Perhaps, more important than beauty for most artists and craftspeople is the pursuit of meaning and the sharing of it when we find it, and that, too, is highly personal.
In the shop today, I've begun sanding and routing boxes, in preparation for applying a first coat of Danish oil finish sometime tomorrow.
The past few days, I heard from two woodworkers, each independently tackling the most challenging project from my book, Tiny Boxes. The project is to make Japanese type puzzle boxes. They are not easy, and they call to mind a quote from Otto Salomon, that the value the carpenter's work is in the things the carpenter makes. The value of the student's work is in the student. And if that's the case, what are those values?
A few years ago, Jack Grube, a shop teacher in New Hampshire and I worked on a piece to be sent to school administrators all across New England by the New England Association of Woodworking Teachers. We came up with 21 reasons for the 21st Century, and summarized at the top:
A quality woodworking program provides experiences far more important than those typically associated with woodshop. Courses, like woodworking, where students use their hands build confidence, strength of character, and problem solving capabilities useful in all careers and in every educational experience. Furthermore, working with a natural material in a creative manner assists students in connecting the relevance of other subject material to their daily lives.
Put even more simply, woodworking can be an avenue through which some of us find meaning. And those of us who find meaning in it know that you might also. Just one of the illustrations for the Japanese puzzle box is shown in this post.
Make, fix and create....
No comments:
Post a Comment