HEATH— Local woodworker Charles Thompson has been awarded The Society of Arts and Crafts 2024 John D. Mineck Fellowship, a $25,000 award for early career furniture designers. 

Thompson describes himself as a self-taught woodworker, who picked up the craft in 2019 as a way to avoid his other trade, writing. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts  Amherst and a master of fine arts in writing from The New School in New York. 

“It’s easy to write yourself into a circle and give yourself a nosebleed, but that doesn’t happen with woodworking,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he found woodworking to be calming and meditative, something he never felt while writing. He started woodworking one day in his New York apartment and just never stopped. He kept carving and practicing and accepting every commissioned project he could take until he eventually moved to Heath, rented a small studio space in Millers Falls, and later moved his shop into a barn in Heath, and was able to pursue woodworking full-time. 

Woodworking was a project he picked up to avoid his writing projects “and I just never put that project down,” Thomson said. 

Thompson is a green woodworker, meaning he works with unseasoned or “green” lumber. He said he splits his own lumber and carves everything individually out of logs, and when he needs to he gets lumber from a local sawmill company, meaning every piece of furniture is made by hand with wood coming from a 25-mile radius of Heath. 

“I wanted to do handwork and focus on what’s possible without machines,” Thompson said. 

He does have a few machines in his studio that he uses when commissions require it, but prefers to do everything by hand. 

Thompson said working by hand helps him connect with woodworkers who came before him and lived in a pre-industrial era. When he’s carving he “almost steps out of time” and empathizes with people of previous time periods. 

He added his designs are inspired by nature and patterns and symbols seen throughout history. 

Thompson’s creative designs and commitment to sustainable hand-made products are what made him stand out to the Society of Arts and Crafts jurors, which are based in Boston. 

“They selected him for the 2024 Award because of the beauty and originality of his work, the sustainability of his practice and the soundness of his plan to use the funds,” Society President Katina Leodes said in a statement.

The Mineck Fellowship is one of the largest prizes in the craft world. Thompson said he plans to use the funds for some upgrades to his studio, an old uninsulated barn, and purchase more tools. 

He hopes to transform the barn into a warm and welcoming creative space where he can teach classes, potentially as early as next fall. 

He said the upgraded space would allow him to expand his work with The Chairmakers Toolbox, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting BIPOC, female, and gender non-conforming communities in the trades. 

These communities have historically been excluded from crafting fields, Thompson said. The Chairmakers Toolbox seeks to connect these communities with tools and education so they can pursue these fields, and give them a connection to the woodworking community. 

Thompson said he grew up in a multi-cultural household. His mother is Filipino and his father is Japanese and Black, and working with the Chairmakers Toolbox has given him a connection to other furniture makers. 

To see more of Thompson’s work and learn about future class and workshop opportunities visit charlesthompson.net

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com