One must visit Callum Robinson's website to assess his manifest talent as a woodworker, but on the evidence of his passionate, insightful memoir, Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman, he has built the foundation for a successful second career as a writer.
Along with his wife, Marisa, a "disillusioned architectural designer" and teacher, Robinson owned a woodworking business located in the hills near Edinburgh. Ingrained describes the crisis they endured after 10 years of operation when a commercial client suddenly cancelled a large project and they found themselves devoid of work, "unhappily floundering in the hottest of water."
At first, they desperately cast about for any jobs that would keep money flowing. When that effort proved fruitless, Callum and Marisa gambled on a storefront in the small town of Linlithgow to display their wares, hoping the move would generate business from passersby and word of mouth. Ingrained describes in intimate detail the highs and lows of that venture into retail commerce and the unexpected discoveries about business and the life it yielded.
Robinson deepens the account of his and Marisa's tenacious battle to save "the business we have fought to build together" with glimpses of the episodes that led him to a life in woodworking. Among them are the story of the decision he made at age 19, aimless after finishing school and working briefly as a barman, to join his father's business--a woodworking shop that specialized in kitchens. After five years he had learned not only the rudiments of his craft, but also a devotion to fine workmanship. That training allowed him to land a woodworking job in New Zealand at the end of a period of foreign travel, and when he returned to Scotland it was as someone committed to a career fashioning elegant wood pieces.
Those who look at furniture as nothing more than dead trees transformed into utilitarian objects should be disabused of that perception by Robinson's prose. He eloquently conveys his deeply personal attachment to hardwoods like the "rich, golden" oak, "ghostly, almost luminescent" sycamore, and, above all, the elm--the "tenacious swaggering dandy of the forest"--that he and his employees shape into exquisite pieces. His pride in crafting them involves an attention to detail that would impress Steve Jobs. For Robinson, fashioning tables and desks by hand is the calling of a lifetime, not merely a job.
Anyone who enjoyed Tracy Kidder's House or Matthew B. Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft will admire this book as much as they might one of Callum Robinson's lovingly-crafted products. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Woodworker Callum Robinson devotes his charming memoir to the pleasures and pains of making things by hand.