'Listen to the Wood': In The Shop With A Newtown Woodworker

Find the rustic red barn set behind a country home on Obtuse Road in Newtown, and you'll be in front of Johnny Williams' woodworking studio. The 29-year-old has made his home here for four years, crafting benches, chairs, cutting boards and coffee tables (he says he's "on a coffee table kick right now"). And he's making a name for himself through his soulful, philosophical take on the craft.

"As woodworkers, we must watch and learn its movement and let the wood do the work," he writes on his website. "We may never create furniture as soulful as the trees we sacrifice, but that must be our lofty aim."

He may be new to the craft, but Johnny Williams' expert way with wood has caught a lot of eyes -- including those of the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission, who awarded him their first annual NCAC grant for $1,000. He's come a long way in just five years.

Raised in Westchester, Williams attended NYU, where he majored in History. After college, he found himself part of the "rat race."

"I was doing your sort of standard 21st century commuting marketing desk job," he says. "And I just sort of got burnt out on the commute. So I took a leap of faith."

On his website, he tells the story of how he broke the news to his boss: he wanted to "work with his hands."

"At night, I sketched my ideas in broad strokes, unacquainted with the details of joinery, material or proportions," he says. "By day, I admired images of graceful tables while hunched over my laptop in a creaky office chair."

He was 25 and had next to no experience with woodworking.

"My dad couldn't even hold a hammer," he says.

So he headed to Maine to study at the Center for Furniture Craftmanship -- and several years later, to Fort Bragg, Ca. for a nine-month furniture-making program at the College of the Redwoods. He started working here at his barn on Obtuse Road in 2010 after helping his family renovate the structure, adding insulation, new windows and electricity to power his tools.

He primarily makes his furniture and crafts with air-dried Connecticut hardwoods -- maple, walnut and oak, often working with cast-offs or reused wood.

"I find them into the back of the lumberyard and try to bring some life into them," he says. "I purposely avoid working with exotic woods from faraway places because the international lumber trade is so nasty and exploitative. I like to know where the lumber comes from -- and with all the wind and snowstorms we have in New England, there's no shortage of good wood!"

He shares the barn with Weathered Way, his mother's gift and craft shop, just upstairs. (His cutting boards are on sale in the shop.) In October, he'll show his work at an exhibition there, opening October 19 with a wine and hors d'oeuvres reception from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

He'll also have a presence at the  Newtown Arts Festival. After reading about Newtown High School student Max Galassi's film work on Patch, Williams reached out to the young director and offered to produce his newest film Youth. The film opens Tuesday, Sept. 17 with a screening and Q&A at Newtown Congregational Church.

To see Williams' work, including coffee tables, cabinets, cutting boards and more, visit his website.