Alexis: 0:02

Hello everybody and welcome to the Smoko Podcast. My name is Alexis Armstrong, your host. Nice to meet you. The Smoko Podcast is the place to celebrate and highlight women, trans women, and non-binary folk working within STEM trade occupations. And. So please come join us. Tune in, take a break. We're on Smoko. Today we're extremely likely to be joined by the lovely Marlo Tru Wiki, who is a carpenter and joinery specialist. And I had no idea what Joyner was until I met Marlo maybe a year ago. And my mind was blown about it cause I didn't know that it was an occupation. And, she, what she does is that she works on ships and she creates the internal aspects of fancy yachts and boats. So she's. Basically an all round badass and we're gonna talk all things joinery today. So thank you Marla, so much for

Marlowe: 0:44

coming on. Yeah, no worries. I'm excited to be here and support you and your endeavors, you know.

Alexis: 0:51

Thank you. I mean, I've, I freaking appreciate it. I really, really do. So thank you for coming on. I'm so excited to learn about it. I think people are gonna be so excited to learn about it. And maybe to start, because I had no idea what joinery was until like a year ago, could you kind of walk through how you discovered it, how you discovered joinery, what the field of joinery is, and then why? Was there a draw to this occupation? What did you like about it? You

Marlowe: 1:16

know what's funny is I actually, like I chuckled the, when said that you had no idea what joinery was, cuz I had no idea what joinery was either. But joinery is basically like, it's millwork, it's cabinetry, it is like all the fine finishing that you find inside homes, hospitals, recreation buildings. It's more places than you could assume that it is. So I mean, I don't really know how to explain it further than that, but it's, it's, it's woodworking. It can be really rough and it can also be extremely detailed, including. Dovetails and all that kind of stuff. It's, it's sort of broken up into two categories, I'd say like cabinet making and then joinery. And joinery is more on the side of like furniture building, whereas cabinetry is more kitchen based and, doing big wall cabinets and stuff in residential homes. Yeah, that's kind of. What it is. Hopefully that explains

Alexis: 2:19

it. No, that explains it perfectly. And I think it is this kind of like mix of carpentry and millwork and doing something really, really fine and intricate, but then also doing true Camp Andry. And how did you discover it? So that's what it is. Wow. But how was that process that you first discovered it? I

Marlowe: 2:38

don't know exactly how I stumbled around this program. It sounds ridiculous, but, when I moved out, I. Had the luxury of having a space below my suite that I could turn into a wood shop. And just with like previous schooling that I had done, I wanted for some reason to build all my furniture, which I did not do. But, I started doing woodworking on like, My time away from the job that I was working at the time, and one thing led to another, I started talking about it more and more, and actually my partner's cousin ended up kind of bullying me into getting into schooling. So it just made me look into things a little bit more. And I think somebody said to me, joinery cabinet making, and to me I was still clueless, but that's kind of how it happened. You do a little research and then it was a six month program that I enrolled for, so that's what kicked it

Alexis: 3:36

off. That's so cool and that's really cool that you just found woodworking yourself. Like I, that's a crazy project to be like, I'm gonna make every single piece of furniture in my home. Like that is a wild, a wild thing to be like, yep, I'm gonna make everything completely by scratch. But I love that you fell into it. Were you self-taught for woodworking? Was it just you watching YouTube

Marlowe: 3:59

or No, I don't spend any time on YouTube. I really should because I think it's actually a really useful tool. I just don't have the patience for it. Like my attention span just goes out the door and I can't make it through like these really long descriptions of such an easy task. But, I, I don't know. I think I just always was the girl that was helping her dad out. Oh. Doing every little project that he did. And then with, again, some previous schooling that I had done, it was, it was, it, it was a part of my 3D modeling class that we actually had wood shop and I felt pretty confident on the tools in there. So I think it all kind of somehow, Just combined and then clicked. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so I, I really don't even know where it came from myself, but everything just came together smoothly.

Alexis: 4:49

That's really cool. Yeah, it kind of just like fell into place and all of these other aspects of your life. I love that you grew up helping your dad in the shop and then that kind of came through and a 3D modeling class in woodworking in, because you were in design, right? Yeah, in internal design. Yeah. Yeah.

Marlowe: 5:05

I did like a, I did a program at Langer. It was two years. And it kind of was just like a, another foundation program that touched based, on a bunch of different aspects of design. Design. So it was, it was interiors, events, visual merchandising, graphic design loads, everything. Yeah. Yeah. We had,

Alexis: 5:25

I think anything designed based.

Marlowe: 5:27

Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was, it was honestly like a really great program. Especially, I don't know, I was, I wanna say I was like 19, 20 when I started it. So it was, it was easy for me to go there and kind of use it as a base to, okay, I gotta start somewhere. This will help me kind of pinpoint maybe where my creativity will take me. So it was, it was super helpful, especially at that point in my life. And it, it ended up pushing me into visual merchandising. And then from there I went into home staging for a few years. So it was good. It was a good program. I would recommend it to a lot of different people for sure.

Alexis: 6:06

That's really cool. No, it sounds like a fantastic program and I feel like we've talked about it before of how like wide versed it was and how many different aspects you got to learn. And I love, in a weird roundabout way, it pushed you to this and pushed you to joinery and to. Kind of enrolling into, into that field, right Through woodworking and through that love of it and being like, I'm gonna make all my own furniture in a weird kind of roundabout way, it pushed you to this program, which I freaking love. And could you kind of talk a little bit about, B C I T, because I know that that's the program that you went to, and then from there you began your apprenticeship. Could you kind of describe the program, your experience of it? And I know that we've spoken to it before. Four is that that program was really cool and that your cohort was almost 50 50 men to women, which is super rare.

