That was in 2000, the year
he and Mullally started dating;
they married in 2003. He was
by then a successful (read:
working) actor, but “she was
an insanely successful actor.
I was very spoiled because I
didn’t have to worry about mak-
ing the rent.” In between parts
(including tool-guy roles on
American Body Shop
and
W ill
& Grace,
where he played “Nick
the Plumber”), he did commis-
sions for friends and colleagues.
Though acting has long been his
“first job,” woodworking gives
him the deep satisfaction of
producing objects that are tan-
gible and lasting, with an inti-
mate function in daily life.
“I love making a bed or
a dining room table, because
those are two very necessary
pieces of furniture. You’re mak-
ing someone the board off
which they’ll feed themselves.
Or they’ll play cards, or they’ll
drink and have a rousing good
time. To me there’s something
holy about getting to do that
for people.”
With a hit show in its fourth
season, his time is largely taken
up by “that pesky dream job,”
as he likes to call it. Still, the
shop remains. “It’s a fortress
of solitude, where everything
except for the actual nature
of the wood material is under
my control.” Woodworking
grounds him, provides the bal-
ance he needs to survive and
thrive in a high-pressure indus-
try where “you are ostensibly
a person with an artistic agenda,
trying to create whatever it is
you love, in an arena command-
ed by corporate finance.”
Right: While Offerman’s
wife was busy starring in
a Broadway play, he built
this canoe, and ended up
filming the process for
canoe kit supplier Bear
Mountain Boat Shop.
Describing the dehumanizing
ordeal of an audition, he slips
into the present tense, as if he’s
still a struggling actor.
“That’s my favorite day - to
leave that [casting] room, and
come straight here. And what-
ever it is I’m doing, even if I’m
just sanding a board, I sand the
board, and I look at it. I’ve done
something tactile that I can look
at and see that I’ve achieved
something. That’s representa-
tive of how woodworking is
for me in my whole life.”
Like proponents of the Arts
and Crafts movement, he sees
the shoddiness of mass-produced
items as both cause and symp-
tom of a wider disease. “I think
we’d begin to see a solution to
some of our social problems
if we’d just take back our self-
sufficiency,” he says. “A lot of
that can be grasped by realign-
ing ourselves with the crafts
that we’ve lost.” He urges any-
one with an interest in making
to read the work of his favorite
writer, the agrarian philosopher
Wendell Berry, who advocates
craft as a cure for society’s ills:
“It really speaks to the heart of
the craftsperson.”
And Nick Offerman clearly
has a craftsman’s heart. “I love
being someone who can effect
change on the world around me
with my hands and with tools.
It’s a fellowship that I’m very
proud to be part of.”
+
offermanwoodshop.com
Joyce Lovelace is
American
Craft '?
contributing editor. For
the fu ll text o f her (often hilarious)
interview with Nick Offerman,
visit americancraftmas. ore.
Right: A light mist of
water cleans the dust
off Offerman’s prized
canoe, unveiling beauti-
ful wood grain and
seamless construction.
052 american craft dec/jani2
