By Gretta Goorno — Correspondent
The challenge: handcrafting bespoke mini-tables for specific spots in the Fowler Library branch in West Concord.
To the rescue: the two Steves — Concord resident Steve Reznek and Lexington’s Steve McKenna, whose son and grandchildren reside in Concord.
Amid whirling fans and noisy machines, local woodworkers, including Reznek and McKenna, spend their Wednesday nights chatting and creating at the Lexington Arts & Crafts Society.
Library Director Emily Smith knew of the men’s work from her time at Lexington’s Cary Library and welcomed Reznek’s offer, made on behalf of the group.
McKenna said Smith “wanted something that would go in between two chairs that would hold a drink or books,” and for the smaller table, “she wanted a space so someone could sit something down beside this chair.”
After measuring the two areas, McKenna drafted the designs. Then, the five men started crafting.
The result is one angular and one live-edge table, both of which feature carved boards that attach to the legs. Reznek compliments McKenna’s fantastical mind: “He has the same DNA as Dr. Seuss.”
(Wood)working together
The construction takes broad collaboration. “Each of us has strengths, and it’s nice being open and learning from each other,” McKenna says.
The library funded the materials, and the workers donated their services.
“We tend to use local hardwoods — cherry, walnut, and more expensive, fancier kinds of maple,” says Reznek. For the Fowler tables, they bought black walnut boards from a local lumberyard.
The two men found their passion for woodworking in their own individual shops. Though now retired like most of the group, Reznek said woodworking originally allowed him to relax after his “reasonably pressured job.”
“You get lost inside your own head doing whatever you are creatively doing. It is absolutely absorbing,” Reznek says.
McKenna agrees. “I have to keep looking at the clock to find out if it’s dinner time because I go right through,” he says.
Though each artist enjoys the process, they also cherish the finished product.
“The outcome is really nice,” says Reznek.
Crafting a community
The two Steves worked on their first project together in 2016, producing a three-seated bench for the Lexington Community Center. McKenna describes his design for the bench as a “mashup of two different styles, two different makers.” He combined the seat design of woodworking pioneer Sam Maloof and the bottom support structure of George Nakashima.
In the years since, the group has crafted for local organizations, creating a table and book cart for the Lexington Library, a table for the Bedford Library, a bench for the Lexington Art Center, and three end tables for an auction at Cary’s children’s library.
They are always looking for new commissions.
Their group of five core members has remained strong in the face of change. McKenna explains that they began as one of the LexArt guilds, which “meant the members had a sense of ownership and bought equipment and so on.”
In 2023, for financial reasons, the LexArt Woodworkers Guild dissolved, but the crafters continue to work diligently in the Lexington makerspace, and Reznek mentors crafters on their turning skills at LexArt on Friday afternoons.
These craft nights are incredibly rewarding. “We start at 7:30, turn the machines off at 9:30, clean up, and drink beer,” says Reznek.
“We’ve all become really good friends,” McKenna adds.