Marlowe: 6:51

Yeah, it was actually amazing and it was really great to have them all. We felt like such a little team. It was great. And not to mention like there's a female instructor at B C I T and she kicked our program off, so the program's six months long. Which is pretty big, especially in Vancouver when you're not earning any income and you're just going to school every single day. Yeah. But B kicked us off and it was like such an amazing inspirational two weeks of a program that could have started, like you walk into this massive building, you're. I mean, so first off, you show up at this place and you're like, where do I go? I'm not sure where I am. And then you find this building and it's huge and you walk in and like through the building is like this wood flooring that runs the length of it and just tools everywhere. So you're just juiced up already. Oh, so sick. Yeah, exactly. Like.

Alexis: 7:57

It was like the rocky march almost of like coming in. Like, it's kind of like that. I don't know.

Marlowe: 8:02

Yeah. Like it's, yeah. I see. It's something else. Like I always, it's, it's really funny too going from B C I T to like a working shop because. It's so not the same. It's so not maintained the same. It's, it's, it's definitely very different when you leave B B C I T. But, anyways, yeah, the six month program was great. I feel like all the tricks that I was with just kicked ass. I felt like we did better than the guys most of the time. We were ahead of them. We were, doing better. We were a little bit more creative, you know, not competitive at all. Yeah, no, it was, it was really amazing and we learned so much. So I'm grateful for that program, and if somebody just slightly likes woodworking and has the time for it and is not really sure what to do with their life, I would encourage everyone to do it.

Alexis: 8:53

Ugh. That sounds so wonderful. And I, I think it sounds wonderful in so many aspects. The first one, the fact that you have a woman mentor and a woman, coach running it, that's huge. And then to have this group of girls that you're going through the program with and get to learn with and, kind of, I. Go through school for six months and form a little a little group and be in competition with the boys. I love it. I absolutely love it. I think it's fantastic and I, I just think it's, it's something that you don't get that often, so when it does happen, it's, it's such a step in the right direction for it to almost be 50 50. So that's really cool that that program was so foundational and you learnt so much from it. The. Transition, like I know that you had some experience with power tools and comfort with woodworking beforehand. How was the transition from going from B C I T to all of a sudden a shop? You said it's totally different in terms of environment. Was it difficult kind of going from learning those foundations and those skills and joining to then applying them? How was that?

Marlowe: 9:53

Yeah, I think that, B C I T was, they're, they're all about safety, so everything you do has to have like a major safety precaution. And they also aren't putting pressure like you have a deadline for your projects, but they never want you to do something that's unsafe. And I'm not saying that a workplace wants you to do something unsafe, but you feel more pressure when you're in a workplace to do things. Quicker, quickly. Yeah. Than you do at B C I T. So I think that was like a pretty major thing where I always kind of felt a little bit more rushed. And I mean, the tools aren't maintained the same. It's just, it's totally different. Yeah, I think, I think the major difference was the fact that you, you felt this pressure that you mostly were putting on yourself to, Produce at a quicker pace than you would at B C I T. That was probably a bit more drastic for me, but otherwise, I mean, the teachers also provided a lot of confidence to kind of back you up, whereas, okay. I think where I started it wasn't, there's a few guys for sure that. That were kind of, you know, watching you over their shoulder trying to make sure you're doing everything right and safe. And they've been in, they, they've been in the trade for years, so they knew, they knew something could happen and that you're maybe still, you're, you're quite green. There's a few guys for sure that look out for you, but other ones just go about, they're selfish. They're, you know, they're old single men that I don't know. Anyways, I won't get into that. They're like, you

Alexis: 11:23

can lose a couple fingers. Yeah, it's fine. You don't need'em all. Like, they're there with their mangled hands and half their fingers off. They're like, whatever. She'll figure it out.

Marlowe: 11:31

Yeah, exactly. They like, they count their fingers by like nine and three quarters and stuff. You know, it's, it's actually really savage,

Alexis: 11:40

but. No, but it's true though because it's, it's one of those industries, every single carpenter that I've ever met. I mean, like there's a couple little, little knicks off of every single finger. Yeah. I'm happy that you had a couple people looking. Looking out for you guys and kind of like looking out for you as you're starting and helping you out with safety. But I do think that that would be a transition of gone from school where it's kind of on your own thing and yeah, you have deadlines, but it's not as stressful to then being a job where it's project based and client base that you're like, we have to get this done by this day. We have a client breathing down our neck. Like it's a complete different industry. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I feel like that would be very, very difficult though. could you, kind of walk through, I know like your specialty in it is building the insides of yachts and boats, big fancy boats. Could you kind of describe what your role is, what a typical job looks like, and then like, what is a day-to-day, what's your responsibilities? What does that look like?

Marlowe: 12:40

So, It's kind of a lot, to be honest with you. I feel like typical joiners and cabinet makers are in a shop and they're running a table saw all day and they're just cutting parts for people and then somebody else is assembling it and you know, another person's prepping it with edge tape and doing all the machining for the cabinets and stuff like that. But like, that's not my day to day at all. It's actually quite different every single day. So, My role, especially in boats, it's probably five or so actual different roles. Like we start with the, the layout of where all the framing needs to be on the boat. And then from the framing, we then do like the rough carpentry with like the sub paneling of the walls and. Getting all of that set up. From there then the joinery and cabinet making and finish install comes in. I also do, a lot of the fabric work on the boat, so I'm doing a bit of upholstery as well, which actually was okay. Something that I wanted. To learn. I saw one of the guys doing it and I was like, oh, that's sick skill. Like I definitely want in. And him and I used to get super competitive with it, actually it was Oh who got to do it? Well, no, it was just, he was super quick cuz he has like 20 years experience. His family goes way back on on upholstery and like his grandpa was upholsterer and his mom does it and then he kind of did it and he's actually teaching his daughter a little bit of it now too, so, ah, yeah, it's actually quite cute. But Anyways, multi-generational.

