Overview
Fernwood Cottage is more than a business for us ~ it’s our way of life. We believe that useful things can also be beautiful things. Inspired by the historic Arts & Crafts Movement, & looking for a new way to approach life, we started down a path to consciously simplify. As we built our homesteading life, we often couldn’t find just that “right thing” for our needs. We looked back at some of the tools our Yankee predecessors used & thought: “I wish I could have something like that now!” Thus, many of the things we make at Fernwood Cottage were brought to life for our own use first. Now, we’re hoping to make them for others.
Kevin Cooper is a master cabinetmaker, with a career spanning more than 35 years. He discovered his passion for working with wood early. Determined to learn traditional furniture-making techniques he honed his craft for nearly 12 years with Thomas Moser Cabinetmakers, specializing in difficult projects requiring creative design solutions & detailed hand-crafting. While raising his young family, Kevin launched his own line of products as K E Cooper Woodworks. Working for years on his own line, he looked forward to the day that he could have the ability to touch the entire creative process from “tree to table”. Fernwood Cottage is the culmination of that dream. Kevin manages & sustainably harvests Fernwood Cottage’s woods. Acting as his own sawyer, he also rough mills our wood stock. Then, the artisan in him takes over. Kevin uses many different traditional cabinetmaking techniques from steam-bending to crafting with antique hand gouges to create beautiful wooden cottage~wares to be used & loved for many years to come.
Lisa Cooper has focused her life on education, communication, raising kids, & trying to slow down. Firmly believing that slowing down is best accomplished with a nice cup of tea & a fancy tea cup, life, as lived at Fernwood Cottage, entails a sit-down cup of tea each day. More than a decade ago, Lisa plunged into the world of homesteading as a way of life. She began learning many new (old) skills that weren’t necessarily taught in college. Fernwood Cottage brings together Lisa’s professional skills, homesteading skills, & creative problem solving in a way that allows her to share the joy that living a simple, self-sufficient life can bring. Lisa enthusiastically grows an herbal tea garden, along with culinary & medicinal herbs, a heavenly fruit orchard, & as much of the homestead’s own food as possible. Along with running the operations side of Fernwood Cottage, she can be found alongside Kevin, applying a finishing touch to things from the workshop.
Our Products Are Available At The Locations Below
Lisa Marie's Made in Maine - Bath & Portland, ME
Full Circle Artisan Gallery - Cornish, ME