Today we’d like to introduce you to Eugene Zeleny.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Eugene. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have been woodworking ever since my niece was born, nine years ago. I started with the intention of building gifts and toys for her so that as she grew older she would gain an appreciation for all things handmade (and maybe even follow in my hands-on/mechanical engineering passions).
Besides a brief tutelage under my first mentor (who was also my manager at my first college internship), I am completely self-taught through books, Youtube, Instructables.com, and good old-fashioned trial-and-error experience.
I started out with a couple of hand tools inherited from my grandfather and others found at local flea markets. My first “woodshop” was a 160 square foot patch of space in my parent’s unfinished basement. As my interest and experience grew, so did my collection of tools.
My first commissions were simple projects like shelves and coasters and plaques, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that friends started coming up to me with their own ideas of things they were interested in seeing/buying in the world.
My first attempt at a business came in 2010, from my friend suggesting that I build a hookah-smoking tool for poking all the holes into the tobacco-covering tinfoil at once – the Poke N’ Smoke. https://imgur.com/UMCaXFB
I sold maybe 50 of these, but my experience of going door-to-door to all of the hookah bars and establishments in Boston was invaluable in learning how to gain user feedback, work with the customer to make a better product, and sell my products and services.
My next attempt at a “business” was a bit more successful – I re-branded as Mr. Moustache Man in 2011 and started selling wooden mustache-themed accessories and jewelry. In fact, my Moustache Menorah was even featured on a Buzzfeed list (at #11) back in 2012 (glamorous, I know) https://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/27-awesome-and-unexpected-menorahs?utm_term=.oh7ql7k6D#.vjnjle7qm.
After three years of all sorts of mustache products (necklaces, clocks, cufflinks, bottle openers, coasters, candle holders etc), and over 800 units sold, the mustache fad died down around 2013, and along with it, my interest in such a specific niche.
To date, I have logged approximately 430 different projects over the past nine years, and they can range from something as small as a wooden bowtie for a friend’s wedding to a 22′ wingspan glider for the Redbull Flugtag competition https://www.facebook.com/90sNostalgiaFlugtag/.
I don’t really like to sit still, and I haven’t found a niche or style that I’ve fully adopted yet, so I build anything and everything that I find interesting or challenging at the moment. Inspiration comes from Pinterest, Instructables, Etsy, and the ideas and commissions from friends and strangers.
This brings me to the present – I re-branded again as WouldWork Shop. I currently have a 650 square foot workspace in Brighton, and I have damn near all the tools that most professional shops have (minus a plainer, joiner, and milling machine. I like mainly using hand tools anyway).
Besides being available to take on commissions of any sort (and now any size, really), I also find myself in a unique situation because of an organization I’ve recently become affiliated with – Moishe House: https://www.moishehouse.org/find-a-house/boston-rsj/.
Being an MH Resident involves hosting 5-6 events each month to engage the local young professional community. I’ve taken this opportunity to begin teaching a free monthly workshop to anyone interested.
While the first few months of projects have been focused on Jewish cultural items like dreidels or mezzuzahs, I’m planning future workshops around more general things like bottle openers and personal art projects. Workshops can have up to 12-15 people, and no previous woodworking experience is required.
The first few workshops I’ve taught were far more rewarding than expected, so now I’ve started looking into other teaching and/or tutoring opportunities in the Boston area, hoping to allow those with itchy hands a way to express their creativity nurture new skills via woodworking (and leatherworking too, actually).
I firmly believe in the inspirational power of local, grassroots maker spaces (though I was deeply saddened by TechShop’s recent bankruptcy). Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville and The Makery in Brookline are great inspirations to me, and I use them as an example to push me to grow my own creative community.
For now, my humble shop is open to any friends who want to learn how to build, or need tools to facilitate their own creative projects.
My website documents the full breadth of my projects, in case any other photo references are necessary: http://www.wouldworkshop.com
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As smooth as it can be, I guess? Having had woodworking as a hobby has been a wonderful stress relief and creative outlet. At the moment, as I’m trying to figure out whether turning my hobby into a full-time (or even part-time) job, there is obviously a heightened level of stress and uncertainty, but that comes with the territory and I wholeheartedly accept it.
My injuries have thankfully been few and I still have full function of all my limbs and fingers.
If anything, the biggest struggle could be the lack of a mentor figure. I love the freedom to build anything I want, and while I certainly do my best to challenge myself, a mentor would certainly challenge me in new, unexpected, and educational ways.
I’m not a fan of building boxes or high precision joinery, so I don’t do much of it. But I know that if I had a teacher push me into that niche, I could still learn an enormous amount from them and that experience.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the WouldWork Shop story. Tell us more about the business.
In short: I build things. I build things out of wood, leather, metal, plastic, and soft goods (listed in order of experience). As listed on my website (http://www.wouldworkshop.com/), I don’t exactly have a specialty, which allows me to dabble in a little bit of everything.
It’s also something I’m pretty proud of – I have the flexibility and breadth of knowledge at this point in my life to figure out how to build practically anything. And sometimes even more importantly, I know when I *can’t* build something (due to either lack in skill or proper tools), at which point my knowledge of local craftspeople and small fabrication businesses comes in handy.
As I said previously, I’m known for my three years of wooden mustaches, which started from my desire to improve the poor quality of photobooth prop mustaches I kept encountering.
I’m also known for my ability to go from a rough prototype to a viable and attractive product in a matter of days based on social media/ in-person user feedback and rapid prototyping techniques I’ve learned from five years of working as a Mechanical Engineer.
My goal with my woodworking is to create “functional art.” If I build a bottle opener, I want it to be a beautiful bottle opener that the owner can marvel at or show off to others.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck mostly. It was good luck that my manager at my first internship was a woodworker and pointed me down this path. Lucky that I had such good friends to support my hobby from the early days, who gave me challenging projects on which to build my woodworking foundations.
Lucky that I made the right networking connections in college that pushed me to invest in the mustache business for three years. And finally lucky that partnering with Moishe House allowed me to find an ideal location and space for my budding workshop/makerspace.
Maybe it’s a coincidence then, instead of luck? Either way, it feels like the right path to follow, so I’m committed to seeing it through.
Pricing:
- Everything listed in my Etsy shop is usually under $30, though I can easily take on more complicated/more expensive commissions
- My monthly workshops through Moishe House are FREE, and one-on-one tutoring is available at $50/hr on a flexible schedule
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wouldworkshop.com
- Email: eugenezeleny@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wouldwork_shop/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eugene.zeleny
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WouldWorkShop
at Red Bull Flugtag in Boston, MA, USA on 20 August, 2016.
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