What are the benefits of joining the Guild?

Among the benefits of being a Guild member and attending our meetings and events are:

• Participate in our Annual Art of Wood Exhibit
• Promote your hobby or business through our website
• Gain a link on our webpages, to your own external website
• Keep an online, updated member gallery with photos of your work
• Share support and encouragement with fellow woodworkers
• Learn from the experience of other woodworkers
• Find ways to give your talents, experience and knowledge to others
• Share techniques and business tips with each other
• Bounce your ideas off on folks who share the same concerns you do
  
• Give back to your community through our service projects
• Have fun, make friends and enjoy good food along with the company of like-minded woodworkers

I would like to find a woodworker in my area

If you are looking for a custom cabinetmaker, a woodturner or maker of handcrafted furniture, you have come to the right place. Any of our members who do woodworking for a living would be delighted to help you and if your project is not a good fit with a particular member of the Guild, they will gladly refer you to someone else who makes the style of woodworking project you are looking for.

We also have members who are not woodworkers at all -- who have businesses related to woodworking, such as tool sharpening, hand tool sales, hardwood sales and other related retail.

Look through our member page links for photos of each woodworker's pieces, as well as for phone numbers, addresses, emails and weblinks to individual woodworker's businesses.

Please be our guest at our annual "Art of Wood" exhibit of woodworking by our members. This exhibit usually takes place in October or November, around the time of the Downtown Helena Fall ArtWalk. Watch our website and the local newspapers for information about dates and locations of our exhibits. We would love to have you join us for our opening receptions during these shows!

Do I have to be a Pro?

Nope! Our group is made up of all kinds of woodworkers, even some members who aren't specifically woodworkers, though they do something related to wood (tool sharpening, retail power tool sales, hardwood sales, hardware, etc.)

Some of our members -- young and young-at-heart, are hobby woodworkers, or folks who have come to the craft late in life, say ... after they have retired from a desk job. Other members have been earning a living crafting fine furniture or custom cabinetry, for many years, most for a lifetime. Some work with wood for relaxation and fun, others do it for all those reasons and to make a living. Some of us are self-taught. Others have apprenticed with older craftsmen, learned from a relativ or taken courses in college.

Our mix of inexperienced or beginning woodcrafters, associated business owners, and seasoned professional furniture makers, keeps the Guild meetings fun, interesting and challenging. We like to share our questions, wonderings, musings and knowledge freely amongst our members. It really is a great group.

What else does the Guild do besides meet together?

We give back to our community in various ways. Most of our members do this on their own, with groups such as churches, community organizations, charities, schools, or Habitat for Humanity.

One of our goals as a Guild is to do community service projects together. This year most of our guild members are donating services, furniture or woodworking tools to the new Exploration Works Children's Museum in downtown Helena (The Great Northern Town Center.) We are always open to ideas from our members, as well as other Helena folks, on ways we can serve our community. If you would like to suggest a project we might become involved in, please contact one of our members, or email us: helenawoodworkers (at) gmail.com

Our Guild also mounts an annual fine handcrafted woodworking exhibit in late fall. This usually takes place during and around the time of the Downtown Helena Fall ArtWalk, with a fun and elegant reception during on the evening of the ArtWalk. Any guild member is welcome to submit pieces to the show.

And of course, our meetings aren't just the usual meetings! We always have an educational "program" usually coordinated by whoever is hosting that month's meeting. Topics are limited only by our imaginations, so we encourage all of our members to contribute ideas.

What do I have to do to join?

Guild members annual dues of $25 helps pay for mailings, costs of our annual exhibit, and other associated costs of the group. You must be a member to submit work for the exhibit and to have a link to your web page, and/or have a member gallery on our website.

We ask our members to participate by attending and/or hosting a monthly meeting at their shops, working on an planning committee as they are capable and willing, and helping to plan meeting programs and community service projects. You can participate in Guild activities as much or as little as you care to. We mostly just want to have fun and learn from each other.

How can I get a link on the Guild's webpages?

If you would like to join the Helena Woodworkers' Guild, and if you do not have your own webpage already, we can work with you (for a minimal fee in addition to the annual dues) to make you a webpage for your business and/or a photo gallery of your woodworking. Even if you pursue woodworking solely as a hobby, you might want to have a web page to show off your work to family and friends. You will have to provide digital photos to our webmaster so we can build a photo gallery for you.

After you have a web presence of some sort (photo gallery, business website, etc) we will give you a link in the Guild Members Directory as well as on the main Guild website, Sawdust and Shavings.

It is up to you, as a member of the Guild, to provide updated photos of your latest woodworking, and of yourself and your shop, so we can keep our member galleries current.

What if I'm just a hobby woodworker?

We welcome anyone to join the Helena Woodworkers' Guild -- if you have an interest in woodworking and in increasing your skills, whether you have a lifetime of experience or are just getting starting in a woodworking hobby, we would like to have you as a member of our Guild.

If you are a seasoned woodworker, consider joining to share your knowledge with younger or more inexperienced woodworkers. There's really something to the idea of passing on your knowledge to younger generations.

If you are new to woodworking, or even just thinking about (or wishing about) getting into woodworking, we have many members who are willing to share stories and tips with you.

Rather than competing with each other for what some might perceive as a finite (aka scarce) market for our services, we prefer to build local demand for fine, custom, handcrafted furniture, cabinetry and art objects of wood, through cooperation with each other, education of the general public about the benefits of fine woodworking, and promotion of the craft of custom woodworking, in general.

If you feel the same, please give us a look: attend one of our meetings as our guest and after you've enjoyed the comraderie and fun, consider joining the Guild.