Alexis: 14:19

Yeah, totally.

Marlowe: 14:21

Yes. He had mad skills, so I was trying to beat him, which was like impossible.

Alexis: 14:26

Oh my. Yeah. I love that task. That's the same task of trying to be like, you know what? I'm gonna build all of my own furniture. Like it's the same kind of energy of like Cheaper The

Marlowe: 14:35

min. Yeah. Like, let me just try and beat you. I'm not competitive at all. It's ridiculous. I need to lay off.

Alexis: 14:42

Hey. It'll help though. I don't know it like it. It teaches you stuff and it gets you to the next layout. So do you kind of do everything is what it sounds like, it's like in your, your position because you guys are building boats and because it's a little bit of a different setup, you're not just doing the shop part, but you still have to do that fabrication and all of like the actual fab of all of your, cabinets. And then you also have to do the install.

Marlowe: 15:06

Yeah, and then the framing. Yeah. Which like typically it's actually split up into different careers. So it is a very, it's, it's a really interesting place to be. Unfortunately with the boat that we're working on, it's massive. Like it's a, it's 164 feet. Our shop just actually can't keep up with the amount of, cabinets and producing that needs to be done to get this boat done in. The timeline, even though we're past the timeline at this point, but it's, we're like three years into this and another cabinet shop in Florida and Italy is actually building everything for us. So we're mostly doing Wow. Like kind of more fine, detailed, fabricating. Cuz I mean, they don't know where the windows are sitting, so we do so they get us. Close to the window and then we finish off all the window panels and, Things like that. And then just about everything that has been sent to us, we've had to, fit and alter to an extent. Yeah. Yeah. So there's, there's still like a lot of stuff that we're doing, just not a lot of cabinet building, but to be honest, like building cabinets kind of boring. It's just a box really.

Alexis: 16:21

Yeah. You're like, that's fine that someone else can outsource that. That's okay. That's like my least favorite part probably

Marlowe: 16:26

of. Yeah, exactly. Like it's kind of like the mundane part of it. Like you wanna be something a little bit more detailed. At least that's what I would like. But maybe, you know, someone's happy building a box.

Alexis: 16:37

Yeah, maybe. Who knows? I could probably some box specialists out there. When you talk about something being detailed, what are you talking about? Like what does that actually look like in terms of detail? What do you mean? Like, I have no concept of, of detail on a cabinet or a detail in joinery. Like what, what are you adding to it That's super fine tuned. Is it the face of it, taking it from a box to something more fine

Marlowe: 17:00

tuned? Yeah. So like, I mean, a boat is never square really. I mean, we make it square. So we are working off, 30 degree angle and all that kind of stuff. So we've got angles we're working with, we've got curves we're working with, and we're trying to make these panels and, and, and cabinets fit tight and seamless without having to throw in a beta caulking. And, you know, we're, we're doing a lot of scribing, which is basically following a line with, Our pencil and marking that on the cabinet, and then we're taking a router and a straight edge or whatever. And making sure that that cut is perfect for that angle that's already on that boat. So, that's kind of what I mean when I say like, find details of. Okay things. Yeah,

Alexis: 17:44

of bringing it in and making it like kind of ship specific. That's really

Marlowe: 17:47

cool. Yeah. I so sad and like, I mean there's like a lot of like electrical and stuff and they've got all, got fancy keypads. So our panels actually are, most of them are removable. The whole boat you could basically remove with a little, whoa, wedge basically, and just clip, clip everything off. So, Because you need to be able to maintain everything. That's why it has to happen. But, I need to fit my wood panel around all their electrical keypads and stuff. Okay. With like a 16th around the entire thing evenly. So there's a lot of stuff like that that kind of is, is quite time consuming, but it's fun. I like, yeah, that's probably one of my more favorite parts about it, to be honest.

Alexis: 18:32

Yeah, that sounds really cool. It sounds really like high attention to detail and, and super intricate, and you touched on it a little bit on how big this boat is and just mm-hmm. I mean, I've worked on boats for a long time, but even then I'm still like blown away by seeing them in dry dock and seeing them out of a water and how big they are. Yeah. Could you kind of describe what the shop looks like and then what the process of building the ship looks like from like the very beginning, three years ago when you got it to now? Mm. And then, What was the first impression when you saw the shop where you were like, holy shit, this is crazy.

Marlowe: 19:04

Yeah, I mean, when we first got the boat and we, we were working on a boat that was 117 feet, which for me, I, like, I didn't really grow up around boats or anything. My parents never had any, anything like that. So it was, it was this foreign thing to me, and here I am stepping onto this yacht that I think is massive, and then we're finishing that one and starting our rough layout on. This hundred 64 foot boat and it's like shocking. You're like in this empty hole and it's dirty, it's dusty, it's dark. You've got temporary lighting everywhere, like you think back to three years ago and it was actually just an empty hu and it's crazy to see where it is currently. When I think about it, actually, I'm getting all nostalgic here, which is weird cuz, but yeah, it's, it's definitely not a pretty sight when you first see it at all. No, no. It's dark and kind of scary to be honest. Yeah. But we had no, a hundred percent, yeah. We had table saws inside the boat. We had chop saws, band saws, and slowly over time it's just turned into hey, like. You got protection everywhere. Don't bump a corner. This, that, and soon we're gonna be in just socks or slippers. So it's, that's crazy. Yeah. But there's, God, how many, there's a crew area that, have you ever watched Blow Deck? Are you reality tv? Yes. I, I

Alexis: 20:33

mean, I lived it though. Like I lived on those ships for a long time. It's, my life was Below Deck, but I love that show. Absolutely love it. Yeah. Whoa, that's sick. Where

Marlowe: 20:43

did you do that?

