![]() Timber framing is a method of construction that has ancient roots. “It was on that property that I had seen, for the first time that I can remember, an actual timber-framed barn.” Despite the value Jiménez found in all he was learning about building furniture, he became fascinated with a different type of craftsmanship on Langsner’s small farm. He gleaned not only an appreciation for the craft itself but a working knowledge of the amazing range of skills required. I was like, ‘Wait, what? You can design and build these beautiful things with nothing but hand planes and chisels and rasps?’” It was an enlightening experience for him: “That was really my first experience and introduction to fine woodworking and using hand tools. He found an opportunity to intern with master chair builder Drew Langsner in the mountains of Marshall, North Carolina. Jiménez knew there had to be a way to pursue a practical art in a way that was respectful of the natural world. We were trying to create a super highly insulated, highly impermeable house, which sounds like what you want, but really that’s the worst thing you can do. ![]() We’re not paying attention to the techniques. We aren’t really paying attention to what kind of stuff we’re putting in the house. “We called ourselves a green building company, and yet we were still basically doing the exact same thing that every other construction company does. While he was able to learn the basics of construction, he was dismayed to see the vast amount of waste headed for the landfill, among other practices he felt were out of line with his respect for the environment. In pursuit of his own pair of “workin’ hands,” Jiménez joined a framing crew for a “sustainable” construction company. Workin’ hands, you know? I don’t know what it was about them, but I was kind of jealous of them.” I remember growing up, I would look at his hands, and they were always really rough and torn and calloused. ![]() I was always surrounded by the things that he had built. He worked his way up from being a night janitor to being one of the lead welders up until his passing. “I felt like I wasn’t able to tap into a creative side of me that I’d been feeling,” he says. As enjoyable as this work was, he began to feel called toward something different. Photo by Nat Crewe, courtesy of José JiménezĪfter graduating in 2011, Jiménez traveled around the country, including stints in Alaska and Arizona, before returning to Asheville to work with a company that provided outdoor experiences to children with learning disabilities. I know why you decided to take this career path, and I approve.” Years later, when Jiménez had graduated and invited his father on a backpacking trip in Appalachia to celebrate, his father saw the gorgeous expanse and finally understood: “Okay. He was like, ‘Why don’t you just go and become a lawyer or a doctor, you could be this, you could be that….’ I just didn’t want to do that.” So it was a little weird to them when I was like, ‘So, I think I'm going to go and get a degree in outdoor leadership.’ My dad was the hardest to convince. I would see them really busting their butts to put food on the table and send us to the private school where they felt like we were able to get the best education. “My mom was one of six kids, who she helped raise. “My dad grew up as a migrant farmer, so as soon as he was seventeen or eighteen, he joined the Navy to get out of South Texas,” Jiménez says. It was a decision met with skepticism from guidance counselors and family members. This new direction pointed him toward Warren Wilson College near Asheville, North Carolina, where he could earn a degree in outdoor leadership. He was so struck by the expanse and the power of nature that he decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life immersed in the natural environment. The summer before his senior year, that path shifted when he visited the Yukon Territory with the National Outdoor Leadership School. José Jiménez began his journey into the world of the building arts by falling in love with places where buildings don’t exist.Ī native of Houston, Texas, Jiménez was a good student in high school and expected to take the conventional path to a four-year university.
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