Handmade: Creative Focus the Age of Distraction in Bloomington, MN

"Gary Rogowski leads us gently but surely upon the path to a type of success we may not have previously considered. (Hint: it involves blisters)." --Nick Offerman
In an era when there are countless competing claims on one's attention, how does one find the internal focus to be creative? For master furniture craftsman Gary Rogowski, the answer is in the act of creative work itself. The discipline of working with one's hands to create unnecessarily beautiful things shapes the builder into a more complete human being.
In the tradition of
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
and
Shop Class as Soulcraft
, Rogowski's
Handmade
is a profound meditation on the eternal value of manual work, creativity, human fallibility, and the stubborn pursuit of quality work. Rogowski tells his life story of how he became a craftsman and how years of persistent work have taught him patience, resilience, tolerance for failure, and a love of pursuing beauty and mastery for its own sake.
Part autobiography, part guide to creativity, and part guide to living,
is a book for craftspeople, artists, and anyone who seeks clarity, purpose, and creativity in their work -- and it's the perfect antidote to a modern world that thinks human labor is obsolete.