Alexis: 20:46

I worked on a research vessel for years for the US government, and so, whoa. That's why I asked cuz I was like, ships are like notoriously gross in dry dock and they're scary and I couldn't imagine seeing the, like, husk of it and to build that over time. Like it's, it's pretty mind boggling Yeah. To see it. Yeah. But your, your crew deck, your crew area. Yeah.

Marlowe: 21:07

Sorry. So I, I mean the crew area alone has four separate state rooms, which for. People that don't know boats, that's a, that's a bedroom. And inside of that state room, each state room has a head, which again is a bathroom. So, Yeah, that's, I mean, that's the smallest part of the boat. And there's eight bedrooms there, and then basically a living room, a laundry room, a refrigeration room, a kitchen room. That's the whole, that's just the crew area. Then you go back into the, then you go back into the guest area and there's 2, 4, 5, and the fifth being the v i P room, and it's. It's like bigger than my bedroom and living room. Like, you know, it's

Alexis: 21:53

just, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Marlowe: 21:55

Huge. And then, yeah, it's, it's a, it's an absolutely massive boat. So like, in comparison to like the ones that you see on Below Deck, it's, it's huge. There's, I guess, how many rooms is that? 5, 9, 10, 11 rooms on the boat alone. Wow. Including the like, primary and the, captains. It's crazy. It's huge. You get lost when you first start. That's wild.

Alexis: 22:20

Yeah. Well also too, Chris, there's so many different components of ships, right? Like you also have your engine room. Yep. You have all of your mechanical spaces. You have like a lot of really tight corners too, right? All of your water processing, like you have so many rooms. I couldn't imagine being the people building that and, and doing that frame. And I think that's cool that you're now kind of. Almost at the socks and slippers and like white gloves to, to finish it off. Yeah. It's gonna feel really good to get it finally

Marlowe: 22:46

done. It will. And it will also feel really good to say goodbye.

Alexis: 22:51

Yeah. I could imagine. Yeah. Say just three years.

Marlowe: 22:56

Years of looking high and you know. Yeah, totally.

Alexis: 23:02

And how many people are working on it? Like how many of them. Of you guys are there?

Marlowe: 23:08

So there's like probably about 10 of us in our shop. just as like the joiners carpenters. But then we've got electricians, we've got plumbers, we've got mechanics, we got fairs, we got composites. There's, I think, I think on the floor of our shop there's roughly 80, maybe more people on the floor. So it, it takes quite a crew to get this guy going for sure. And then, you know, on top of that, you got your project managers and everything, and then owners, reps and stuff like that, doing walkthroughs every day and checking in and interior leads, mechanical leads, all that kind of stuff. There's definitely, yeah, there's a lot of people involved in, in one

Alexis: 23:51

boat. Yeah. Like, maybe like 120. Yeah. I wonder at the end of it.

Marlowe: 23:57

Yeah. But that's also, now that I think about it too, there's actually. The whole other like company that's building everything for us. So there's actually a of people. Yeah,

Alexis: 24:09

You have your two outsourced Florida and Italy. You have a full like little area there of a full shop. Yeah, we got

Marlowe: 24:14

a team sides. We got a team for sure. Yeah,

Alexis: 24:17

you do. You got like one 50 at this point. Like that's crazy. And like all of those people in those little like nooks and crannies, do you fight the other joiners to be like, ah, please don't put me in that area. Or like, do you guys, how do you guys divide it? Do you divide it by task or area? Oh

Marlowe: 24:34

man, there's definitely like some hostility sometimes and you're like, why is this guy getting that job? You know? But, a hundred percent the, the, one of the annoying parts is I feel like I wish that they were just like, Hey, like. This is your area. And they do do that sometimes. Like I was lucky enough that I kind of started at the right time and I was in my apprenticeship at the right time that, my boss gave me like a whole pantry to do. And through that pantry area, I'm, I'm, I'm only just completing that whole area and kind of now, but wow. I've been off of it for a year and a half, but, Through that process, it's like there's been another couple people that are coming in and building little things for certain areas and it's like, okay, so these guys have come in and built it their way, and then another guy's come in and altered what those guys have done, and now I'm the one installing it. So the one that did a 90 on something, forgot about how the guy had previously installed it. So the amount of space that I had to actually screw this panel in was. Nothing. I had to, yeah, get rid of some wood to even just attach the piece. So there's just like little things like that where it's like, can we just set the team up so like this is their room. They do it start to finish and they know exactly what's going on and that's, I, if I was doing things, maybe I would change it to do something like that. It also helps give people pride in what they're doing rather than bouncing from. X to white as Zed. Yeah, there's, there's definitely parts where you're like, yeah, I'm in a good spot right now. And then there's parts where like somebody's up on like the top of the boat working aluminum framing and just nothing but laminate, which is just not exactly the jobs you wanna do, but he always, it, it, it ebbs and flows for sure.

Alexis: 26:26

Yeah, it changes up throughout, throughout the days and throughout the months, I'm sure. And this maybe leads like perfectly to this next question, and maybe it is that is, that's the kind of pet peeve, but there must be like a specific pet peeve in joinery that you have. Is it maybe like a certain task? Maybe it's that, that people are doing it a little bit different each time and then you're stuck there to be like, guys, what the hell happened here? Yeah. Or is it maybe like a technique or something that you just don't like what's. What's something joinery specific that you're like, this is just a big pain in my butt?

Marlowe: 26:58

But I do feel like it's like a bit hard to say. On what is a pet peeve? Because no matter what, I feel like there is always something that's a little bit satisfying when you do it. It's like sanding. It's like it's really repetitive and like your arm's like kind of dying when you're doing it, but at the end of it you're like, damn, that feels so soft.

Alexis: 27:21

I think you're just in the right job that you love it.

