even the worst of us...

My cousin Larry passed away last night. He's entered into hospice care, and is now at rest despite having been on my mind enough to quote him at an ESSA board meeting last night. Among decades of wisdom he had once said, seeking to find value in all things, that "even the worst of us could serve someone as a bad example." Lawrence (Larry) Petersen was a Vietnam vet, and a generally wise man to know and hang out with. With his  passing, he will be missed.

Popular Woodworking at ESSA

Here is an article on the Popular Woodworking website about a visit to ESSA, the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, the school I helped found and where I continue to teach.

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/end-grain/visiting-essa/

Make, fix and create...

Shaker tape

I finished weaving the Shaker tape top on a bench made as a prototype for a class at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. Would you like to make one?

Make, fix and create... 

Spoons

I just finished teaching a two day class at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, making spoon carving knives and then carving spoons. We used the metals building, grinders and forges to shape and heat treat the knives, and then used the machine room in the woodshop to add handles. We then spent the afternoon and next day shaping the handles and carving spoons. It was a fun class, and based on an article I'd written for Woodcarving Illustrated.

My next class at ESSA, June 25-June 29, will be to make small cabinets. https://reg131.imperisoft.com/essa-art/ProgramDetail/3639313038/Registration.aspx One space is open to an additional student in this 5 day class.

In the meantime the government has noticed that Americans need to be making more of our own stuff, and is attempting to control matters by deportations and tariffs. When you are busy making things, however, you will have little time to waste shopping for things that will not last.

Make, fix and create...

Hippie Christmas and too much stuff

The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/business/college-scavengers-dumpster-diving.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NE8.5UZL.VWW8iKxVoSX_&smid=url-share tells about "Hippie Christmas" and college folks throwing out their valuable possessions at the end of the school season. 

I grew up in a household where stuff was valued even though it came free from relatives or was left at curbside. In the meantime, while college students are casting things away, I keep busy making things of useful beauty and lasting value, knowing the real value is in the making of such things, not in the having, as everything is likely headed in the same direction, but with some things lasting a bit longer. Anybody need a box?

Make, fix and create...

It's not easy

Folks might think it easy to return quality manufacturing to within the borders of the US. But it's not.The story from the New York Times may give a few inklings:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/fashion/american-woolen-textiles-jacob-long.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M08.gmEk.l5pXz2wXWkbq&smid=url-share

In the meantime, there are values at work. When you make something  useful, beautiful or both you are busy with your minds and hands at work. And developing yourself and your community for so much more.

I delivered parts today at the wood and metals classrooms at ESSA today for  class in making spoon carving knives that starts on Tuesday. It will be fun. https://reg131.imperisoft.com/essa-art/ProgramDetail/3639303535/Registration.aspx

Shown in the photo is a box done as a tribute to John Ruskin.

Make, fix and create...

Arta Quam has proposed June 20, 2025 summer solstice as a creative day in honor of her father, Roger Dale. Roger was a dear friend and mentor during my first few years in Eureka Springs, and each of us is honored by putting our hands into creative gear, making something useful, beautiful, long lasting or all three. I plan to participate. You need not be present to win.

Make, fix and create...

It is obvious

It is obvious that what we do gives shape to who we are, and that becoming is a process of doing, and caring for each other. Were that not the case we'd not have emerged from the ages in which dinosaurs sat upon nests and nourished their young, only to eat them at a later date. With that always in mind, I've finished a couple sliding lid "tribute to John Ruskin" boxes that will be placed for no reason on Etsy. 

Is the "enlightened man" subject to his conditioning or  master of it? That is a zen koan, but you can argue one way or the other. Which came first, chicken or egg? You can argue one way or the other.

But in the meantime,

Make, fix and create... The world will become (incrementally) a better place.

Pocket boxes

In my quest to finish unfinished projects, I've applied Danish oil to "pocket boxes" from  my  2016 book Tiny Boxes. If you want to make them yourself, the instructions are included in the book. https://amzn.to/4kaS23V

These tiny boxes have magnetic closure on the lids. They close with a slight pop and stay closed in the shirt pocket. Some are cherry and inlaid with Arkansas hardwood. Others are maple and have a squiggle pattern made with veneers.

Make, fix and create...

Corner irons

I am trying to finish up a few earlier projects. My "Tribute to John Ruskin" was published in 2003, leaving extra boxes unfinished. Now they almost are, so they can be coated with Danish oil and sold. 

These include corner irons fabricated from the old type of metal banding that used to bundle bails of wood and other commodities. Even that source of steel is a thing of the past being replaced by plastic banding for which I've found little use.

T'he corner irons are attached with tiny brass nails to strengthen the mitered corners of this sliding top forever box.

Make, fix and create...

Paintable Scandinavian bentwood box. Unfinished bent elm, signed by the maker. 

Have an urge to do rosemaling, and touch base with your Norwegian heritage? This box, on the bicentennial of arrival of Norwegians to America will help. Tine boxes have been used to commemorate special events and decorated gaily. 

Tine means cheese box suggesting its humble origins, and tiner are as much a part of Norway as sweaters are in winter... or any other part of the year. A one of a kind box. Decorate it yourself. The lift-off lid latches in place. 

For sale on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4310583901/paintable-norwegian-style-box

Make, fix and create...

Pen boxes!

