RH Lee
Offerman Woodshop
Los Angeles, CA USA
"Woodworking is all about trial and error...you make a lot of terrible mistakes, but that’s the process of learning."
Career Roadmap
RH's work combines: Art, Design, and Building Things
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Step away from the screen and get your hands dirty. Make things out of whatever materials you have lying around, there is no need to be precious. Make things that are bad or ugly! You'll learn from your mistakes.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Art/Art Studies, General
Brown University
Bachelor's Degree
Philosophy
Brown University
Vocational
Furniture Design and Manufacturing
College of the Redwoods
Here's the path I recommend for someone who wants to be a Shop Manager:
High School
Vocational: Woodworking, General
Learn more about different paths to this career
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Grew up in Berkeley, CA in a family of academics—admits she is one of the only people in her entire extended family that didn’t pursue an academic discipline.
2.
At age 7, she took a kids’ carpentry class, which sparked her interest in art and building things.
3.
Attended Brown University in Rhode Island where she received her degree in art and philosophy (semiotics).
4.
While in college, she would build sets for the theater department, which she says satisfied her interests in visual arts and literature/philosophy.
5.
After graduating, she moved back to California, where she continued working as a scenic carpenter and got a job building interactive science exhibits for the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco.
6.
She took a three week summer course in fine woodworking at College of the Redwoods, which was instrumental in improving her skills and transitioning her craft from scenic work to fine furniture.
7.
In 2008, she moved to Los Angeles where she took a job running the Offerman Woodshop, a woodworking collective owned by actor and comedian Nick Offerman.
8.
She is also the program director of the non-profit Would Works and teaches woodworking in the School of Art at California State University, Long Beach.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Peers:
You don't have the skills.
How I responded:
When I was first starting out, there were times when I wasn't taken seriously. Some of it was because I was new and my skills weren't up to snuff. Other times, it was because I was young, small-statured, and a woman. I had to just improve my skills until I was taken seriously.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
Being a woman in this line of work can definitely be a hurdle. I've overcome it by finding other female mentors along the way.
It's sometimes important to diversify when working in a creative field. I took on teaching gigs in order to have a more regular paycheck.