Marlowe: 27:23

Yeah, but I mean, it's a love hate. That's good. You know, every day. Yeah. It's, yeah, I'm, I'm all over the place just about every day, but there is typically a lot of things that are maybe at the time, like not the best job to do, but by the end of it you're like, oh, like trimming that edge banding was actually like really smooth with that chisel, you know? So, yeah.

Alexis: 27:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I dunno. I think. No, it's a good answer cuz I, I do think that there's also like some, like a sick pleasure sometimes when, like a bad, a job kind of sucks, but you finish it and you complete it. You're like, okay, you know what? Yeah, it wasn't so good. I'm so good that I like over, yeah, I overcame this and like, now it's done. And now I kind of have bragging rights that like, I did the like shitty job all day, but like, look how good it is. Yeah. Like, Look. Look at the kind of like, look at what I built product. Yeah,

Marlowe: 28:13

exactly. Yeah, exactly. There is exactly, there is like a and, and I think that is the thing about what I'm doing is that most of the time it's really frustrating the entire time. And then I get to the end of it and I'm like, oh, that looks fucking amazing. You know, like, yeah. Yeah. But it would be nice also if it was just like a little bit quieter, you know, like you got the guy next to you on, on a tool and you're actually just doing layout and it's like, the silence is really nice, and then that tool kicks off and it's nothing but noise and it's like screeching loud and you're just, you get immediately angry, you know?

Alexis: 28:50

No, I, I feel you. It like instantly sets your teeth up, like Oh, totally. Almost at. Like anyone who works in STEM trades, I feel like we all need our hearing checked because like I know exactly what you're talking about that you're like, finally you find like your peaceful corner and you're like, yes, no one's gonna bug me. I'm just gonna do this map. And then someone just like starts a rock saw like right next to you, like where, and you're like, oh, come

Marlowe: 29:12

on. Like what happened? Yeah. Like why are we doing this? Yeah. It's 7:00 AM This is my one moment. Yeah, like please can I enjoy my coffee without this noise? Oh.

Alexis: 29:26

Yeah. That's the other thing too, is like, it's so unhinged behavior because like we work rotations, so then you're like, man, it's 6:00 AM. Mm-hmm. We're just waking up like, please calm down. Calm down. For like a good couple hours. Yeah.

Marlowe: 29:40

Yeah. There's a few days for sure when I walk in and the guys are like, oh, how are we doing this morning? And they're quite cautious when they say it cuz they just look so tired. Yeah.

Alexis: 29:51

Oh, yep. They know it to be like, please. Yeah. Well please leave me alone for at least like a little bit.

Marlowe: 29:55

Yeah, we'll tiptoe for, for at least a half hour.

Alexis: 30:01

Oh, I have like a mean mug in face to be like, please. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, it helps though. It honestly, it does help like keep him away. And on the flip side of that, so like other than a pet peeve something, what's something that you really like? Like what's something that you nerd out about? Like if you could speak maybe like one technique, one tool, what's something that you really, really enjoy?

Marlowe: 30:24

I kind of love making jigs to be honest. I feel like it's like a good combination of doing layout and cutting things and fitting them. But then you get to use it over a bunch of times and it helps cut the next job in half because you've already got this perfect little thing that's stencil and ready for you to just make that easy cut. So I think jig making for sure is like up there. Also, I just completed my fourth year of school and in fourth year you learn amazing, about veneer and. You get a, oh, cool. Yeah, so you get a play with veneer and it's kind of artsy and crafty and I don't know, I just, like, I've been starting to do it just sitting in front of my TV while I'm hanging out and stuff like that. It's just, it's kind of fun to make patterns and play around and it's, you can cut it with a knife, like an ol of blade, so it's. You don't have to make dusts. Oh, you don't do anything like crazy. It's just, yeah, it's not messy. It's like arts and crafts, you know? So I've been really liking that, for the past like little bit. So I'm excited to do a lot more with that, to be honest with you.

Alexis: 31:35

That's really cool. Yeah. And what, what is vere, like, it's kind of a, a solvent or almost like a, a

Marlowe: 31:41

paint, isn't it? No, veneer is actually, it's wood. It's just a really thin. Piece of wood. It's like a millimeter thick. It's,

Alexis: 31:51

oh, I didn't know it was wood. I thought it was like a paint.

Marlowe: 31:54

No. God, what are you thinking of? Oh, okay. Sorry. I, I think I know what you're thinking of. I just can't come up with the name, like veneer

Alexis: 32:01

coating, I think is what I'm thinking of. Or like almost. Maybe a different word of it. Okay. So what is veneer then, then? I don't know what veneer is. I would love to learn.

Marlowe: 32:11

So veneer, is it, it it's wood. It's cut in different ways from a tree. So it can be, the tree can be spun and hit a blade, and that blade just thinly slices. It's like peeling an apple if to help give a visual. And then that, that cutoff like the apple skin is your veneer. And you can slice it diagonally so you get a bunch of different styles of veneer itself, and that's it, that's kind of cool itself. And then you can flip it, you can turn it upside down. You can make all these patterns and it's just, it's a really fun and creative. Yeah, I, I love it. It's kind of nerdy, but Oh, I love that. Yeah.

Alexis: 33:00

It's. No, that's good. I, I, I wanna know what you're nerdy about. Like that that sounds really cool. And it sounds more arts and craft. You're right. Like it doesn't sound as messy. It doesn't sound as like intensive. It sounds super fun and

Marlowe: 33:11

creative. It can be pretty different. Boring as well. Like if you think about it, like most of, like, take Ikea for instance, like just about everything in there. Nothing solid wood, really, everything is. It's a plywood or it's a, a cord material with veneer on it. So most of the furniture that you see every day, your kitchen cabinets, those are veneered or laminate, one of the two. But, but yeah, you, you, you see it way more often than you think you do.