I've placed pen boxes for sale on Etsy that I made for my book "Tiny Boxes," published by Taunton Press. Several colors of wood are available, but only for a short time. https://www.etsy.com/shop/dougstowe/

Make Magazine No. 93

Issue 93 of Make Magazine arrived today with an article I'd written about making Lego style blocks using SketchUp to design the blocks and a Maker Bot 3D printer to make them at the Clear Spring School.

Make, fix and create...
 

The sloop Restauration

Two hundred years ago Norwegians came to America, a story told in the Vesterheim Museum celebration: https://vesterheim.org/exhibit/200-years-of-norwegians-in-america/ A small sloop with fifty two passengers left Stavanger on a voyage to escape religious persecution. In a turn-about is fair trade, I'm sending two small tiner to Stavanger today, to a friend there who ordered them from me on Etsy. Thanks, Knud for the order! 

Yesterday I attended two meetings, the Museum of Eureka Springs Art, and the second at ESSA where through extensive work and fundraising we've purchased the 15 acres next door. Readers of this blog have helped, and to those readers I offer sincere thanks. Next comes the redesign of the entry to our campus, and raising the final $50,000 of the fundraising goal. You, too can help. Every dollar raised is matched by the Windgate Charitable Trust, so in an era of abandonment by the government of financial support we, the people must take the lead. 

Make, fix and create...

Tiny tiner.

I've placed a couple tine boxes on my Etsy shop for sale. These were made while teaching at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts (ESSA). https://www.etsy.com/shop/dougstowe/

These are tiny tiner, made using Shaker box making techniques derived from Scandinavian creativity in crafting.

Make, fix and create...

A tine box.

 

This the tine box my wife and I found in the folk museum at Oslo. It is from Voss, Norway and as I explained to my students is a classic form. 

Tine means cheese box referring to its humble origins, and if you are lucky to have more than one, they are called tiner.

Make, fix and create...

today

ESSA is closing on the acquisition of property next door that will allow for expansion and improved ingress and egress.

I am getting ready for a three day class in making Scandinavian bentwood boxes, tiner, as were made in small villages throughout Scandinavia and were related to the bentwood boxes designed and sold by the Shakers. 

The class will begin tomorrow and go on until Sunday afternoon, with students having the opportunity to take home more than one box in various sizes.

My own adventure in making these boxes began with this box that my great grandmother carried from Norway by ship in 1866.

Make, fix and create...

Boxmaking 101

Wooden boxes are one of the best ways to learn basic woodworking. In a few short hours, you can make boxes for gifts or to sell that may be treasured for a lifetime. Whether you are a beginning woodworker or have years of experience, the things you learn from making boxes will advance all your woodworking skills, leading to greater accuracy and creativity in every woodworking project, but much more:

This is from Felix Adler, writing in support of manual training in the late 1800's:

"Let the task assigned be, for instance, the making of a wooden box. The first point to be gained is to attract the attention of the pupil to the task. A wooden box is interesting to a child, hence this first point will be gained. Lethargy is overcome, attention is aroused. Next, it is important to keep-the attention fixed on the task: thus only can tenacity of purpose be cultivated. Manual training enables us to keep the attention of the child fixed upon the object of study, because the latter is concrete. Furthermore, the variety of occupations which enter into the making of the box constantly refreshes this interest after it has once been started. The wood must be sawed to line. The boards must be carefully planed and smoothed. The joints must be worked out and fitted. The lid must be attached with hinges. The box must be painted or varnished. Here is a sequence of means leading to an end, a series of operations all pointing to a final object to be gained, to be created. Again, each of these becomes in turn and for the time being a secondary end; and the pupil thus learns, in an elementary way, the lesson of subordinating minor ends to a major end. And, when finally the task is done, when the box stands before the boy's eyes a complete whole, a serviceable thing, sightly to the eyes, well-adapted to its uses, with what a glow of triumph does he contemplate his work! The pleasure of achievement now comes in to crown his labor; and this sense of achievement, in connection with the work done, leaves in his mind a pleasant after-taste, which will stimulate him to similar work in the future. The child that has once acquired, in connection with the making of a box, the habits just described, has begun to master the secret of a strong will, and will be able to apply the same habits in other directions and on other occasions." — Felix Adler

I would like to introduce my readers to boxmaking101.com

Make, fix and create... 

 

Visiting at the Clear Spring School

I visited today at the Clear Spring School and I think that others should as well. You may imagine schooling as being at a desk, but there you'll see children learning in action. We talked about the difficulties of making communities and families understand what education can become, but to visit, however briefly, is to come to a better understanding, as you witness first hand.

Come by sometime. Check in at the office first and then see for yourself. Progressive education has been around since the early days of education. It's nothing new. But seeing is the first step you'll take in the progress of your own community. It can be done. And you can do it.

Make, fix and create...

Chance encounters, brief moments in time...

It is amazing how chance encounters and very brief moments in time can have such effects. Today I had a visit from a friend who is now an art therapist and puppeteer and we recalled a bit of our past. She visited in the pottery studio at Memphis State University where I was taking a pottery class and told me about Eureka Springs. She was there but a few moments, but friends of mine and I travelled to Eureka Springs that weekend and but for a few trips out I've been here ever since. 

JoAnn Kaminsky and her husband Hank were very close friends of mine in the early days, and little did I know when JoAnn and I first met, that there would be such effects. I was also on the state panel that named Hank an Arkansas Living Treasure.

It is thus: Our lives turn on dimes, and we'd best be flexible, that we're ready to bend when good things come. The work shown is by Hank Kaminsky. The large cast bronze globe shares the word peace in many languages. And peace be to you.

Make, fix and create...