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Articles

All documents used with permission

Fine Woodworking

For articles, please see “Press.” I also write a monthly post for the “Pro’s Corner” blog.

Profiles of woodworkers for Lost Art Press

“Little Acorns” series

Furniture & Cabinetmaking Magazine

Stanley Webb Davies (F&C270, May 2018)

Decorative carving in the Stanley Webb Davies style (F&C270, May 2018)

The Hoosier Cabinet and the making of the modern woman (F&C274, September 2018)

Behind closed doors: the history of the Wooton desk (F&C273, August 2018)

Popular Woodworking

A Woodworker’s Guide to Custom Cabinets (#239, June 2018)

5 Tricky Hinges (April 2018)

8 Common Hinges (February 2018)

American Bungalow

Harris Lebus: Arts and Crafts Style for the Trade (PDF)

Bringing Back Stinesville (PDF)

Miracle on South Dunn Street (PDF)

Old-House Interiors (now merged with Old-House Journal)

Essay: Money Well Spent (PDF)

Essay: On Matters of Taste (PDF)

Essay: Wedded to Place (PDF)

Cherished by Edie (PDF)

Essay: Women and Their [Sp]ouses

Arts & Crafts Homes and the Revival

Edgar Miller and the Carl Street Studios

Replica Kitchen for a Tudor House (PDF)

Old-House Journal

Period Collaboration (PDF)

Popular Woodworking

8 Common Hinges 

5 Tricky Hinges (PWM#239 June 2018)

Bloom Magazine

The Life and Legacy of T.C. Steele, Indiana’s Foremost Painter

Linda Chapman of Harvest Moon Flower Farm (PDF)

Margaret Weymouth Jackson, the Sage of Spencer, Indiana (PDF)

Rachel Peden Rediscovered (PDF)

The Life and Times of Mary Agnes Conard (PDF)

Eva Kor of Terre Haute (PDF)

Maple Grove Road: Take a Ride Back in Time (PDF)

A Farm Where the Buffalo Roam (PDF)

Preserving Our Past: In Praise of Bloomington Restorations (PDF)

A Green Love Affair (PDF)

Huffington Post

On images of women and work

The House that Saved Me

Other writing

Foreword to Indiana University Press edition of Rachel Peden’s The Land, the People

After you read a piece of writing by Nancy Hiller, you notice that you occupy the world a little differently. Your eyes look longer at the eave. Your palm lingers longer on that table. You ask an extra question to the woman rocking on the front porch. This is writing that encourages perception for the sake of knowing where you live–your kitchen, your house, your community–better. From forgotten neighborhoods to a banister’s curve, Hiller takes the time to look, to research, and to convey her subject’s fullness.

She tracks objects from wooded forest to dinette, and while she does she also relates their social, manufacturing, gender, and visual history. Underlying her sentences is a profound ethics, arguing that knowing more about things will encourage us to treat them differently. This is a sort of preaching that comes not from knowing better, but from knowing the daily joy of experiencing more.”
—Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, History and Divinity, Yale University

“Y’know, for an author, you’re really okay.”
—Chuck Bickford, Fine Homebuilding

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nrhiller

This has been a wonderful Saturday. We slept late, This has been a wonderful Saturday. We slept late, did some work, and I spent the last couple of hours working on my latest OCD revisions of “Shop Tails.” This was Mark earlier in the day, wearing his organic probiotic stole. Will you look at those back legs?!
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#catbutt #shopcatsofinstagram #saturday
After a day of working on the current set of kitch After a day of working on the current set of kitchen cabinets in the shop, the last two hours of which I spent routing and chopping mortises for traditional butt hinges,I am putting a few finishing details on this cabinet from a project shoot for @finewoodworkingmagazine before giving it to a friend. I went to cut a piece of wood for the shelf and when I turned around, the boss was checking the interior.
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#finewoodworking #finewoodworkingmagazine #shopcat #womanownedbusiness
“Hey, put a brad in this thing before the glue d “Hey, put a brad in this thing before the glue dries. Am I the only one paying attention?!”
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#shopcatlife #supervisor #customcabinetmaker #bossy
If it’s good enough for Dolly, it’s good enoug If it’s good enough for Dolly, it’s good enough for me. I got my hair done last Friday, in a manner of speaking, thanks to a lovely local business. I still have hair, but it’s much thinner and I haven’t had it cut or highlighted since July. With the prospect of 5 more chemo infusions over the next 10 weeks, I decided it was time to take some action. More hair is destined to fall out.

I never would have imagined myself getting a wig, but one of my best friends has been wearing them since she developed alopecia. I always think her hair looks great. So instead of this being an occasion for self pity (or worse), I’m giving thanks for good-looking hair. (And for anyone wondering about the cost, this cost less than a typical trip to the hairdresser for me.)
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#hair #cancer #pancreaticcancer #glasshalffull #dolly
Kieran Binnie, I wish I had known you were struggl Kieran Binnie, I wish I had known you were struggling. For the past few weeks I have been meaning to send you a note just asking how you are. How I wish I had done so now. I will always remember you as a thoughtful, intelligent man devoted to your “best girls.” This morning many of us are wishing we’d known what you were going through and that we might have done something to help.
Tony likes the Harris Lebus-style sideboard. . . # Tony likes the Harris Lebus-style sideboard.
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#furnituremaking #gingercats #home
I saw the most amazing clouds today. . . #nofilte I saw the most amazing clouds today. 
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#nofilterneeded #indiana #cloudscape
Happy homecoming. While I love the nurses at Bloom Happy homecoming. While I love the nurses at Bloomington Hospital, I am always thrilled to get home after chemo, which lasted eight hours today if you include the time to get blood test results back from the lab. Even better is Thursday afternoon, when I get this portable pump removed.

Joey absolutely loves Spring weather. He runs outside and rolls in the grass, then takes a nap. I tried to get a picture of him rolling in the grass but he saw me with the camera and thought he might be needed in the house. He is such a caretaker, like Nana the dog in “Peter Pan.”
 
The serviceberry tree is covered in delicate white blossoms. The daffodils are wilting rapidly in the sudden heat.

And I feel like a Christmas tree! There are so many colorful parts to this line that runs from the needle in my chest, which is propped in place by world-class bandaging. It’s no fun trying to sleep with this gear attached to your body, but thankfully it only stays on for 46 hours. It doesn’t hurt. It’s just annoying and unsightly, hence my preference for thinking of it as a string of Christmas tree lights. 

What a beautiful Spring!
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#spring2021 #cancerrealities #pancreaticcancer #shopdoglife #gratefulforeveryday
My goal for the start of this kitchen was to get t My goal for the start of this kitchen was to get the carcases built and inch-thick paint-grade face frames on these cabinets before chemo tomorrow. Aside from finessing the curve on the corner cabinet, I am there. There’s still plenty to do before these can be installed: I will apply veneer tape to the bottom edges, which won’t have a face frame, screw in attachment cleats and apply the backs, then sand. At that point they will be ready to install, and I will start building doors and drawers. Slower progress than usual, but I’m happy to be back at it.
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#cabinetmaker #bungalowrenovation #customcabinetry #customcabinets #traditionalcabinetry #tradeswoman #monday
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