designing with wood

I'm beginning to prepare for my class on 3D design for craft artists that will be presented June 13 at ESSA using Zoom. It will cover the basics of 3D design, and also offer specific information related to working with wood. Wood has its own special characteristics that present both challenges and opportunities to craft artists. One of those particular opportunities is that wood can connect us directly to the natural environment.

Clay is mined from the earth in ways that the earth is left scarred. Metals and stone are the same. Trees, on the other hand, grow around us. We have the opportunity to observe their growth, to care for them, to protect them, to find comfort in their shade, to bask in their beauty, and to share that beauty and usefulness in what we shape from their wood.

So, working with wood is an invitation into a world of natural wonder, and into a world in which we shape not only the objects that come through our hands, but also the world around us, and indeed ourselves.

It is a lovely day in Arkansas. I'm sitting on our front porch looking into the woods. The temperature is just right. The songbirds sing. The woodpeckers thump on dead branches. My dog Rosie is at work on a stick. She brings them home from our walks, with her head held high and chews them to splinters, stripping them bare of bark.

You will find the online class here: https://essa-art.org/workshops/wood/online-principles-of-3-dimensional-design/ Even if wood is "not your thing," other craft artists will find value in it.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.