{"id":1496,"date":"2018-08-28T15:08:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T15:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2018-08-28T15:08:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T15:08:20","slug":"st-jacobs-furnishings-woodcraft-in-mennonite-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/2018\/08\/28\/st-jacobs-furnishings-woodcraft-in-mennonite-country\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Jacobs Furnishings: woodcraft in Mennonite country"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Jacobs Furnishings: Woodcraft in Mennonite Country<\/em><\/h3>\n

BY CHRIS TIESSEN<\/em><\/p>\n

As we meander past an amazing number of stalls featuring fresh produce, grass fed meat and handmade crafts on a busy Thursday afternoon at the St. Jacobs Farmers\u2019 Market, I cannot help but feel a bit like royalty. Mennonite royalty. (A contradiction in terms, to be sure, since historically Mennonites rejected any formal connections to their magisterial rulers. But I digress.) Everywhere we go, folks either wave, call out hello, or emerge from behind their stalls to strike up a conversation. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019re a bit of a celebrity in these parts,\u2019 I remark to my companion, Byron Shantz, who seems unfazed by all the attention he\u2019s getting. Ever the model of modesty, Byron shrugs off my comment. \u2018I\u2019ve been working here as part of the family business since I was a teenager,\u2019 he replies, \u2018so it\u2019s only fair that folks have gotten to know me.\u2019
\nIndeed, the Shantz name certainly does carry a lot of weight in these parts. Byron\u2019s father Ross and late uncle, Milo, were prominent visionaries in the development of what is now known as St. Jacobs Country, shaping it into what it is today: a global tourism juggernaut. His sister, Sheila, manages the huge Famers\u2019 Market. And Byron, along with Sheila, owns and operates St. Jacobs Furnishings Co \u2013 an impressive furniture store attached to the market that specializes in solid wood furniture handcrafted by area Old Order and Conservative Mennonites. Mennonites whom Byron and I \u2013 also Mennonites, albeit of a much more progressive sort \u2013 visited a couple weeks earlier so that I could observe how the furniture Byron sells through his store is actually made. By hand. Right here in our own backyard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018That was a real eye opener,\u2019 I remark to Byron about the trip we took into the Waterloo Region countryside north of St. Jacobs. \u2018Whenever I used to see road signs for authentic Mennonite furniture in this part of the world, I\u2019d have my doubts. But those workshops we visited certainly were authentic.\u2019 Indeed, authentic enough that our first stop \u2013 at Oscar Martin\u2019s farm on Jigs Hollow Road (what a fitting name) in the Township of Woolwich \u2013 included the strict directive that I wasn\u2019t to photograph anyone\u2019s likeness. It was well worth the trip to see the whole of Oscar Martin\u2019s enterprise with my own eyes, though. And to shoot the workshop, even without any of the people, who were surely part of the scene that day.<\/p>\n

\t*\t\t*\t\t*<\/p>\n

Traveling up the long winding drive toward Oscar\u2019s shop, we slowed down as we passed an Old Order Mennonite school house whose fenced yard was filled with children enjoying recess on what turned out to be their last day of school. Boys in suspenders and black hats and girls dressed in colourful long dresses and white head coverings chased each other around the schoolyard. Parents in similar garb sat together in the shade, next to their dark horses and black painted buggies. An archetypal Waterloo County landscape, I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

Oscar\u2019s shop was dimly lit and seemed to be filled with just the bare minimum amount of equipment required to complete the jobs at hand. There were workstations where Oscar and his father, Daniel, would construct solid wood tables and chairs for Byron\u2019s shop. And stacks of wood. And even a basic finishing booth \u2013 given to Oscar, it turns out, by Byron years back. \u2018So Oscar can do everything in-house \u2013 right through to the finished product,\u2019 Byron had noted. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another station, nearby, caught my eye: it appeared to be covered in doll furniture. \u2018That\u2019s where the children learn how to work with wood,\u2019 Daniel had told Byron and me. Here was evidence of the long tradition of woodworking and carpentry in the Old Order community \u2013 of a certain sense of craft that Byron would later tell me differentiates Mennonite furniture from everything else. \u2018There\u2019s a very strong demand for the furniture that comes out of here,\u2019 Byron told me as we exited the workshop into the bright sunlight. \u2018People who purchase the Mennonite furniture made in these workshops appreciate the fact that each piece is meant to last generations.\u2019 <\/p>\n

From Oscar\u2019s Old Order workshop we drove east across Woolwich to the rural property of Luke Martin and his father \u2013 Conservative Mennonites. (That is, not as conservative as Old Order Mennonites but much more conservative than Byron and myself. But again I digress.) The shop, Cardinal Woodcraft, was substantially different from Oscar\u2019s smaller operation. Luke, who employs over twenty people in a massive well-lit shop, allowed me to take photos of his staff. Which I did greedily, capturing woodworkers cutting and planing and finishing gorgeous oak, maple and pine pieces. Before long, I\u2019d filled the card in my camera, marveling at having discovered this thriving mini-universe not many miles away from where we spend our everyday lives. A universe that has spilled over into the St. Jacobs Farmers\u2019 Market for over three decades now.<\/p>\n

\t*\t\t*\t\t*<\/p>\n

Back at the market on this busy Thursday afternoon, Byron and I find a table \u2013 incidentally built by Luke\u2019s craftsmen \u2013 in the main market building and he tells me about how, over these past two decades at St. Jacobs Furnishings, he\u2019s managed to create a coherent eco-system whereby local builders have a place to sell their quality furniture. \u2018We now work with about a dozen Mennonite shops that help keep our enterprise running,\u2019 he tells me. \u2018And, in turn, we help them keep their operations running. And there\u2019s something beautiful about that.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI can\u2019t help but think that Byron might be selling himself short, or at least that he might not be conveying the whole story. While he\u2019s helping to support local Old Order and Conservative Mennonite makers, he\u2019s also keeping a treasured practice of Mennonite woodworking alive. Woodworking that values quality, craftsmanship and tradition. Who wouldn\u2019t value all of these things in a fine piece of solid wood furniture?<\/p>\n

<\/span> furniturehouse.ca
\n<\/i><\/span> @sjfurniture
\n<\/a><\/i><\/span> @sjfurniture<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Jacobs Furnishings: Woodcraft in Mennonite Country BY CHRIS TIESSEN As we meander past an amazing number of stalls featuring fresh produce, grass fed meat and handmade crafts on a busy Thursday afternoon at the St. Jacobs Farmers\u2019 Market, I cannot help but feel a bit like royalty. Mennonite royalty. (A contradiction in terms, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,114,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hand-crafted","category-issue-5","category-kitchener"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/1DSC_4324sm.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KDF5-o8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}