Masters of the Craft

This first installment of the Masters of the Craft series features the work and words of Nancy Hiller, who passed away in the fall of 2022. A longtime writer for FWW, Hiller grew to be a powerful voice in the craft thanks to her work as both a cabinetmaker and author. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, she transcended the constraints of traditional woodworking culture and forged her own path, which took her from the hippy communes of Miami to the high-brow halls of Cambridge to her final home in the college town of Bloomington in the rolling Indiana hills. There, she worked for decades creating bookcases, cabinets, furniture, and even whole kitchens for clients of all income levels in an effort to make good design affordable to all. Actor and fellow woodworker Nick Offerman called Hiller an "Obi-Wan Kenobi level master" of woodworking.