You’re interested in timber framing, you have some building knowledge, but you’ve never built a timber frame. Yet you want to learn how. To boot, you identify as a woman and the field seems, well, really male-dominated. So how do you learn about, and get involved in, timber framing?
You could apply for a job as a timber framer at a timber frame company (like ours! Please send us your resume or credentials). Then you make it past muster and into the shop. And there you can learn hands-on how it all works through doing. This path can be intimidating and rests an awful lot on someone else saying “yes” come learn from us.
If we’re going to diversify the building industry, educational opportunities that are gender and culture/race inclusive, created specifically for those under-represented, that are an automatic “yes”, are key. The Timber Framers Guild (TFG) is doing just that this summer at the Heartwood School—a timber frame educational center—with their inaugural women-only timber framing class.
This is a place of "yes". A place to learn, and to grow—supported and empowered. Though the Heartwood School offers classes for all genders, through this women-only session the TFG is hoping to provide an open and welcoming environment for women in the trades, which is critically important to growing our community.
At the Heartwood School, the TFG offers an ideal space to foster relationships, make connections, and continue learning long after students have left. With new online groups supporting and celebrating women in timber framing and the Heartwood Alum Group, the Guild seeks to build on the experiences of these timber framers and build a better future for us all.
We hope if you’re an identifying woman, and you’ve wanted to learn HOW to do what we do, that you’ll sign up. The class runs in August and there are limited spaces (though we hope with the success of this class, there will be sessions to come.)
Timber Framing - Women Only
Aug 2, 2021 - Aug 6, 2021
$850
If you do attend, and want to join a team of timber framers, be sure to call or email us after. We’re always looking for dedicated craftsmen AND women to add to the team.
The Heartwood School has classes for everyone, not just gender-specific classes. To see a full selection of what's happening, you can check their website here.
