thinking through

I have been gradually thinking through my box to hold a collection of turned samples of Arkansas woods, and have as my deadline for completion, September 10 when I have a group of members from the American Folk Arts Museum coming to tour my home and shop.

What you see in the image above are the doors of one box with holders  positioned where they will be attached to hold a dozen samples. The idea of the box is that when it is opened, a whole "choir" of woods can be seen. When the box is closed, only three woods will be visible through the plexiglass rosette.

The box is intended a a shrine to the beauty and value of our native woods.

The process of design is a form of play, but it is also an expression of intelligence of a type that is too often neglected in American schools. IQ tests include "spatial sense as an important type of intelligence that is crucial for engineering, science, music, the arts and mathematics. We do not know how much of the development of spatial sense comes genetically, how much comes through play, and at exactly what ages, but it is my belief, that at all ages, human beings derive benefit from design play.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the likelihood of learning likewise.