Old California Designs Supports New Southern California Workforce

by Michele Liu July 19, 2024 in Community Builders, Partnerships

If you have lovingly restored an old Craftsman home, with its dark wood, stained glass, and hand-crafted built-in cabinets, chances are you’re not going to shop for light fixtures at Home Depot.

You’ll make the pilgrimage to Old California in Orange, which individually handcrafts home goods inspired by historical design. There you’ll find lighting, rugs, mirrors, and other finishing touches, influenced by the classic architects Charles Sumner Greene and his brother Henry Mather Greene, whose designs were among the most influential within the Arts & Crafts movement, which emphasized traditional craftsmanship over increasing industrialization. 

True to the ethos of the Arts & Crafts movement, each item at Old California is hand-crafted, honoring both the object and the dignity of the labor that went into it. It is painstaking work, requiring many skilled hands. But finding those workers is increasingly challenging, according to Joshua Scheide, Old California’s art director.

“People come into the factory lacking confidence and foundational skills,” he says. “Training is a big gap for us. Certain jobs turn over a lot.”

Overseas manufacturing is not an option. “Customers want hand-crafted, individual design,” says Scheide. And Old California, a 30-year-old family-owned company currently run by the second generation, wouldn’t consider it. So they looked for organizations to support that would help train the kind of skilled craftspeople they were looking to hire.

They found Would Works through its social media posts. A non-profit social enterprise, Would Works provides job training in woodworking for people with high barriers to employment. Instagram posts showed artisans learning to make cutting boards, trays, stools, and patio furniture in its Downtown LA workshop, using equipment donated by Shaper Origin, ShopBot, and Lee Valley.

Old California reached out. “Within a couple of conversations we thought ‘This is it, this is a perfect partnership,’” says Scheide. “They share our commitment to building confidence and skills. These are the kinds of changes we want to support.”

For Would Works executive director Michele Liu, it was an opportunity to challenge the artisans, many of whom were dealing with housing insecurity, disabilities, or involvement with the justice system. And it was an opportunity to broaden the market for Would Works’ hand-crafted wooden housewares, the sales of which supported the program.

They started to work together to develop a capsule collection that Old California could offer to customers on its website. It had to reflect the design elements that appealed to Old California’s audience, and it had to be something that Would Works’ artisans could achieve.

It took several sketches and meetings to hit on the right design. “We decided to lean into the classic Greene & Greene ‘cloudlift’ detail that is prevalent in all their designs,” says Liu. Kind of a squared arch, it’s a frequent Greene & Greene detail.

And it provided the right level of challenge for the artisans. “A lot of simple designs are complicated to execute,” says Liu. “This is more advanced than our regular product line. It stepped things up for our artisans.”

The artisans learned how to work on a ShopBot CNC and Shaper Origin, a handheld digital router newly donated by these companies. The experience provided important digital fabrication skills that will help qualify them for jobs in a manufacturing industry that requires both hand skills and comfort with technology. 

“This project has been a little different; there are more processes we have to go through,” said artisan Robert McLaurin, who has been with WouldWorks for six months. “It’s more work but it’s more fun because we get to use a variety of machines and we’re learning something new.”

McLaurin loves the exposure to woodworking. “I’m into art, and learning how to make useful stuff is a good skill to have in life.”

The Would Works and Old California capsule collection includes coasters, cutting boards, and a magnetic knife rack, all priced around $100, available online at oldcalifornia.com.

“With this capsule collection our customers can accessorize their home with functional, historically inspired art,” says Scheide. “The fact that their purchase also helps them support someone learning a new skill is the cherry on top.”

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* Products are available exclusively through Old California's web store now!

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