March 25, 2025

At Tear Cap Workshops, we specialize in hands-on learning. Craft and creativity are in evidence everywhere. When you arrive at our millyard, you see a garden burgeoning with flowers and vegetables, many varieties of trees and a pond. You see old buildings of the former sawmill that look a little rough around the edges, but go inside and you will discover art and craft in the making: fine furniture sanded as smooth as satin, guitars made from scratch, oil paintings that emerge like magic from canvas, and items crafted from wood that inspire you to pick up a planer yourself. If you come during a class, you will see students energized by their own inherent creativity–much of it newly discovered.

What we create at Tear Cap Workshops stands in homage to traditional American craft–not the object but the process, the making. In class, you will find camaraderie, calm and creative problem-solving. It’s about appreciating the tools and materials that further your own vision. While we may use the same techniques and the same materials, there will always be a unique quality to our work, something that connects deeply to our own sense of history, environment and meaning. In that way, a crafted item is never purely utilitarian; it is emblematic of the human need to use our hands to shape things, and the satisfaction that comes from saying, “I made this with my own hands.” Melinda Thomas

March 1, 2025

Hands-on learning, creativity, collaboration . . . it’s more than you get from a YouTube video.

At Tear Cap Workshops, positive collaborations happen almost minute to minute: an artisan sharing techniques with another artisan, a teacher sharing skills with a student, or a customer sharing ideas about a furniture piece with the artisan who will create it, knowing that it will be like a garment favored for its perfect fit.

If a belt breaks in your clothes drier, it’s a good idea to view a YouTube video about the steps needed to disassemble the parts, replace the belt, and reassemble. It’s a purely technical exercise.

If you want to see a little magic happen, try one of the many craft ideas we explore here at Tear Cap Workshops. You are likely to find many things, not all of them anticipated, but delightful in myriad says. Henry Banks