This week I'm getting ready for my box making class with the Eureka Springs School of the Arts that starts on Monday. I have 10 students registered, so I have lots of materials to prepare and it looks like it will be an intense week. At Marc Adams School I had 18 students and 3 assistants, 4 table saws, lots of planers, and everything else one could imagine in the way of cast iron.

At ESSA, using the Clear Spring School wood shop, we will be more bare bones and will be required to spend more time sharing. But, as I explained to my students at Marc Adams, creativity doesn't come as much from having all the right stuff but from figuring out how to do without. We have a tendency to think we can buy our way out of every conceivable situation, and when we do our work looks like the work done by every other person who bought the same stuff. But what if we came to rely on our own creative imaginations instead? The rewards can be great! So at ESSA we will have a creative week and make boxes, and I'm getting ready!

Question? Do the tools make the man or does the man make the tools? You get to choose. Your work tends to become more interesting through one approach than the other.

In the meantime, I have been enjoying a woodworker's forum in Australia that you might like as well. Their spelling takes some getting used to, and they use some slang (strine) that may tizzy your beaner. But most of their punctuation is the same and they love working with wood. Check out Woodwork Forums - A home on the Net for Woodworkers and Allied Crafts.