Following his eighth grade shop class dream

Robert Shefner feels like he’s following a trail of breadcrumbs into his second career, as the path is being laid out in front of him.

He retired from the military at 41 to follow his dream of becoming a woodworker, and now that he’s branching out into his own studio space, he feels like he’s watching his long-held plans come together.

“Eighth grade shop class is what got me hooked on woodworking,” Shefner said. “I still have my certificate of outstanding craftsmanship. You know, the bachelor’s degree I have, whatever. The commissioning documents from the Army, whatever, I don’t care about that. My certificate from eighth grade woodshop? I care about that.”

Shefner began planning his career at 18 years old, and envisioned it long before then.

He knew he wanted to be in the military so he could independently fund his dream of living on a small farm and creating.

“I can’t not make things,” he said.

Like most artists, if left to his own devices, Shefner would pile up creations around himself. Sometimes they’d be beautiful elaborate furniture pieces like a Pembroke gaming table styled in the turn of the 18th century with elaborate inlays and turned legs in mahogany, or sometimes they’d be hand smoked and cured meats.

So opening his business, Arieus Woodworks, has been a vision for his life for a long time.

“I don’t know where I’m going,” Shefner said. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I have plans, but …”

Shefner graduated from the North Bennet Street School in Boston in December of 2020, and moved back to Coeur d’Alene to create. People have commissioned pieces of furniture from him out of a small corner of The Joinery, a studio he leased from the owner, Paul Pidskalny.

“He would watch and ask questions, and I would watch and ask him questions,” Pidskalny said. “He did a lot of turnings, a lot of handwork. He’s really good at working with hand tools and his hands.”

The space was small and tight, and didn’t allow him to build larger-scale projects, but it provided Shefner an opportunity to work with a classically trained woodworker who graduated from his alma mater in the 1970s and has been woodworking since.

“It was a fantastic opportunity for me to think of Paul as a mentor,” Shefner said.

Pidskalny and Shefner both learned traditional woodworking styles and skills from the oldest trade school in the country, Pidskalny said.

In his corner of The Joinery, Shefner has created anything from a baby rattle to a wine cellar, and anything in between to sell at local market nights. His style ranges broadly, but is always founded in solid craftsmanship.

“I want to make generational pieces of furniture, pieces that you can pass down to your children and grandchildren," Shefner said.

He is also driven by getting children involved in woodworking, and sharing his passion.

“I am a full-on addict, there is no 12-step program for woodworking," Shefner said. "And I am trying to create as many other addicts as I can.”

At the city market nights in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden, Shefner planes small curls of wood called spills and gets kids to make them. He creates handfuls of the small shaved-wood corkscrews, which were used as matches or paper to carry and move fire.

Shefner watches children’s eyes light up in the hope of encouraging them to build and create.

“I think he could probably teach,” Pidskalny said.

Shefner graduated from the market nights and his small corner of a studio to open his own space in November. Selling woodworks sustains his business, and in his new space he can expand and gain experience to become a master.

“In an ideal world, I would make whatever I want to make and stick it outside the front door, someone would buy it and I’d have a pile of money left behind,” Shefner said.

But he’s experimenting with the most-effective ways to manage his customers and production, now that he’s reached the next level.

“There’s also a fun part of sitting down with a client and kind of figuring out how they live their life, and then building the piece of furniture to fit that lifestyle,” Shefner said.

He’s learning to balance tailored pieces with a curated collection to meet the needs of his community and develop his business.

“I don’t want to be so hoity-toity artistic that I can’t pay my rent,” he said. “I don’t really like the starving part of starving artist.”

Shefner spends a lot of time in his new space, building workbenches and setting up his shop to maximize his capabilities. He’s organizing, streamlining and designing to be the most productive.

“I’m still going to do the market nights,” Shefner said. “I love the market nights — the people and the community — so I’m always going to do that.”