Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Anderson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story starts when I was 8 years old visiting my grandpa for the summer. I was first introduced to woodworking when he showed me and my brother how to build a birdhouse from scratch. To me this was more than just a birdhouse – it was showing me the potential of what I can do with my own hands. That summer we constructed the birdhouse and we planned on painting it when saw him next but unfortunately, he passed away from cancer before that could happen. My dad continued my passion by teaching me how to do handyman things such as roofing, electrical, tiling, etc.
Fast forward to 2014 – My wife and I are living in College Station where I am doing a year of clinical rotations to complete my doctorate in physical therapy from Harding University. We buy a fixer-upper home and completely renovate the house intending to stay in College Station. After graduation, the job hunt took me back to Waco, Texas where I was raised. I quickly jumped back into home renovation mode but that had to take a halt when my wife became pregnant and the dust that renovation made was affecting her asthma. I had to take my home renovation energy and put it elsewhere so I started to work on small furniture projects for our future children.
My first step stool was terrible but I loved it. I continued by making other things for the house and other small furniture projects for friends and family. I tend to get bored if I do the same thing too much so I wanted to try something different. A friend turned me to trying to sell some of the pens I had been making at the Waco Downtown Farmers Market. I needed a name for my business if I was going to sell there and I decided on C323 Woodworking. C323 is based off of Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as for working for the Lord…” I felt this scripture described how I wanted my work ethic and where my passion should be.
At my first market, I didn’t do well but I met a lot of great people including the other vendors who were all very interesting and very passionate people. The other vendors have been a great encouragement to me over the years as well as mentors to on how to better hone my craft and improve my display. I continue my passion with working with my hands making pens, lazy Susans, cheeseboards, and serving boards as my personal therapy. My full-time job I am a physical therapist at Compleo Physical therapy where I do manual therapy working with many of my patients with chronic conditions.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not. Being a business owner, I have learned that not only do you just make a product and sell it but there are so many behind-the-scenes things to do. You have to be a web designer, accountant, marketing, research and development, secretary, production, as well as be a dad & work a full-time job.
The biggest struggle was when my wife caught COVID; it hit her hard since she has history of asthma. At the time we were fostering three kids along with having two kids of our own. We had 5 kids under 5 and I was drowning without our star player (my wife). The foster kids were able to go back to their parents after being with us for 7 months but it took over a year before my wife made a full recovery from post-COVID symptoms.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
If I could say I have one specialty it would be my resin work. I started with doing resin pours into voids of wood and it eventually progressed to resin & wood cheeseboards, serving boards, and lazy Susans.
Most resin pours that you see on the internet is poured all at once and they let it set. On many of my projects, I do a multi-layer pour that gives the board a 3D look to it while still being able to see the end-grain of the wood.
How do you define success?
Success to me is not just making a couple of sales but meeting people who can appreciate the craftsmanship or who share the same kind of passion in their own area. I have met so many other great vendors & artists that appreciate the amount of work I put into my projects.
Pricing:
- Cheeseboards 45-65$
- Serving boards 100-125$
- Lazy susans 75-125$
- Flowers in resin wall art – $100
Contact Info:
- Website: www.C323Woodworking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c323woodworking
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/C323woodworking/
Image Credits
Amelia Nolan
Jason Nitsch