Alexis: 33:42

Yeah. I didn't even realize that I was seeing it. I had it as paint. I really did. I had it as like a veneer coating and I thought it was paint. I didn't, I wonder what you're

Marlowe: 33:50

thinking of. I'm curious now. I, we'll have to find out.

Alexis: 33:54

I have no clue. It's gonna be like bar top or something, like really weird and, and not related whatsoever.

Marlowe: 34:00

Like, are you thinking like a LAC or something? Just like finish.

Alexis: 34:04

Maybe, I don't know. I, I honestly, I have no clue what I'm thinking about, but I'll let you know once, once it comes to Yes, please do. I'll send you a message. Yeah. To be like, this is what I was thinking and picturing in my mind. And when you're talking about jigs, could you explain to me a jig? Because I thought I knew what a jig is. And now, with this track record, I probably don't know what a jig is. Ooh. Could you

Marlowe: 34:27

explain what jig making? I kind of wanna have fun with this. What do you think a jig is?

Alexis: 34:33

Okay. This is like testing. Yeah. Little bit, bit who's never done woodworking. Okay. I thought a jig was something that you created to help guide you when you did Your cut was a

Marlowe: 34:47

jig. Yeah, I mean that's pretty spot on really. It's, it's basically a stencil of like what you are trying to cut. You could take, you could take a perfectly cut circle and you could place it on top of something and you could grab, a router and put like a, a tracing bit on it where it's got a bearing and the cutter sits below the bearing. So whatever that bearing follows, it cuts. So a jig basically. Yeah, it's a, it's a stencil. It's exactly what it is. They're handy and they're fun.

Alexis: 35:24

Yeah, I love it because once you make one, it's just so convenient and it's so easy to keep using. So I, I feel like I would really, really like that as well. It just makes your day a little bit more smooth.

Marlowe: 35:33

Yeah. And a lot of them too are just like, kind of visually appealing. Like I've started, I, I was laying into my boss the other day cause he's like, Hey, do you know where this jig is? And I'm like, well, if we had a wall of jigs, We would know exactly where it is. But um, our shop is extremely disorganized and so I've just started like compiling all the jigs that I've made and I've started screwing them into the walls so that I know where they are. And just visually it's like, I don't know, maybe it's just my eyes, but I find it very appealing to like, look at all the jigs that you've made and know that they're there and here's this. And it kind of helps inspire as well.

Alexis: 36:12

Yeah, I felt like it would be kind of beautiful to see that, just like pieces of nice intricate wood on the wall. I feel like that is definitely very visually apparent. Yeah. But then also nice. I love a good organization. I really do. I think it was like from all of the like lab work that I've done, I hate a messy space. Like it needs to be clean. I need to know exactly where everything is. It needs to be labeled like very. O c d. Yeah.

Marlowe: 36:35

Like I shop. No, I feel that so much. I also don't know how or why, but like even within this disorganization that our shop is like, a lot of like, like my bosses will come to me and be like, Hey, like do you, do you know where this is? And I'll be like, oh yeah, that bin like. Two shelves down underneath the cooler. Like, look to your right. Yeah. And they go, they're like, oh. It was exactly there. Like, I don't know how I'm doing it cuz it is actually a disaster in our shop these days. But yeah, there's, yeah, it's too funny. Anyways,

Alexis: 37:10

you got something about it? No, it's, it's true that you just like yell, yell like I know exactly where that is. I know where that bit is. Marla, one thing about your job in general, could you kind of maybe speak to what's something that you love about your job? Maybe what's something that's challenged? Something that's less, less of a favorite?

Marlowe: 37:26

That might be more deep-rooted than I even wanna go to, but,

Alexis: 37:30

okay. Well, you can, you can go surface if, if you want. You don't gotta go to,

Marlowe: 37:34

To be honest, I work with a really good group of dudes and throughout the day we are social, we've got banter. It's really, they've. Between all of us. I think that we've created a really nice environment and I think that really helps get through some of the shitty parts of the day where you're doing something over three times, or you cut a hole that's supposed to be vertical when it's, and it's supposed to be horizontal or vice versa. Yeah, if you mess up and you cut a hole the wrong direction and you've already cut the fabric and you know, you're, you're costing the company X amount to replace that leather panel. Mm-hmm. It's like little things like that that happen throughout the day and you just feel guilty as ever. Those guys are there to kind of pick you up. So I think that's a pretty, pretty massive part for me, to be honest. Yeah.

Alexis: 38:30

Yeah. No, that's huge. That's really, really important to have a good crew. I mean, like having, having a good crew will make it break like an expedition or a job or, or a shop, because I feel like it's, it's just such a fundamental thing. You just need to have people because everything goes wrong. I feel like that's the commonality of like trades and stem is like, is anything that you've envisioned of how it's gonna mess up? Like take that and times it by a hundred. Like so many things are just. It's gonna happen.

Marlowe: 38:57

It's actually so annoying. Work on it together times so isn't it? Because Yeah, just when you're like, oh, everything's going so smooth, you're like, man, I'm having a great day. Oh no. And all of a sudden you're like, yeah. Fuck. Like that did not just happen. Feel like we're screwed. Your day is ruined. You're beating yourself up mentally. Like it's just, it's brutal. God damn. I hate, I hate that. I had that all week, this week. How reset anyways?

Alexis: 39:28

Oh. Oh. I hate when that happens. Yeah. Well, like you almost jinxed yourself. Like I know I've been in like situations where I'm like, we're all good, unless this one really niche thing happens and then it's like you did like 10 minutes later and you're like, that one really niche thing happened today and I don't know why. Or like, I remember one time I walked into my lab, I worked in an x-ray lab, or in charge of the x-ray lab. And so it's like really specialized equipment that basically cannot see water like this is so, it has to be really isolated. It has to be really clean. And I walked into the lab and there was just standing water all the way up to like almost halfway up the machine. What? And I was just like, That was my thing. I think I almost cried. Like, I was just like, like where, where is this coming from? There's nothing in this lap that could contain it. And it was like coming from a wall, coming from like a water mount within, like

Marlowe: 40:26

a leaking pipe day. You were kidding me. And it was just, oh my God.

