No Viable Upgrade Path

Our new employee, Kale, begins work on Monday here at Lost Art Press. She’s a young and determined woodworker I met a couple years ago while she was working at North South Baking Co. on Covington’s Pike Street.

Whenever we hold classes at our storefront, Megan and I buy pastries each morning for the students to keep up their energy, spirits and glucose levels. One day, Kale took my order, then asked me if I built chairs.

One thing led to another, and soon I was teaching her to build chairs. And we were swapping photos of vernacular chairs via text. After a couple months it was clear that Kale had a terminal case of “Chair Disease.”

As fortune would have it, we need part-time help at our warehouse and part-time help with editorial duties at our storefront. So as of Monday, we have a new full-time employee.

I’ll write more about Kale and the grand plan ahead. But for now I’d like to tell you about the small kit of tools I’m gathering for her as she starts full-bore in the craft.

I’m assembli…