success on the East Coast and allows participants to experience the sights and sounds of a shipyard for many days. . and leave with a completed project.
Ultimately, Kuhn's goal with these courses is to create a comfortable, welcoming and safe environment for women to learn and collaborate, regardless of their background or even their future plans.
"Knowledge is power," says Kuhn. "Whether one goes on to do other things with woodworking or not, it's good to have that knowledge and understand how those skills can help you."
In fact, Brenda Fike joined the introductory course in 2021 with no forestry experience since high school, but a desire to learn more.
Over the course of two days, the Easton resident found Kuhn's presentation both informative and entertaining, and the project provided just the right amount of challenge.
Fike's head, a carefully selected orange hammer, hangs in his home studio as a proud reminder of this weekend's work.
"I thought everything was great," Fike said. "I had no idea what was going on and Jen made it an absolutely educational, interesting and fun experience for me."
Jan Kirsch agreed with this idea. The local sculptor and landscape gardener explored innovations in woodworking to develop a museum exhibit, and she spent an unforgettable weekend in Kuhn's class at CBMM, where she connected and collaborated with a group of women who have become friends. (The hammer he made remains useful in his workshop.)
"Jen is a great instructor," Kirsch said. "His great ability rubs off on his students. He has a real ease in the workshop that makes you feel just how competent he is, and he instills that confidence by working only with powerful woodworking equipment.
CBMM Shipbuilding Programs Education Manager Jen Kuhn has led CBMM Women's Carpentry Workshops since 2012. Photo by George Sass.
The mission of Women Carpentry is personal to Kuhn, who still uses the first hammer she made as one of her first projects in shipbuilding school in her day job. He regularly makes sure the courses are incorporated into CBMM's daily schedule and occasionally teaches them at the Finger Lakes Rowing Museum in upstate New York.
As an experienced boat builder, Kuhn always welcomes the opportunity to invite other women into the boatyard and share her knowledge of woodworking.
"My hope is to help our participants feel more comfortable and less intimidated when they enter a space that we don't always enter," Kuhn said. "In the past, most of the store's employees were men. Now this is completely changing. We're older, which is great, but I know there are still a lot of women who wish something like this had happened when they were growing up."