Alexis: 40:31

It was everywhere. It was one of those that, you know what I mean? Like, I, I cried, I was just a mess. I was like, what do you do? But then that was the like, Testament and you mentioned it of like having a good crew. As I sat with my bosses and they like took me aside and they're like, it's okay. Like it was a complete freak. Don't worry about it. Like go outside, have a coffee, hang

Marlowe: 40:49

out. Yeah, go for a walk. Take 10. We'll help you with it. Yeah. You gotta love that though. You know it's a good boss and they're like, okay, you know what, this sucks. We get it. Go take five.

Alexis: 41:03

Yeah. It makes or breaks it. Yeah, totally does. And yeah, no, it's so nice to have it. And I don't know for this next question, Myla, I have no idea cuz this, the length of time of projects are so long. Do you have a favorite ship or project? Has there been one that you've like really, really liked? If so, why? And then is there something maybe that you're like, I never wanna see that devil ship again, that should never come into our shop?

Marlowe: 41:31

So, I mean, I'm still really new to the trade. I'm only like four years, four and a half years deep into it. So I came into this job and I was probably around three quarters of the way through the previous boat, the one 17. So it was kind of again, at that better. Part where you're doing, you know, you're building headboards and you are starting to get into your socks and your slippers and everything's a little bit more fine. Yeah, fine detail. So I got to like be in the good stage of that boat, whereas this boat, I've been through hell and back for sure. And I keep hearing from the guys that no matter what, like you kind of hate the boat. When it

Alexis: 42:16

leaves. Yeah, I could see it, but I, it's a long term.

Marlowe: 42:20

Totally. It's three years. It's three years on the same boat. You're st you know, like luckily we're not doing the same thing every day. I think at the end of the day, I feel like this boat will probably be, I mean, out of the two boats, it'll be my favorite boat. I think it's just because it's my first full boat and it's also one of the largest boats that's built in Canada, and I believe North America. Don't quote me on that.

Alexis: 42:50

It is huge. It's a monster. Yeah. One 70 is, it's

Marlowe: 42:53

absolutely massive. I think that's always gonna be something that really stands out for me.

Alexis: 42:59

Yeah. Yeah. What a crazy experience to that be. Your basically your full, full boat is one of the biggest in Canada and the biggest in North America. Like that's pretty crazy if you think about it. Totally. And you should be super proud of yourself. Yeah. To be like, that was my first full

Marlowe: 43:15

boat. Yeah, we're trying actually right now, I'm like kind of like forcing my partner to like come down and like look at the boat cause I'm like, come see what I do. But we have to like go through a little bit of a process cuz obviously the owner is. Private. So we need to check in with the owners of the company and all that kind of stuff to make sure that like mm-hmm. A few of us can have our loved ones come down and kind of see where we work Yeah. And what we've been doing for the last three years. Yeah, like there's definitely a feeling of proudness, that's for sure. Yeah.

Alexis: 43:45

No, a hundred percent that, that makes sense. Will you see it kind of go into the water or how does the last couple days? Yeah. So do you just hand it off? How does that work? I mean,

Marlowe: 43:55

if that was that easy, we actually, we had to extend our shop, just temporarily to fit this boat inside of it. So I think it's actually gonna, it is gonna be a really interesting day when we move it outside. One. We actually finally gotta see like the true size of the boat because it just doesn't seem that huge when you're inside and you're walking in off a mezzanine and all that stuff. But when another boat leaves and you see it from the side profile, it's like, whoa, this thing is, it's massive, but it's not even all together. Like Yeah, the scale of it, you can't even put like the very top of the boat on because it won't fit inside the building. I think it's like a pretty big ordeal. I think we need to get a crane. But I'm looking forward to, I told my boss like two months ago, I was like, I, I'm on sea trials, you're putting me on sea trials. Like there's no debate about it. It's happening. I'm definitely looking forward to kind of these next few steps and seeing it outside and getting on the water with it. It'll be, I'm sure there's something that's gonna go wrong, but I'm, I'm still all for it, you know?

Alexis: 45:08

Yeah. It'll be, it'll be chaotic. Like I RC trials, we'd always be like, oh yeah, you know what? We're good. Like that dry dock was so good. We got everything. It's gonna be perfect. And we go to sea trials and be like, wow. Everything is so, it's gonna be chaotic. Yeah. And for sure will be chaotic, but it's gonna be such a cool experience to be on the ship and to do your first C trial. And I think that's, Gonna be so fantastic. Totally happy that you were like, petitioned your boss to be like, get me on that ship.

Marlowe: 45:36

I'm gone. Yeah, like he's gonna have to deal with a serious wrath if he doesn't put me on it. I'll be honest.

Alexis: 45:42

Yeah, no, you deserve to be on it after all that. Like, that's such a cool experience of it. I can't believe too, that like half of it isn't even, on the ship yet. Like, just craning that to the, to the bottom half of it is gonna be in our

Marlowe: 45:55

deal. And so yeah, it's gonna be quite the process and it's gonna be so hard to like, I mean, I hope they just let us have a day. Onsite that it's just us watching and being a potential set of hands to Move a cone or do whatever we need to do because I just, yeah. I wanna kind of witness the whole process, to be honest, so we'll see.

Alexis: 46:14

Yeah, totally. To like. See all that scale. Well, I hope it comes true and I hope you get to see it. And I hope you get to also go on the sea trials and even if it's gonna be chaotic, be freaking sick. So I,

Marlowe: 46:26

I hope that, I hope there's a beer on board too. Let's be honest about that.

