Timber Framing Courses
Meet Your Instructors
ETHAN HIGGINS
TIMBER FRAMER
SPECIALIZATIONS
Timber frame construction
Barn Restoration
Hewn timber
Round log scribing
Ethan is a timber framer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Born in Eastern Massachusetts and learning the trade while working in Vermont, he was first brought to Michigan in 2017 to help his close friends build a new milking parlor on their 6th generation dairy farm. Ethan soon found a wide interest in his work - especially within the small farm community in Washtenaw County - and in 2019 started his own company, Roof Jumper Timber Frames (named for a barn on his family’s now defunct dairy farm). Since then, he has built and restored a variety of timber frame structures, many of which are working barns and agricultural buildings on small, family-owned farms. Ethan specializes in hewn, scribed, and full-round material, and has adopted a mission to not only promote the craft of timber framing, but also to work in line with the vision of what the world can look like when care is put into the food we grow, the buildings we construct, and the work we do every day.
JACK WITHERINGTON
TIMBER FRAMER
SPECIALIZATIONS
Authentic Timber Framing
Looking back over the various careers, none have been more engaging and captivating than as an authentic American timber framer. Beginning with an intensive summer of study in 2000, the magic of crafting and raising timber structures has lasted 23 years, with the building and installing of some of the finest timber work in and around South Eastern Pennsylvania. Notable projects include work on Independence Hall (2009) restoration of a 109' suspension bridge and a traditional Japanese Dojo with natural arch logs spanning 36 feet. Learning the craft has taken Jack to both England--The Carpenters Fellowship and to Germany for roof framing coursework at the Rottweil Academy of Education in Rottweil. After two decades of timber frame design, crafting and raising experience, Jack now seeks to share this knowledge and know-how with the next generation of timber framers through teaching and instruction. If you can't find him in the workshop making something, you may find him on a trout stream with a fly rod or on a ski slope in between shifts as a National Ski Patroller.
Learn more about Jack’s company Methods & Materials Building Company by clicking here.