This note comes off the first leg of my journey through New England, complete with all the things you’d expect from this part of the world: Chowder, changing leaves and craftsmen. It has been an absolutely great few days, especially as I’ve been able to meet with such a variety of folks, so many of whom represent (to me at least) a new generation of craftsmen.
Our first stop was in Beverly Massachusetts, where we met with Matthew Rogers, the owner and craftsman behind Wallpusher custom hand crafted bass guitars. Beverly is a great, artsy town, with a burgeoning art scene, thanks to the abundance of nearby art schools, and Matthew is at the heart of it. Along with his wife Margot, he runs an incredible business, making some of the most beautiful instruments we have seen on our tour. Matthew is the kind of guy who makes you feel bad about yourself because he’s just so talented.
In addition to making guitars, he is seemingly a bottomless pit of talent. From book binding, to the guitar straps he makes by hand to the furniture around his home, everything is made by hand and is immaculately done. Even his tools are made by hand! His real area of expertise, however, is his guitars, each one lovingly handcrafted from reclaimed wood, with no coloring or paint used, allowing the wood’s natural colors to shine.
Matthew’s passion started at the tender age of thirteen thanks to a chance encounter in a New York guitar store with a musical hero of his. Noting the astronomical price tags on some of the guitars, he decided to build his first bass from scratch. With no experience apart from a good eye for seeing things in three dimensions, he learnt the tricks of his trade and built a bass guitar when his friends were all glued to MTV. To this day, that guitar still hangs on his wall, as a testament to the craft to which he has devoted his life, making his instruments from the point of view not just of a woodworker, but of a musician too.
After my visit with Matthew, I stopped in Boston to meet Bill Wilson of Birds and Beans coffee, a company which sources coffee beans from a bird friendly environment, as many plantations are disruptive to migratory patterns.
While not hand crafted in the traditional sense, Bill employs a holistic approach to sustainability, meaning that all packaging, shipping materials and other materials are made by hand, demonstrating that sometimes hand crafted is not the feature, but is part of a bigger system. I was impressed because his hand crafted work is not evident in the end product (a great cup of coffee) but is instrumental in making this business what it is.
Well, that’s all I have for now. Next on my itinerary is Holyoke, Massachusetts, where I’ll visit the craftsman collective that is Steelhead studios.
Slainte