Alexis: 46:32

Well, you should. So court like you should do the whole champagne

Marlowe: 46:35

thing too. You got a Chris in the boat, right?

Alexis: 46:38

Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And part of it is that the crew or the people that built it, has a couple little waff pops

Marlowe: 46:44

Absolutely. And goes through there. Yeah. It's necessary. I think everyone's due for one too, so.

Alexis: 46:50

I love that. I think that's so sick. And, and it's so cool. Any idea on the next ship? Do you have like, any clue of

Marlowe: 46:57

what's coming down the table? You know what, we do actually have a pretty good idea. We've got a lot of projects coming in. Not to mention that this company that I'm in has like five different companies. There's one that's putting a vinyl wrap on whatever is in front of it. There's another one that's doing kind of more like a sport fishing boat, all made out of aluminum. So, okay. There's a lot going on in the shop for sure. But the next boat, I believe is, I wanna say it's an. 80 foot boat or it's one 20? I don't know, it's one 20 maybe. I'm not sure to be completely honest with you, but it would be nothing currently compared to nothing in comparison. But currently the boat next to us, the welders just cut off the very back of it and they're extending it by like 40 feet or something. So it's actually kind of like this Cool, like, You know, those diagrams that are like cut in half and you see the inside of something? Yeah, it's, it's exactly like that right now on the back of the boat. So it's, it's kind of cool to see it at the state that it's in right now, but, yeah, they're extending that by, yeah. 40 feet or something. Absolutely crazy. So, okay. It's, it's big, but it's not as big and I think that's gonna be a major relief to a lot of people in the company. Yeah.

Alexis: 48:14

Oh, for sure. I think it'll be like a little bit less stressful. And also it'll feel really easy. You guys will be like, yeah, we got this. This is like compared to that monster that we got. Yeah. And that's cool that you got to see it as like a, a cake slice. Yeah, I think that's always

Marlowe: 48:26

interesting. Yeah, totally. Totally. So yeah, lots coming down the line for sure. Yeah. Cool.

Alexis: 48:33

Very, very cool. Well, Marla, we're almost at the, the end of it, so just to, to wrap us up, what's something that you're working on right now? I know that you've started your own company called Tranquilo. Is that kind of the major thing that you're working on at the moment? What's something that you got?

Marlowe: 48:47

Yeah. It's been an ongoing process. That's actually kind of a part of my like, beginning story for sure. And how I got started and Instagram taking off kind of thing. And a lot of support by friends and family. So, that's always kind of just a side gig that's going on for me. My chop actually ended up getting rid of their C N C, so, My buddy and I are just in the process of setting it up and hopefully within the next couple weeks we'll start writing and running programs and playing around a little bit cuz CNCS are cool.

Alexis: 49:19

I love them. I love a good cnc. They're like honestly so useful. You can do anything with them. They're totally,

Marlowe: 49:24

and like, man, they're gonna make the perfect jigs like, As good of a jig that I can make, they will make me a 10 times better jig. So that's like, yeah, it's 10 out to 10 for me, you know?

Alexis: 49:37

All comes down to a jig making for you. Oh man.

Marlowe: 49:41

I didn't realize I was such a fan about jigs, but apparently I am. Oh man. I love it. But yeah, that's, but that's really cool. That's it. Yeah.

Alexis: 49:54

And what is kind of, because I saw your crib boards, which are beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. And then is there kind of something that you're working on that you love to work on with Tri Kilo? Is there kind of a specialty or is it a little bit of everything? I'd

Marlowe: 50:06

say it's a little bit of everything. I do like the process of like kind of, okay, well this is what I want. Like the customer relation I think is, is kind of fun. As much as I hate doing emails and all that kind of stuff, it's once you get a good idea of what they want, then. It's kind of fun seeing that design come into fruition and, the end product is always really satisfying. I think I, I quite enjoy that part. But yeah, I don't know. We'll see where this all takes me. I really have no idea.

Alexis: 50:37

Yeah. Yeah. You

50:39

just,

Marlowe: 50:39

I'm just gonna wing it and see what happens. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.

Alexis: 50:43

No, that's amazing. I think that's like the exact way to go. I'm excited to see what this C N C take a photo of this jigs. Next time you make a jig, please send me a photo of it. I would like to see your jig in normal. Normal

Marlowe: 50:56

creation. And then as cnc, you know what I will, once you got it all set up, I'll send you an email. I just did one that I quite liked and the way we finished it up was, do you know what a gouge is?

Alexis: 51:09

Ooh. Like when you take

Marlowe: 51:11

a little section? Yeah. Basically like, it's like a little U-shape. Yeah. Chisel. It's really tiny. Anyways, we just did this jig and we were both kind of like, oh, like what are we gonna do? And. I just started drawing and figuring things out and it was so much geometry that I like, never knew that I had in me. But it all worked out and it turned out great and we got to the end product and we're like, okay, well what are we gonna do inside of this jig to kind of make it pop? We ended up gouging out. The whole center of it into this like really textured pattern. So it looks really nice. It was really satisfying to do it. Yeah. So it was nice to see the jig come and then followed in by the finished product and cleaning all that up. So I will send that photo to you. Okay?

Alexis: 51:56

Yes, please. And I will post it on this episode. I absolutely love that. That's amazing. Oh man. Yeah. Very cool. Well, thank you so much. It was so much fun talking to you. It always is so much fun talking to you. Thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it. And thank you everybody for listening. This is the Smoko

Marlowe: 52:13

podcast. Thank you. It was, it was a pleasure. Yeah, you're welcome.

Alexis: 52:18

It was super fun. I love it. I learned more about jigs. I have to figure out what I thought about veneer. I learned what veneer. Yeah, please do. I'm dying to know. That'll be my email to you. I'm a complete rookie. But, thank you for coming on and thank you guys for listening. We will see you next week. Okay, bye-bye.