Rising Stars: Meet Thomas Tusano

Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Tusano.

Hi Thomas, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
No Problem, as stated my name is Thomas Tusano, and I’m a Woodworker and Maker, focused on Nerdery. I escaped into fantasy when I was young, incredibly often. I had outlets through Music, woodwork, metalwork, and even video games.Through my young adulthood I found myself in various workshops dedicating time to every one of those passions, because I wanted to bring objects from stories to life.

I specialize in “Nerdery”. I enjoy making when the thematic of a project leans heavily into Pulp and Pop Culture. Sci-fi, Fantasy, Comic books, Video games, I make for Nerds. My design process sees me borrow from Industrial stylings and I like to call what I make “Tavernwares” or things that look at home in a farmhouse or Irish pub. Some of my biggest inspirations are epic sagas and philosophical thought pieces in video games and modern media such as Destiny, Disco Elysium, Sea of Thieves, and Hades.

From cutting boards that’ll last as a family heirloom, to desks and tables that will see game nights, date nights and late nights. If you’ve got something that requires atmosphere, I’ll make it drip with that aesthetic. It’s what I love, and it comes from being unequivocally and unabashedly obsessed with translating what I love into something that will be used and appreciated by others.

I’m not perfectly absolved of only nodding to these things in my work, but I find when I’m more honest about what I took and from where people tend to be more receptive to what makes me excited about the piece. I lean into that excitement and let it lead me, rather than letting myself be ashamed to be called a “Nerd” or a “know-it-all”, it’s only something I’ve recently grown proud of.

I think most people tend to shy away from what they identify with. They want to make subtle nods; they want to “borrow the gestalt” of the inspiration for fear of making something that needs to appease a lawyer or avoid judgment from the gatekeeping crowd. But I want people to see the work I do and realize, “He loves this just as much and as honestly as I do… that’s really admirable.”

I don’t think setting myself apart is necessary so long as I’m being more honest with Who I am. It’s been strongly proven people will seek me out for simple being and doing what I love.

Non-answers aside, I think it’s the fact that I’m not shy about being a dynamic and full-faceted human being, rather than simply “An Artist, A Maker” or whatever else. Social media wants you to niche down what you love into a simple label or hashtag, I’m a fully-fledged person attempting to spread the joy I have for doing that given thing. Mostly Woodwork, but also Streaming the aforementioned games with friends most of the time.

I started in Making early in life, but that got accelerated in High School. I was relegated away from “traditional” classes due to my grades, and landed in Small Engines, Metal Fabrication and Woodshop. My shop teachers often asked the other staff at my school why they had any trouble getting me to focus. I was a leader in the shop class, and often came up with suggestions and methods that were safer and smarter than whatever trouble my classmates leaned into, or at the very least was excited about the lessons.

I wasn’t only an outcast at school, when I went home, things weren’t easy. My father was a well-known politician in my hometown and kept a strict ship with little margin for error on anyone’s part. Wrangling two sons, alongside his own personal demons proved to leave him with little patience and the question of “Why can’t you do what you’re told?” When it came to my flights of fancy and creative thinking. I never saw eye to eye with him, unless it came to matters of buckling down and “Eating” the day’s frog or elephant.

My maternal grandfather became my teacher and hero. My mother and grandmother would encourage me and offer everything they could to push me in mastering my craft. And so, I became a Woodworker, or I should say, I decided I had become a Woodworker. I bounced from job to job, pizza delivery to pushing brooms in the shops of other woodworkers. Until I began to figure out my own path, a path that led me to Michigan.

Growing up south of Boston, and the winterized skeleton of the Cape, we were wrongly taught “Hey, at least we’re not Detroit ” and eventually all these weird happenings led to me moving to Michigan. When I saw southeast Michigan, I saw culture and potential. I wanted to carve out a miniscule chunk of the Mitten for myself and make a business from reclaimed materials and items from the stories I grew up with. It would start with a spark and long hours in the shop, and it’s been growing slowly ever since.

I attended Lawrence Tech to study the idea of Agency through Craft, and the effects on self-esteem. I got caught up in the Maker Movement, decided my brand was in “Nerdery” and wore my heart on my sleeve.

