Popular Woodworking Welcomes 'The Wood Whisperer'

Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick grabbed our magazine’s digital camera and told Marc “The Wood Whisperer” Spagnuolo to hold still for a photograph.

“I need to take a headshot,” she announced.

“So do I,” replied Marc, as he lifted up his video camera and pointed it at Megan.

For a few short moments they stood there with their cameras pointed at one another. Then I told them to “take this outside.” They did.

On Monday morning, Marc and his wife/business partner/camera operator, Nicole, visited the Popular Woodworking‘s editorial offices to shoot video footage of us working in the shop and plowing through more than a dozen doughnuts, which Senior Editor Glen Huey brought in.

Marc is the host of the very popular web site thewoodwhisperer.com, which offers scads of free instructional woodworking videos, shop tours, audio programs about woodworking and links to other like-minded woodworking sites.

He’s also our newest contributor. Starting in the August 2008 issue, Marc will be writing a column in every issue on a woodworking technique, which we have cleverly titled “The Wood Whisperer.” In addition to the written column, Marc will be posting a video on our site at popularwoodworking.com/video that will show that technique in action.

During Marc and Nicole’s visit, we forced them to sit through our Monday morning staff meeting (which is really a doughnut-eating contest in disguise), then we headed into the shop to shoot video. After a quick tour of the shop, they interviewed Bob about the project he’s working on for the August issue, and they chatted with Glen about his woodworking. Both video pieces should appear on his site in the future (assuming they can get some of the profanity bleeped out).

Glen also shot some video of Marc and Nicole, then we went to my house and shop, where I gave them a tour of some of my personal work and my small workshop.

Most of all, the day was a great excuse to get to know more about Marc and Nicole, who represent the vanguard of where woodworking instruction is headed this century.

Marc, 31, is from Trenton, N.J., and studied biotech in college. After graduation, he headed out to San Diego for work and met Nicole when she answered an advertisement for a roommate to share an apartment. They’ve been together ever since.

When they moved out to Temecula, Calif., they bought their first house and it needed some work. One table saw and a flooring project later, Marc become hooked on the craft. Well, obsessed might be a better word , that’s the word he uses.

His interest in the craft deepened when he encountered David Mark’s cable program “Wood Works.” Marc eventually studied with Marks in his Santa Rosa, Calif., studio and then opened his own custom woodworking shop in Phoenix, Ariz.

From there, it was short hop to take everything Marc learned , and his enthusiasm for teaching it , to the Internet, where he launched thewoodwhisperer.com.

If you don’t know Marc yet, I encourage you to scoot over to his site and take a look at some of the excellent content there. Watch a few videos (they are well done and Marc’s a funny guy) and listen to one of his broadcasts of Wood Talk Online with buddy Matt Vanderlist. Or just browse through his blog.

And watch this space for more on The Wood Whisperer. Once we get some of our video edited, we’ll post that on our video player.

– Christopher Schwarz