Since he was preteen, Brian Bland has spent most of his spare time working with wood. He knew he was hooked when, at 12 years old, his Christmas list included a router. “I wasn’t even sure what it was,” he said with a laugh.
The Brookhaven resident kept adding to his hardware collection as he honed his skill. In the 1990s, while working at Wolf Camera, Bland met many artists who hired him to work on various projects. “I wound up making enough money to buy tools, so it was a hobby that paid for itself,” he said.
Then a casual conversation offered a new avenue for his talent. A friend told him about Skyland Trail, a Buckhead mental health nonprofit that works with adults in residential and day programs.
“I asked if by chance they had a wood shop, and it turns out they did, but they had never used it,” Bland recalled. “I’d been looking for some sort of volunteer thing to do, and that made the lights go on.”
For the last 12 years, Bland has spent Tuesday nights and part of his day off volunteering at Skyland, working with clients on a variety of woodworking projects.
“We mainly build jewelry boxes because everything in life is a box,” Bland said. “It starts from the most basic, and from there, it can get bigger and more complicated. But no matter what it is, it’s exciting the first time you build something that’s more than a couple of 2-by-4s nailed together.”
Many of Bland’s students move on to more complicated constructions. “I’ve had people build tables and little chests with drawers. Last winter, one guy built five boxes, one for each of his daughters and one for his wife. If they want to advance, I’m happy to work with them.”
Bland spends about 24 hours a month at Skyland, often doing more than working with clients. He also purchases supplies and manages a small budget for what has become the wood shop program. He hosts a pizza night once a month for current and former clients, many of whom continue to work with him after they’ve formally left treatment.
But Bland, whose day job is now restorer for a Buckhead antique firm, doesn’t see his work at Skyland as therapy.
“I like to think of it more as comic relief,” he said with a laugh. “Therapy is grueling work. Having a structured thing to work on that’s not about figuring out a deep secret is almost like meditation. Being here is really just me hanging out with people, doing what I like to do. I’m taking the love I have for woodworking and passing that along.”
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