Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin and Josh Ramos.
Hi Erin and Josh, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Erin: I don’t even know where to begin! Josh worked in construction for over two decades and is a wildly talented craftsman. I always loved seeing his passion for working with his hands, especially when he had the opportunity to do unique custom jobs that were more creative and required the skills and techniques he had honed over the years. Tile mosaics, copper-roofed gazebos, custom stone mantlepieces… I was always amazed at how varied his skill set was, and that he was patient enough to help me improve on the skills I gained during one semester of high school woodshop!
Josh: I wanted to be able to work with Erin in the shop, to build and create together, with the hopes of reducing the 9 to 5! I’ve always loved working with my hands and have been fascinated with manipulating materials into a finished product that someone will appreciate.
Over the years, we designed and built various furniture items and such for our home and family, and joked that if we ever started a woodworking business, we would call it World of Woodcraft (big nerds over here!).
Fast forward to 2020, we have a cozy little woodshop just a hop, skip, and a jump from the backdoor, where we can easily saunter over when inspiration strikes! Learning about the Shou Sugi method is really what lit the fire (pun intended!) under our …. tools? It was such a cool process that rendered such beautiful products! We ended up making a gorgeous desk for our son using that method (though I really have to stress that true, traditional Sho Sugi is a whole different ballgame! Look it up, it’s really interesting!) and were encouraged by friends and family to keep on going. So we did!
Our good friend had recently opened a local yarn & fiber shop (Rows & Roses) and asked if we would be interested in making shawl sticks to sell on consignment. Having never made anything of the sort, we obviously jumped in head first! No regrets. We also were able to display some of our engraved wood plaques at the neighboring Decks & Dice game shop. It has really been such a blessing to have a community of small businesses supporting one another!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Erin: I’m not sure anything in life is smooth! It has been fun, rewarding, and a fantastic creative outlet. But I often joke that it’s just an expensive hobby! We’re just getting started, though, and neither of us were naive enough to think we would start a woodshop one day and it would suddenly pay all the bills. For me, I feel like I never have enough time to make all the things I want to make!
Josh: We sure picked a bad time to start a woodshop! The economy changing the way it did, and the prices of wood skyrocketing put a damper on building furniture or anything else requiring a lot of material.
Erin: And that’s where it was really beneficial to be crafting smaller items, like the shawl sticks and engraved signs/plaques, that don’t require a lot of material.
What are you most proud of?
Having the ability to learn and work together, We might go into a new project that is challenging and we really have no idea what we’re doing (shh… ), but we figure it out together. Erin comes up with impossible ideas and Josh is more “to the book”. We balance each other so well in the shop, and it makes collaborating really fun!
Great example: One of us (the one who gets all the crazy ideas with no plan for implementation) pitched the idea of a book carved out of wood, embellished with various engravings, and made to look like an old elven manuscript for a couple who wanted an alternative wedding guest book. The logical, rational one of us said there was NO way that was going to work because books are made out of paper for a reason! But we worked together to learn a new technique (and purchase a new carving tool) to make the process go more smoothly. Finishing that project was truly momentous!
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We certainly hope to collaborate with others as we grow and evolve, but currently, we are just in this sort of pupal stage. Support is always appreciated and we would welcome any ideas for collaboration.
Anyone is welcome to reach out to us via email or through our Facebook page, where you can also see examples of our work.
https://www.facebook.com/RamosWoodcraft
worldofwoodcraftseneca@gmail.com
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RamosWoodcraft
Image Credits
Sati Glenn
Brooke Gordon
Erin Ramos
