By selling a few things, I make room to make more.
Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.
This blog is dedicated to sharing the concept that our hands are essential to learning- that we engage the world and its wonders, sensing and creating primarily through the agency of our hands. We abandon our children to education in boredom and intellectual escapism by failing to engage their hands in learning and making.
By selling a few things, I make room to make more.
Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.
The tables shown I call Tori tables as they are inspired by Japanese architecture, most particularly the shape of a Torii Temple gate.
I'm sharing my work here in the hopes of attracting folks to apply for my 2024 Woodworking Residency at ESSA. The details can be found on the ESSA website. https://essa-art.org/instructors/residency-program/
Some of the aspects of the Torii Table are exposed mortise and tenon joints, the shape (of course) and the treatment of the wood, with each piece managed with a sense of reverence for the material and for the tree from which it came. In addition to the wedged through tenons the tops are floating with the expansion and contraction allowed to take place toward the middle of the table... A future I illustrated in my second Fine Woodworking article "A Fresh take on Table Tops," published in 2006.
Want to take your work to the next level? Perhaps I can help.
Make, fix and create...
“Let me say to you that all honest work is honorable work. If the labor is manual, and seems common, you will have all the more chance to be thinking of other things, or of work that is higher and brings better pay, and to work out in your minds better and higher duties and responsibilities for yourselves, and for thinking of ways by which you can help others as well as yourselves, and bring them up to your own higher level.” — C.P. Huntington (1821-1900)
How many times have you been involved in manual work, and had your mind wander in ways that brought some form of gift to others or to yourself? It happens all the time. Never underestimate the value of mindless work. It offers unseen pleasures and surprises, when we invite the right spirit to attend.
Make, fix and create...
These will fit the wrench I made yesterday and will allow the hand screw to be used as a vise when clamped to a table, desk or bench. The wrench will enable young hands to get the hand screw tight. The shop made octagonal handles are white oak and are glued to the threaded rods with epoxy.
My simple point is that every classroom in America should be readied for hands-on learning.
Am I crazy or what? I'm powerless to make the changes I have in mind, so that's where you and others can join in.
My book Designing Boxes has had the publication date changed to June 25, 2024.
Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.
The deadline to apply for my mentored residency program at ESSA approaches. More information can be found on the ESSA website, including the application material. https://essa-art.org/instructors/residency-program/
You'll note that in this that I put both handles on the same side so it can be adjusted while clamped to a table or bench.
It was fun making this, and working through the challenges involved. It would be easy to make a Moxon vise using the exact same technique.
Make, fix and create... assist others in learning likewise.