Andrew Coleman stands in his shop beside a white oak chair he’s making for Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University in Baton Rouge.
In hindsight, Andrew Coleman sees that he was never in control of his life’s path.
A devout Catholic, he planned to enter the priesthood, following Jesus by spreading the word through ministry.
But it wasn’t meant to be — Coleman left seminary after only a year.
“It wasn’t for me,” he said.
Andrew Coleman installs the altar he designed and created for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in St. Francisville.
God had other plans. If seminary had worked out, Coleman, 32, wouldn’t be standing in the two-car garage behind his Cedar Creek Lane home in Baton Rouge — now the workshop for his business, Coleman’s Handcrafted.
Calling it a woodworking shop would be an understatement. It’s where he creates custom pieces for Catholic Churches and sacred spaces across the South.
In his workshop, he follows another path of Christ’s life — a carpenter.
Andrew Coleman designed and created the communion rails and altar for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Russellville, Alabama. This was the project that prompted him to quit his day job and go into woodworking fulltime. The project took two years to complete.
“I want to be the best version of myself that I can be,” Coleman said. “These are the things that God has given me, and insofar as I do them well, I’m perfecting the plan that God had for me.”
But getting here wasn’t easy. It took a big leap of faith.
In the beginning
Coleman’s dad was a woodworker, but he didn’t make anything fancy. He just liked working with wood.
Andrew Coleman, in his shop, explains how he uses both hand tools and power tools to create the decorative parts of his designs.
“My dad was sort of the handyman around our house, and he used two-by-fours and nails to make an entertainment center for the family when we bought a new TV,” Coleman said.
Coleman enjoyed watching his dad work, but he didn’t develop his own interest in woodworking until senior year at Denham Springs High School, when a shop class introduced him to fine woodworking, where he used hand tools to create his own designs.
He became hooked after returning from St. Joseph Seminary in Covington to his family home in Denham Springs. Coleman had a bundle of books and nowhere to put them.
He needed a bookcase.
A detail shot of the monstrance Andrew Coleman designed and created for Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Baton Rouge.
“My dad had a friend who was really into woodworking,” Coleman said. “He told me to go to his friend’s house, and we built the bookcase together. I fell in love with it from there.”
He loved it so much, in fact, that he started spending any extra money from a part-time job at a hardware store on woodworking hand tools, while the rest of his salary paid his part-time tuition at River Parishes Community College in Gonzales.
He eventually earned an associate’s degree in computer design drafting, then began honing his craft through trial and error.
Looking at his finished pieces, no one would guess that Coleman is self-taught. Even the chair he’s making in his shop for Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University appears too refined for an amateur.
Andrew Coleman, in his studio, demonstrates how he uses a hand tool to smooth the edge of a piece of white oak. He used the leftover shavings to sand it, leaving the edge with a silky texture.
Then again, Coleman is no amateur.
He’s crafted communion rails and monstrances for Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, an altar for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in St. Francisville, two altars and a set of communion rails for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Russellville, Alabama, and is currently working on a commission for a church in Georgia.
The two-year project in Alabama required his full attention and led to one of the biggest decisions in his life.
Andrew Coleman designed and created this reliquary for St. Mark Catholic Church in Gonzales.
The business of woodcraft
Coleman and his wife, Ashley, married in 2016 and have owned and operated Coleman’s Handcrafted since 2021, with Ashley, 31, managing the financial and marketing side of the business.
He previously worked full-time for a company selling and delivering septic systems.
He devoted his free time to creating sacred-themed works on the patio of the upstairs apartment he shared with his wife. One of his works caught the eye of a local priest, who not only commissioned a piece but told a friend.
Andrew Coleman stands next to the newly installed altar he designed and created for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in St. Francisville.
“Priests talk to each other, and most of them go to the same colleges,” Andrew Coleman said. “A priest in Alabama who had family here reached out to me and said they were building a new church and asked if I’d be interested in making two altars and all of the communion rails — basically doing all of the church’s woodwork except for the pews.”
That’s when he knew he would have to quit his job to fulfill the order. He never dreamed he could turn his hobby into a career.
Andrew Coleman didn’t see the timing as a coincidence.
A detail shot of the rectory chapel set Andrew Coleman designed and created for Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Baton Rouge.
Though he’d left seminary, his faith in God never wavered. Ashley Coleman’s faith was strong, too.
So, they decided to take the leap.
A dream job
“I’ve always loved doing work for the church,” he said. “And so when this opportunity to do what I already did as a hobby, I loved it. And I want beautiful churches around us. So, this is really a dream job.”
Still, Andrew Coleman is the first to admit that diving into Coleman’s Handcrafted was a little scary. He and his wife were planning to start a family.
Andrew Coleman explains how he uses both hand tools and power tools during the process of making the decorative parts of his creations.
They now have a son, Joshua, just shy of 2 years old, and another son on the way.
These days, Joshua spends time in the shop with his dad, who prays throughout his workday. It doesn’t matter if he’s using hand tools or the new computer numerical control machine to cut exact lines; Andrew Coleman always acknowledges God in his work.
“I have my morning prayer, day prayer and evening prayer,” he said.
He says he uses prayer throughout his work.
“We work on the design of making sure we’re doing the right thing that fits the community,” he said. “But also, this is for a place to worship God, so we want to do what is fitting for that. There’s very much a discernment and prayer process all along.”
These pieces of wood await their turn to become part of Andrew Coleman’s designs and creations for sacred spaces.
And through this process, Andrew Coleman still considers his work a ministry, not as a priest but as a servant through this talent as a woodworker.
“I thank God every day that the jobs keep coming,” he said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theadvocate.com ’
