Soft sunlight filters through the stained glass windows of the old church, now St Mod's.
The place was converted into a carpentry shop.
Each Petokatelli child works on their own workbench project.
Brooke, 11, and Griffin, 8, build shelves.
Ten-year-old Harper draws with pencil and ruler.
And 5-year-old Riley uses an old carpenter's tool to make a log out of a log.
"This instrument dates from the late 1800s and still works well," says Carl Zinsmaster, Saint Mode's founder and teacher. He holds her and orders Riley to use crutches as she takes the stage.
When he grinds the wood in the drum, he throws his whole body into it.
In the next episode, Riley uses a Japanese handsaw as a leg to build a stilt.
All siblings in the slide experience. Sloyd is a learning system that was developed in Finland in 1865 and is still widely used in Scandinavia.
It's a series of woodwork, each introducing a new skill and progressively getting stronger.
"Everyone starts with a pencil sharpener and works your way up," says Zinsmaster. “There are 13 people in the first basic course. They all work at their own pace. [Brooke] works off the shelf. This is the third one because we do it better every time.”
GeneMaster says the goal isn't for speed or just partial generation.
This means developing and refining skills, which means correcting mistakes little by little.
“Ideal if he only starts a part or the whole project. It's part of the process and respected,” says Ginsmaster, who plans to put up a wall in the workshop to display his mistakes.
Zinsmaster Sloid was launched a few months ago.
When Becky Petrocatelli heard about it, she wanted to register her children.
"We believe in the importance of teaching our children skills that they can use in the real world, and most learn best through hands-on learning," she says.
They have now been in the class for over two months and have developed enough skills to help other new students with projects.
Petrocatelli said they are involved in projects around the house.
"Every time I see her, I smile. I'm so glad they come home and see that they are proud of what they do. I love seeing them apply what they have learned at home. It is amazing. It makes me so happy." Petrocatelli said.
The Genemaster likes it too.
Cultivate sacred dignity
He grew up less than a block from Penn's neighborhood church, now called St. Mod's after the old Zenmaster dog.
After moving to the Twin Cities to study and then to New York for work, the Covid pandemic brought him back to his hometown.
"I've been working on this remotely for about a year and I got tired of Zoom meetings all day. Then this place came along and the rest is history, he's been working there for two years," Zenmaster said.
Jinsmaster attended furniture design school.
But throughout his career, he spent a lot of time making furniture by hand.
When he bought the old church that he and his father had always thought of as a department store, he wanted to go back but had no plans.
“After spending my first summer here, I knew I didn't want to be alone here. I was tired of working with clients. I wanted to work with people, not people. This is where Maker Space comes in.”
Saint Mode is now a maker space where people can access woodworking tools and get support for any project they work on, from daily memberships to annual subscriptions.
There are many categories that have been expanded to include skills other than carpentry. Zinsmaster works with other artists and talented people to add more.
The most recent initiative was Slöyd Experience, a Colorado company that Zinsmaster discovered a few years ago and has now brought to the Northwoods.
“I trained with them this spring and got certified as a bobsleigh instructor and had a great time on their course with dozens of kids who attend these courses throughout the year. It was part of their program. That's it. When I actually saw it, "I was hooked," said the Genemaster. .
Many children have signed up for the course. He hopes to add more chairs and instructors in the future to fuel expansion.
While happily sharing his passion with a new generation, the Ginmaster knows that not all carpenters will work or even make it into the profession.
The end result, he says, is they learn what he calls "the sweet secret root of the slide," which is soft skills like decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
“They can make mistakes, they can get things completely wrong, and they can go back and improve and fix them. I realize that if I can keep screwing up, my possibilities are limitless. Five, six, ten. In years or... whatever, they're 20 years ahead of me in terms of understanding," Genemaster said.
As Holy Mod continues to grow, it is clear that Genemaster is committed to the community that created it.
"It's my life plan now. I want to go deeper into the community, grow and bring different things here," Ginmaster said. "I think you can make a big difference in one generation and that's a big goal."
