Maria: Founder & fearless leader
Maria, center holding up exterior trim built in class surrounded by students, Hammerstone staff and Junie!
*Maria Klemperer-Johnson has always been surrounded by the handmade. Growing up, her mother—a fiber crafter—made her clothes. Her father was a woodworker, building simple furniture that she still uses today. Even some of her lamps were made by her grandfather. “In my family, when we need something, we just build it,” she says.
It’s a pragmatic approach to living that seems to serve as the underpinning of Maria’s personal and professional life. When her home burned down in 2006, she took it as an opportunity to learn timber-framing in order to construct a new one. At the frame-raising, Maria was eight months pregnant and actively working as carpenter.
In 2013 she created Hammerstone School and began teaching carpentry skills to women.
Maria is the owner of Hammerstone School, head teacher, and lead carpenter on Hammerstone construction projects. Her passion for building, in particular natural building and timber framing is apparent in her work and in her classes. She is a proponent of high performance construction using natural materials.
Maria in the Trumansburg, NY woodshop
If you have had the chance to take a class with Maria then you know in carpentry, brain is just as important as brawn. She believes unabashedly in the empowerment that Hammerstone courses provide. She encourages women to think practically and use tailored body mechanics to perform tasks safely to prevent injury.
When not busy running Hammerstone, Maria spends enjoys time with her family and pets, swimming in the Finger Lakes, and maintaining a small homestead and cider orchard. She also takes time to practice her craft both to prepare for teaching, but also to revel in the act of creating unique and beautiful objects.
Maria practices Kumiko, a Japanese woodworking technique traditionally used to make shoji screens and windows. Thin strips of wood are assembled into a rectilinear or diagonal grid using half-lap joints, and then infill pieces are cut to precise length with angles on the ends to create different geometric patterns. As well as Parquetry, thin layers of wood veneer are cut into shapes, temporarily stitched together with tape, and then glued to a substrate of plywood or solid wood.
Since small boxes are pleasing to build and to use she also creates all of the boxes, trays, and frames as they are an excellent way to display Kumiko and Parquetry art.
Kumiko in progress
If you aren’t able to take a class at Hammerstone Maria is a member of the The Greater Ithaca Art Trail. This trail features over 55 visual artists in Tompkins County, New York and hosts an annual October “Open Studio Weekends.” You can visit and see all of the beautiful work that Maria creates in her “spare time.”
