Mentorship

I was able to complete about 205 hours of mentorship. I wanted to dedicate a post to my mentors because they helped me out a lot. They gave me really good sources and aided me through my 9 month senior project. My two mentors where Paul Yanes and David Wade. They stuck with me the whole way and helped me every way of the step, they helped me enough to be able to do it on my own almost. I had gone through many mentors, and went to interviews to see if I can get mentorship but I was unsuccessful at serval places such as; Hile Studios, Mentorship with John and Jim Ipikagen, mentorship with William Ng, Jeff Grainger Studio, S&T Woodworks, Eaton Designs, and a few other places. My mentor Paul Yanes was part of a community of woodworkers in the LA area and he sent out a request to see if any woodworkers would be able to offer mentorship. Very few replied, and the ones who did where very far, except for David Wade. David Wade was very familiar with helping students. He has given many classes and is a very experienced woodworker. He took me in and allowed me to use his whole shop to make what ever furniture I needed. He aided me in tough questions and decisions I had to make. He taught me the Career aspect of woodworking, and helped me understand my EQ and different ways to see woodworking, a hobby point of view, and a career point of view. It was very helpful and he really did his best to help me prepare for my presentation. 

My mentor Paul Yanes also helped me a lot and helped me realize that woodworking is not just carpentry, or architecture, but it is also art. He helped me find my best answer and was my most convenient mentor because he lived with me hah. I did not treat me as a son, he taught me and treated me like an apprentice, there where times where it was hard and frustrating both mentally and physically. The late nights we spent perfecting techniques, and the amount of knowledge he helped me discover myself. He never once did anything for me, or even gave me a straight forward answer. He helped me discover my product, and led me to other important sources. Such as a book by George Nakashima that helped me understand the life style of a woodworker and my third and best answer.