If you call Bonnie Hawk, she may well be caning a chair when she answers the phone. “My grandpa used to cane chairs,” she says, “so I feel like he’s with me.” About her childhood in Baltimore, she explains, “Craft was a huge way of life in our household. Making things was a pastime we shared. Mom did sewing, Dad was a turner and whittler, Grandpa did furniture repair. My parents have been giving me tools for my birthday and Christmas since I was five.”

Hawk might have been primed for a career in crafts, but instead she got a master of divinity and became an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church. It was on a sabbatical from pastoring that she took her first woodworking class, a week at the Austin School of Furniture. “That got me the bug,” she says, “and I went back for the three-month intensive.” Soon after, she took the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship’s nine-month program, which she describes as “an absolute treasure trove of mentors—a chorus of witnesses and inspirations.”

While at CFC she heard that the U.S. National Toboggan Championships would be held nearby. She and her husband decided to compete, so she built a toboggan in the CFC shop. On a frigid February weekend, they and hundreds of other teams took the 10-second, 40-mph ride down a wooden track and across a frozen pond. They won the trophy—not for the fastest time, but for the best toboggan.

Rocked and woven.

Porch swings are a passion for Bonnie Hawk, and she’s made indoor and outdoor versions. “It’s a quintessential American furniture form,” she says. “I want to bring the porch swing back.” The woven-ash door panels on her chest of drawers were inspired by woven work by Heide Martin.

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