The Second half of all this. Is now. The here and now. I’m constantly building, rebuilding, researching, working on my company and my craft, hanging up my shingle and laying out what I love for others to see. That’s anything I call Nerdery. If it can drive a hyperfocus for someone or inspire devotion, I’ll happily find a way to make that focus and aspect of their life even just a degree more enjoyable.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge is, quite literally, getting out of bed in the morning, because honestly, even if I love what I do, and who I’m becoming, it’s hard to convince myself that the world does. So, I just decided to do it for myself and turn it into a habit.

I’ve dealt with so much conflict, both inner and outer. I’m healing now, but years and years felt lacking of affirmation, love, and connection, and felt more in line with dissonance and isolation. I’ve struggled with mental illness; paying attention, disassociation, self-esteem, and motivation. You name it, I probably found some sort of trouble with it. Save substances. I somehow dodged that family curse. (Okay… caffeine would beg otherwise, but that just makes me jittery and slightly faster.) My mental health is what it boils down to.

The thing that I’ve simultaneously been the most aware of and yet the factor that I’m just now starting to understand. I learned the difference between “hearing” and “listening” or “knowing” vs “understanding” real slow, and it turns out it’s kept very important opportunities from me before. Making an effort to be better is all I can do now.

That and having some amazing friends, family, and a more than patient significant other to help while I work on being the most memorable “Muppet-like” joy-spreading Maker I can be.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Right now? I’m focused on making my space and surroundings more organized and enjoyable, because as I offer my services to others, I find that I’m more refreshed to get to work if I came from a place of inspiration.

I’ve run into the Cobbler’s Conundrum (The Cobbler’s kids have no shoes?) I don’t have a desk that I’ve made myself, as a woodworker! How weird is that! So Recently my work has been focused on solving that problem to make my “Forever Desk” from some reclaimed maple beams that came from a shipping yard in Downtown Detroit.

That project has me excited because it’s a not only for me, because I had enough material to make two! So a very close friend of mine is getting one as well, made from the material, literally cut from the same tree. It’s exciting and a cool synergy to have something that close be such an important fixture in the life of someone that means a lot to me.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
The most interesting answer would be the Spitballers. It sounds crazy to say it out loud, I have a group of friends and fellow artists who cheer on my efforts, who commission each other for art, and have weekly impromptu session of “Everyone is in voice chat; let’s sit with each other as we play games or create” I’ve known them for going on 7 years now. At least, it seems like that long, if not longer.

Functionally however, I wouldn’t also be here without the help of my mother, who put a tool in my hands at a young age and made me an apprentice for several years before letting me loose on Making and Woodworking. There’s also my grandmother and grandfather, whose pride in me has been priceless, even when it’s tested from me making honestly avoidable mistakes. And my significant other who’s been key in enabling all my bad habits, including but not limited to overworking myself in the shop and nearly Dionysian-level flights of fancy and creativity.

I focus a disproportionate amount of energy on the communities and philosophies that have saved my bacon in clutch moments or key turning points in my career, such as MakerWorks in Ann Arbor. They’ve been instrumental in giving me the infrastructure I’ve needed to start my journey in earnest and have done so for countless others.

If you’ve never heard of a Makerspace, I’m not gonna spoil the discovery of one for you; go out right now and take a tour, ask about what they do, or look up videos online; I promise, it won’t be a waste of your night learning about the kind of magic they make, and they help others make.

I do have to say that when it comes to support, I don’t think I’d be where I am without all of them working in tandem to allow me to climb to where I have and know each of them is going to be instrumental in where I want to go with my career, because, well, I do it for them and my gift to them is to stand on top of the world for them to witness.

There’s one parting phrase I’d like to give to those who read this far, that I’ve carried with me as a motto, that I try to remember. My Symbols are a crossed Battle-Axe and a Railroad tie hammer, and I call out the specifics for a reason. As I started woodworking making Guitars, or “Axes” and my Great Grandfather came from Japan to work the Railroads as a Camp Chef and Quartermaster. To me, Those tools have the Phrases of “Forge Ahead, and Follow Through” attached. Meaning “Make good on your words” and “Do what is Right, even when arduous, continue even when you think you can’t.

Pricing:

• Cutting Boards – 65 to 250, based on size
• Furniture Design and Consultation By Appt
• Keepsake boxes $55 – $125 (depending on size)
• Coffee Tables and Benches 150 to 300 (Depending on Size)

Contact Info:

• Website: tusanotradingco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tusanotradingco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TusanoTradingCo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TusanoTradingCo
• Other: TikTok @thom_tusano

Image Credits
Thomas Tusano
Makerworks Ann Arbor