Hi, my name is Lia Parker with ParkerPlace Woodwork. And I run a woodworking shop in the deep pines of East Texas while staying home and raising three gorgeously wild children. Very wild!
Parker Place Woodwork was born from busy hands. And I come from a long line of women that have very busy hands. Women who cooked, knitted, pulled cotton and farmed, held babies, chucked corn, hated out snacks at the ball field, make coffee for our late night craft parties.It turns out I inherited those same kinds of hands and somehow they found their way to woodworking.
Q2: How did you become a woodwoker?
My woodworking career began over 10 years ago, well before I earned the name of mom.After being gifted a table saw for my dad, I quickly thrifted a roadside pallet and made my first piece of wall decor with just a jigsaw and a set of really janky saw horses.
After I sold my first 10, I decided this was going to be my side hustle outside of teaching that would be able to fund my husband's second degree. But with a lot of hard work and a lot of sawdust and a lot of jigsaw blades. Now that I think of it, we did. It would work. Bought us a passage into the next phase of our lives.
Q3: How has motherhood influenced your craft?
So after our first child, our first purchased home, I moved to a small country town in East Texas.
My time at the shop slowed and motherhood took over. My skill set still occasionally served my home. I built both of my babies cribs. I made a walnut accent wall that is just divine. I built a bed that has hidden storage. But the shop quickly became something much more than a place to make solutions.
Entering into motherhood was not as gentle and graceful of an experience that always envisioned. I had a very quiet struggle with anxieties of failure as a parent.The grueling schedule of mom hours did me in. My brain couldn't function. The grief of saying goodbye to parts of myself but also saying hello to the beauty of raising a brand new human being.
There was a lot of contrast in those days. I truly believe that god give to me the shop and woodworking during that season to help maintain a sense of balance.There's a certain amount of Grace to wood working, and it's funny because I always allowed myself the Grace to strive and to fail when working on a project. But yet, as a mother, there was no Grace to spare.Creating and making became this wonderful place of discovery that helped bring understanding to my new role as a mother.
So naturally, as I grew up and I changed as a woman, so did my skills in the shop. An ultimately, Parker Place grew into a full production shop with the emphasis on sharing the process on my social media pages, which LED to the amazing discovery of one of the most robust and creative communities of men and women and mothers. The maker community.
Q4: As a mother, do you have any tool preferences?
Absolutely. We have a role in the house that whatever you do, you do it thoughtfully, intentionally, and with purpose.And in the shop, that means that you need to work smart, you need to wear your PPE, you need to change your desk collector, you need to sweep up before you turn off the lights for the night.But it also means investing in your equipment, which will aid in so many different things. Efficiency, safety, quality of the building.
In the past year, my top three upgrades focused on my table saw, my dust collection, and adding a CNC into my workflow.These three machines tackle the three categories that are most important to me. My Harvey table saw has increased the quality of my builds as well as the safety of operating a quality saw.My dust collection has literally saved my lungs, and my CNC is giving me the gift of time as it helps me with production.
Q5:Will you kids be involved in any future projects?
I think learning any practical skillset, such as woodworking, is important on so many different levels. The practicality, the confidence the character builds.Most days you hear people pushing kids towards sports to build, accomplish these things and for good reason.
But I believe that woodworking has its place in equipping them for their future.That being said, the adventure of creating should never know any balance, and that includes with just woodworking. Ultimately, I want them to feel the freedom to flex that muscle however they like, but they always know that they will have room alongside me in the shop.
Q6: Any encouragement to other woodworking mothers?
To all the mothers out there slinking snacks and sawdust, we are a unique tribe, ladies.My prayer for us all is to hold our motherhood and our creative pursuits well, without competition, without guilt, without canceling each other out.
Our roles as mother and maker are all a part of our grand design.Psalm 139 says it's so good. I praise you, god, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and your works are wonderful.My hope is that we all love the little ones in our lives as fearfully as god loves us, and that we go make really wonderful things and make Grace pave the way in between them all.
To every woodworking mother:
Thank you! From wood to wonder, mom makes magic.
Watch the full interview video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0auXvzfyMn4
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