hammerstone

Interest and enrollment in basic carpentry classes for women have increased in recent years, spurred on by the #MeToo movement and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic, according to the leaders of Hammerstone, Wild Abundance in western North Carolina, and Yestermorrow in Waitsfield, Vt.

A crew of women around us are hammering, drilling and raising the frame of a tiny house at Hammerstone, which is housed in an old red dairy barn nestled among rolling hills and apple orchards near Ithaca, N.Y.

Hammerstone is one of a handful of small carpentry schools around the country where women teach other women skills that many of us missed out on, somehow.

Hammerstone owner Maria Klemperer-Johnson, 47, who has worked as a carpenter for over 20 years, believes the pandemic also played a role in the uptick, as people sought greater control over their lives, work and living spaces.

The three schools arose independently of one another; Hammerstone and Wild Abundance launched about a decade ago.