Story and photo Lou Beaumont
Like all things worth doing, learning to create from wood is a process that for the most part is fun and challenging, but it also has its fair share of frustrations. Most women are faced with the prospect of starting from scratch with woodwork knowhow, having not had the opportunity to learn it at school. In addition, when students meet with resistance when working with wood, due to perfectionist, sloppy or perhaps impatient tendencies, it can often trigger deeper and unrelated emotions that if not faced will come up over and over again, in workshop and in life.
For years, Patt Gregory has taught woodwork for women in Mullumbimby, not only filling a gap in community skills and enhancing local women's independence, but offering support and counsel as an integral part of her teaching process. Without it, many women would have pushed aside both their woodwork project and the deep-seated emotions it was responsible for bringing to the surface. As well as running the workshops from her home, Patt has been busy writing a Woodwork for Women manual.
Reflected in the instructions in her book, Patt leaves no stone unturned when teaching her students. She now wants to find willing women and men of varying ages to trial these instructions, in her workshop with her guidance, to ensure they are entirely clear and easy to follow.

The Echo, April 2007

Patt said, 'We have all experienced trying to put together a piece of furniture or a tent from a set of very badly put-together instructions and either thrown it across the room or ended up with bits left over! It's very frustrating!