Masters of the Craft

Masters of the Craft is a collection of the best content by select notable woodworking artists from Fine Woodworking magazine curated by the editors. The first installment of the Masters series features the work and words of Nancy Hiller, who passed away in the fall of 2022. A longtime writer for FWW, Hiller grew to be a powerful voice in the craft thanks to her work as both a cabinetmaker and author. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, she transcended the constraints of traditional woodworking culture and forged her own path, which took her from the hippy communes of Miami to the high-brow halls of Cambridge to her final home of college town Bloomington in the rolling Indiana hills. There, she worked for decades creating bookcases, cabinets, furniture, and even whole kitchens for clients of all income levels in an effort to make good design affordable to all. Actor and fellow woodworker Nick Offerman called Hiller an Obi-Wan Kenobi level master of woodworking. It is fitting, then, that we kick off this series by honoring a craftsperson who elevated the art of woodworking not only through her words and work, but through her pioneering spirit and no-nonsense philosophy of creating durable, useful, beautiful work that looks just as good in an Indiana farmhouse as it does in a New York City high-rise.