Mahjong Racks
From Our Family to Your Table

Made by Our Family. Made for Your Table.

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When I started Mahj With Susan, I never imagined it would turn into a family project quite like this.  Every one of our racks is made right here in Cumming, Georgia, by five members of our family.  My father-in-law, John, is the woodworker who started it all. My husband, Andy, and I work alongside him making the racks. Then my mom, Linda, and my mother-in-law, Gail, make the bags that protect them.

 

Five people. Three generations. One pretty special little family project.

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It Started in John’s Shop

 

John is almost 80 and has been woodworking for more than 40 years.  His shop isn’t a garage with a few tools thrown together. It’s the real thing. Every wall, drawer and machine tells the story of a man who has spent decades building things with his hands.  Table saws. Planers. Sanders. Tools collected one project at a time.  John would never call himself a master woodworker.  I will.

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When Andy and I decided we wanted to make Mahjong racks, John started teaching us.  There weren’t formal lessons. It was more standing beside him while he worked. Watching what he did. Asking a million questions. Then slowly taking over parts of the process ourselves.  And somewhere along the way, we went from watching John make racks to making them right alongside him.  I don’t take for granted what that means.

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We’re learning a craft from someone who has spent more than 40 years perfecting it, and he’s passing that knowledge on to us as he approaches his 80th birthday.  These racks are beautiful, but that part of the story means even more to me.

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Every Rack Starts With the Wood

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Each rack begins as a piece of raw wood, and no two boards are exactly alike.  The grain runs its own way. The color varies. Knots and markings show up in different places.  I love that.  We don’t want every rack to look like it came off an assembly line. We want you to see the character of the wood and know that someone actually made the rack you’re holding.  Each piece is cut, shaped, sanded and finished by hand in John’s shop until it’s smooth and ready for a row of Mahjong tiles.

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Your set will be uniquely yours!

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And Then I Recruited the Moms

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Of course, I couldn’t leave the moms out.  My mom, Linda, and Andy’s mom, Gail, are in their 70s, and somehow I convinced them to join our little operation too.  They’re the hands behind the bags that protect our racks.  Each bag is cut and sewn by one of our moms before it’s paired with a set of racks.  And I have to tell you, this might be one of my favorite parts of the whole thing.

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John in his shop.

Andy and I learning beside him.

Linda and Gail at their sewing machines.

None of us set out to start a family business together.

It just sort of happened.

And I’m so glad it did.

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From Our Family to Your Table

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By the time a set of racks leaves us, it has passed through a lot of hands.  John’s. Andy’s. Mine. Linda’s. Gail’s.  There are definitely faster ways to make a mahjong rack.  But I don’t think there’s a better way to make ours.  Because for me, Mahjong has never been only about the tiles.  It’s about what happens around the table.  It’s the friendships. The conversations. The laughter. The traditions. It’s one person teaching another something they love and then watching them pass it along.

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And when I think about it, that’s exactly how these racks came to be too.  One generation teaching the next.  Family spending time together.  Something made by hand that gets passed along to someone else.  So when a set leaves John’s shop in Cumming, Georgia, and ends up on your mahjong table, I hope you know exactly where it came from.  Five people. Three generations. Made by our family for your table.