Roxanne Ferrin is an artist, woodworker, craftsperson, and designer, spending most of her time woodworking in common AREA maintenance’s subterranean wood shop.
Roxanne Ferrin
Wants you to do it yourself.
In her designs, Ferrin is playful and experimental — happy to pursue a wild lark, not afraid of color. She constructed what a coffee table from outer space might look like, all translucent neon plexiglass and sharp angles. Alternatively, she’s built a hearth table, with earthy textures of cherry and clay plaster.
How did you get into woodworking? Are you mostly self taught?
I’m self taught, completely. I’ve always been really into DIY. I feel like that, more than anything, is what my work is anchored in: DIY capacity building, really wanting to know how to do all the stuff, wanting to know how to make the things that I need and fix the things that I have.
I got into woodworking a couple of years ago while living in California before moving back up here, where I’m from. I got really obsessed and watched a lot of Youtube videos.
All the different crafts and mediums I’ve picked up are from following natural interests and desires. I started getting into it that way, as soon as I got back up here to Seattle I invested in a couple of tools and was doing some stuff in my folks’ garage and then found this opportunity at common AREA maintenance.
You started in textile and fashion design, can you talk about that experience?
Before I shifted and started focusing on woodworking, I did textile work for a very long time, mostly as a costume designer. I did costume work in the local dance/performance art world and also worked at Pacific Northwest Ballet in their costume shop. It was an absolutely amazing experience because these people are so good and it was extraordinary to be within this group of folks so dedicated and passionate about their work.
I think of craft as something very much alive and must be kept alive, passed on from person to person, it has to imparted by other people. Learning those old methods of how to build costumes is really satisfying to me but eventually I got bored (laughs).
Do you have a design or artist philosophy that you follow? What is it that moves you to try any given medium?
I think of it as being somehow connected to my journey as a trans person. Throughout most of my 20s, even before I was identifying as trans, and especially afterwards, I felt very much like I was only allowing myself to say “yes” to impulses or desires that felt femme or I felt would push me in that direction, especially after a lifetime of saying no to those things. And I feel like I hit this point a year or two ago with my work and creative energy - as well as how I feel about my appearance - where I started to allow myself to feel okay about impulses, desires or choices that didn’t feel femme-y.
Obviously textile is work most often done by women and feels like a craft that is very much rooted in matriarchal lines and traditions, for better or worse. I think even allowing myself to pursue woodworking felt like some personal triumph, like, “I can do this because I want to.”
The answer is I’m sure that it does affect choices, but it doesn’t feel like something I’m specifically doing intentionally or something that I’m thinking about or centering when I’m making creative decisions. I try to make them in a very physical way; it’s an emotional or embodied choice.
Hearth Table with Cherry and Clay Plaster. Photo Courtesy of Roxanne.
Do you identify as a craftsperson more than an artist?
That is certainly a question I’ve asked myself a lot. Honestly the answer doesn’t feel particularly vital. I think of myself as an artist and have for a long time and that feels funneled through craft for me. So in general terms, of course I’m an artist. I make things, I put a lot of energy into cultivating my own internal creative voice and spend a lot of time developing what I feel is an artistic sense.
I don’t do things that are very “conceptual.” It is always at some point rooted in utility.
Utilitarian art, that emerges from markets, feels like a necessity of being an artist and craftsperson, I don’t really know if the distinction matters. I’m drawn to crafts and specifically more traditional hand crafts, staying away from modern machinery as much as possible, or at least knowing how to do it both ways.
Working within capitalism, the highs and lows feel connected, you can feel proud of a project but if you’re not making money it’s hard to feel successful. I’m excited to not be so fixed in those definitions.
So the distinction feels more rooted in capitalism and how we value productivity?
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it’s like being an artist, or in my case craftsperson, who does things artistically sometimes but not always. I think about what it’s like to do this inside of capitalism and the choices we must make and how those affect what we do and how we’re able to do it.
For the last decade or so I’ve been really focused on this idea/vision of being a successful artist or craftsperson, whatever that means, some degree of financial stability or recognition financial stability. I’ve identified with that pursuit and goal and it has frustrating and at times rewarding, but mostly frustrating. But I’ve certainly also learned a lot trying to walk that line.
I enjoy work, I need to move my body around and I feel like I’ve been drawn to crafts in particular because it allows for spacious meditative brain wandering time. First you’re designing, which takes a lot of mental capacity and is fun but physically executing something that doesn’t always take a lot of brain space.
Where do you see yourself moving in this medium? What are you excited about?
Woodworking is my focus right now and I don’t really think that’s going to change, I feel like I’ve landed and found what feels like a craft home in woodworking so I think that will be central moving forward although my interests and pursuits drastically change every two years.
What I’m really excited about and moving towards is moving to this homestead near Mount Rainier. Mostly because of the financial structure there and about having an opportunity to put all of that labor toward this project/family/community, as opposed to just working toward my own stability or personal goals.
I feel like this specifically being able to work in a way that is about community. The same things I’ve wanted for myself but do it specifically for this project - how can I work in a way that makes this community flourishing more possible.
I feel really excited to let myself branch out again and pick up new stuff and see myself differently and not assume that I know what I’m going to do next.
Cloud Table with Mountains
Do you have a “style” or designs/woods you gravitate towards?
I feel really drawn to green wood. Green means recently alive and has a higher moisture content so it behaves differently. It lends itself to carving, more accessible, being surrounded by the trees of the farm, a shit load of green wood.
Green woodworking is a different style of woodworking than what we would normally see in shops using dry materials and it will be different than the kind of shop work I’ve been doing. It requires tooling up in a different way, working with axes, carving hatchets and blacksmithing, too.