THE ARTISAN CHRONICLES

Across America, historic house communities are quietly slipping toward a point of no return. Windows rot. Skills disappear. Trades fragment. Well-intentioned repairs fail. And each generation loses a little more of the knowledge required to care for the homes that define their neighborhoods. What if there were a way to stop that decline—not with a one-off project, not with a temporary grant, but with a permanent, regenerating system rooted directly in the community?

Zero Competition Isn’t Just a Crisis It’s the Best Opportunity This Trade Has Had in 100 Years There’s a quiet truth that’s been sharpening for me. And I don’t think most people in the historic window world have really absorbed it yet. If there is zero competition in historic window restoration right now… That doesn’t just mean the craft is broken. It means there has never been a better time to get involved in it. Seriously

If nobody is there to stop someone from building a monopoly, why wouldn’t they build one? Why wouldn’t they expand regionally? Why wouldn’

In Window Craft, there are two workshops that are often treated as separate: Intro to Sash Making Total Window Makeover They can  be taken independently. But in practice, they were designed—through experience—to complete one another. Together, they form a full and well-rounded introduction to Window Craft, and they give a student a real advantage the moment they step into real historic window work. This post is about why. The Window as a Whole The Total Window Makeover  was d

For as long as I’ve been in the trades, I’ve heard the same phrases repeated again and again. “Good help is hard to find.” “Clients don’t understand the work.” “People won’t pay for quality.” “The next generation doesn’t care.” “The skills are disappearing.

There is a frustration shared by many people working around historic windows. Are you one of those working hard to restore historic windows? They care. They show up. They work hard. They want to help. And yet, again and again, the work feels heavier than it should. Projects drag on. Fixes don’t hold. The same problems reappear under new disguises. Effort increases while clarity and margin disappear. This frustration is often misunderstood as personal failure — not skilled eno

Across every historic neighborhood in America, the same truth quietly echoes through the cracks of peeling paint and the rattling of century-old sashes: our windows are calling out for help. And when the windows go, the rest of the house soon follows. But here’s the good news—if we save the windows, we save the community. Not just aesthetically. Not just symbolically. Literally. Historic windows are the keystones of our built heritage.

Many consider John Leeke the godfather of the modern historic window restoration movement. Long before Facebook groups and YouTube tutorials

Every historic house tells a story. Its windows—the eyes of the home—are often the first to show signs of age. Painted shut, rotting, or even replaced with vinyl, these windows can seem like a lost cause. But here’s the truth: they can be restored. And you can learn how. This fall, the Total Window Makeover Workshop is coming to the historic 1929 Hotel Seville in Harrison, Arkansas. Over the course of five days, you’ll gain hands-on experience in Window Craft—a trade that

WindowFest + WindowLympics (Oct 27–Nov 7, Harrison, AR): Two weeks of hands-on training, real-world competitions, and an artisan community built around the Five Pillars of Window Craft. Come learn. Come compete. Come belong.

Let’s talk about the Sash Factory—not just the tool itself, but the world it opens up. When used inside the framework of Window Craft, it becomes a game-changer. Sure, I can sell you a unit. You can roll it out in a field, driveway, garage—anywhere—and make a sash. But the true power of the Sash Factory doesn’t lie in its mobility. It lies in what it enables when paired with the right system, structure, and team. Not Just a Machine—A Movement Building a sash isn’t just w

From the framing crew to the pulpit, from crown moulding to window sashes, my journey wasn’t marked by clarity—but by obedience. Only now do

All the earth was a window once. That thought’s been following me—haunting me, even. Before the walls, before the shelter, before the...

How the systems meant to save our historic homes may be silently letting them rot. In the world of historic preservation, good intentions...

A reflection on calling, sacrifice, and why sacred work still matters On the side of our building, there’s a mural. At first glance, it...

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Peter’s denial of Jesus — not just the words or the act itself, but a small, piercing detail:

Not everything in life — or craftsmanship — can be measured with a ruler or captured with a chisel. Some things run deeper. Here at...

When I was in my early twenties, I started a music group. I called it Charismatic Pain. It sounded crazy to most people.

When it comes to saving historic windows, most people focus on quick fixes: patching rot, slapping on paint, or swapping in replacements

Surely every Artisan is a worker, but not every worker is an Artisan. Every Artisan indeed is a worker, but what kind of worker?