Class act in the fine art of carpentry
Owners create custom furniture and provide hands-on education
By day, the founders of the Junction Workshop design and create gorgeous pieces of custom furniture.
Evenings and weekends, they make use of their 3,000-square-foot workshop on Sterling Rd. — which is already shared with three other businesses — to teach others the intricacies of woodworking.
For owners Heidi Earnshaw and Carey Jernigan, such multitasking and space reutilization helps make their hands-on work economically feasible.
Plus, the demand is there. “Woodworking is a difficult thing to jump into and teach yourself,” says Earnshaw, 47. It requires training, space and equipment, all of which the Junction Workshop is able to provide.
Earnshaw studied fine art at the University of Toronto, where her work was criticized for being “too functional.” She was making miniature furniture for her sculpture projects — but had no idea at the time she was practising for her future career.
She worked with a cabinetmaker after graduation, just to make some money on the side, but soon started designing and creating her own furniture. She briefly studied furniture design but didn’t graduate, and instead formed Heidi Earnshaw Design in 2000, taking a studio near this one in the Junction.
She later moved her work to Sterling — one of the last industrial enclaves close to downtown — and in 2012 hired Jernigan, now 35, as an apprentice.
Jernigan studied architecture and fine art and was drawn to woodworking for its functional appeal. While she works for Earnshaw, she also produces her own wood sculptures after hours.
In 2014, Jernigan started teaching woodworking at the Shop on College St. and Dufferin Ave. But that organization decided to discontinue its classes with wood to focus on ceramics and crafts.
Knowing the amount of space and kind of equipment you need to make wooden furniture, plus the expertise, it was an understandable choice. But one that created an opportunity. Jernigan and Earnshaw discussed taking advantage of the gap and offering classes themselves.
“There’s definitely an interest in people to do things with their hands,” Earnshaw says. The rise of maker spaces across the city, and organizations such as the Toronto Tool Library tapping into a market of city dwellers who wanted to get their hands dirty were proof of concept for the duo. Plus they offered a network they could tap into.
Last spring, Junction Workshop debuted with a trial class, which went well. Jernigan then set to creating a website to allow for student registration, and the two developed some basic designs and started marketing their idea.
They held an opening party last November and are currently in the middle of their winter session, which offers a mix of one-night classes for small projects such as a 3D puzzle made with hand tools ($145), or multi-week courses that have students building a stool ($675). (Coolest: a pipe-bending class in which you make a little wooden elephant ($145).)
Earnshaw, Jernigan and some of their colleagues at Sterling teach the classes, which often including getting sneak peaks at a working designer’s latest pieces. (When we visited, Earnshaw had a stunning sideboard and coffee table out, their finishes drying.)
The classes offer a steady and mostly reliable second source of income to bol- ster the tight margins of their main gig. “To make furniture in this day and age is very expensive,” Earnshaw says.
Plus, students who are new to the craft come in with infectious energy that gets these two artisans more inspired for their own work.
But the new business has come with its challenges. More time hunched over tools, for one, plus way more time than either anticipated running the administration of the school and marketing it to drum up new students.
“I spend a lot more time on my computer than I’d like to,” Earnshaw admits.