Brian Lair on WNYC.

So have you found a hobby yet during this membership drive all through the drive?

We've been ending the show by featuring some of the ways that people

spend time learning new stuff and finding common interests with other folks fascinated by

activities like knitting. We did knitting on day one. Stamp collecting. We did that yesterday.

And birding. Today we're exploring another craft woodworking with my guest, Robin Mierswa,

owner and founder of Makeville Studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Hey, Robin, thanks for coming on today.

Welcome to WNYC.

Hi, Ryan. It's a total pleasure. Thank you.

So how did you get started with woodworking?

Well, it's a hobby. I've had my whole life. I've had

different careers and always done woodworking kind of in the background. And about 15 years ago,

I just thought, let's take this to the next level and make it a business. And make it a business.

What's your business? Yeah, so Makeville Studio is a community shop. Think of like a

maker space type situation. And we also teach woodworking classes. So, you know, it's a place where people can

come and, you know, have access to a lot of very big, expensive equipment or not very much money.

Was it unusual for a girl to be into woodworking when you started this?

I guess so. I never really thought about it. But yeah, you know, I guess that was not encouraged.

You know, we couldn't do shop class and things like that. But I always loved building things. And I kind of grew up with a little shop in our basement because my dad was pretty handy and did a lot of work, like renovating and stuff. So I was exposed to it early. Uh-huh. Where was that? So I grew up in D.C. Mm-hmm. But even in D.C., you had a basement where you could do woodworking.

Well, exactly, and I think that's what's so interesting about New York.

You know, I moved here 25 years ago, and I'm just like, where do people do this kind of work?

You need a lot of money and a lot of space to do it.

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