KAYU ARTISAN: Successful aging through an age-old craft
Woodworking at this workshop brought purpose, community and joy to seniors’ lives. We find out why it has worked so well.
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A soft drill grinds in the background as the smell of freshly cut wood wafts past your nostrils. As you walk in, you see a wide array of tools on the wall, with Kayu Artisan emblazoned proudly on the walls.
Mr Simon, as he is affectionately known in the centre, introduces his latest project, a wooden fence for the flower pots around Goodlife Studio (Bukit Purmei).
Another member, Mr Chan, has been part of Goodlife Studio since it started two years ago. This is an Active Ageing Centre (AAC) operated by Montfort Care, one of the government’s initiatives to encourage seniors to age well in the community.
But it’s being done with a twist. Goodlife Studio has a woodworking studio called Kayu Artisan. At first, you might wonder: woodworking? Wouldn’t seniors find that quite challenging? As it turned out, the difficulty isn’t the main issue faced by seniors.
Montfort Care’s founder, Mr Samuel Ng, chanced upon such a woodworking studio abroad and thought it would be a good idea to trial in Singapore. He had noticed that despite the increasing number of AACs around Singapore, older men were not too keen to join it. Instead, they would often sit at void decks, or ‘la kopi’ (drink coffee) at the nearby kopitiam, before heading home at about eight in the evening.
Men talk shoulder to shoulder
Research validated his theory. Sociologists had noticed that men, because of their more independent nature, were less interested in talking ‘face to face’, but more in working ‘shoulder to shoulder’. Whilst women often enjoyed sitting across each other, chatting whilst looking into each other’s eyes, men would find that somewhat uncomfortable.
Surgeon-General Dr Vivek Murthy pointed this out in his book ‘Together’, where he noted the increase in the number of men who were struggling with loneliness. He observed the rise of Men’s Sheds, a movement that started in Australia to provide woodworking and gardening activities to the community, and more specifically, men.
Woodworking was a way for men to spend time with other men, working together in silence. They would quietly enjoy each other’s company, sip some water, before going back to drilling their bits of wood. Yet in that silence, they found companionship, community, and a greater sense of connection.
Starting out at Kayu Artisan
That is why places like Kayu Artisan have been welcomed by the community. Two years ago, Mr Chan was walking past the HDB blocks when he observed the previous childcare centre had shut down. Major renovations began at the void deck. A few months later, he saw that Goodlife Studio had taken its place.
He saw a poster about the woodworking workshops, and walked in to ask about it. He was amongst the pioneer batch who was sent to learn from Triple Eyelid Studio, located in Ang Mo Kio. After they were trained to use the drill and saw, they were assigned their first woodworking project: putting a stool together.
That occupied them for weeks, as they learnt the slow art of woodworking. They learnt to saw the wood, sand down its rough edges, and finally put it all together.
Finally, they graduated. Mr Chan became a volunteer teacher in the woodworking studio, assisting the Carpentry Trainer, Ridley, as more seniors came by to learn the craft.
Intentionally building relationships
Ms Liew Zi Qi, Centre Lead at Goodlife Studio (Bukit Purmei), remarked that it has been encouraging to find members like Mr Chan intentionally build a deeper sense of community with other men in the group. “Even though he has the tools at home, he still comes down to do his work at this Carpentry Studio.”
She shared that when the Carpentry Studio started two and a half years ago, it was initially difficult to get seniors to join the workshop. Some of them preferred to do their own activities. Others thought woodworking felt too much like working again, which they were not too keen to do after retirement.
But Ms Liew and her team decided to press on, starting the initial run with just a handful of older men. Slowly, through word of mouth, and the positive experiences that these earlier participants had, more men came to join the activities.
From woodworking to chair-making
Most importantly, these woodworking skills have given people like Mr Chan a deeper sense of purpose and meaning. That afternoon, Mr Chan showed me the chairs he built from scratch.
He explained,
“I was trying to understand: What gives a chair its character?
So I went to study different chairs, how they were made, and why they were made that way.”
From that study, he started planning his own chair. He showed me the math he had to do to calculate the angles to fit the legs into the seat, so that the chair would not collapse under his weight.
“I didn’t have the equipment to steam the wood and bend the spindles. So I had to make a straight back.”
His eyes sparkle as he scrolls through the pictures in his phone. You realise that this is not just a question of how to make a chair, but about gently exploring the limits of what he can do with his hands. As we age, we find that what was once doable no longer is. And yet amidst those limits, we find new ways of working, and creating.
Eventually, after 3 months of hard work, he put together his own chair from wood pieces he found around the neighbourhood.
I suggested to him that he might want to sell it, but he shakes his head, saying, “I do this just to enjoy the process.”
Indeed, woodworking is a useful metaphor for active aging. Whilst woodworking can seem slow, and ‘old-fashioned’, the gentle process of crafting new furniture from old wood shows that ‘old can still be gold,’ as long as we are patient with it.
Furthermore, this active process of learning, and initiating one’s own projects, has been a way for seniors to find their own new ways of contributing, rather than being passive beneficiaries.
Mr Simon’s completed fences already adorn the nearby flowerpots, and more will come as he completes his next batch of fences. Mr Chan has shared his woodworking skills with the newer men that walk through the doors, patiently guiding them through the basics of woodworking.
No community or initiative will ever be perfect for each unique resident. But as Mr Chan reminds us, woodworking is a process. And similarly, community-building will always be a work-in-progress, never fully complete. But if we all make the effort to step out of our comfort zones, we can, and will, build a more friendly, happy, and healthy neighbourhood.
Keen to join Kayu Artisan for hands-on activities like woodworking? Drop by Block 108 Bukit Purmei Rd #01-105 S090108 every Thursday, 2pm to 5pm, to find out more.
