warm still

"Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing for long years. And for this reason, some old things are lovely warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them."—D.H.Lawrence

We will each be forgotten at some point, and yet what we've created and passed along selflessly may live in other hands through extended self.

Parker Palmer, suggests this poem as an allegory for teaching.

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood. When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded. They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lai said to the master carver
"What is your secret?"

Khing replied, "I am only a workman:
I have no secret. There is only this:
When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
on trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.

"By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell-stand.

"Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to do was to put forth my hand
And begin.

"If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.

"What happened?
My own collected thoughts
Encountered the hidden potential in the wood:
From this live encounter came the work
Which you ascribe to the spirits."

Simple, elegant... most of the work was on self, then with the self in control and alignment, the work begins. The results are ascribed to the spirits, and the teacher's job is to bring forth that which is unique.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in doing likewise.

the wisdom of feet.

My trip to Walden Pond lead me to do some reading of Thoreau's "Paradise  (To Be) Regained" in which he reviewed a book (at Emerson's suggestion) written by John Adolphus Etzler, a German engineer who proposed a scheme through which men would no longer have to do diddly squat. Etzler in his book, The Paradise within Reach of All Men, without Labour by powers of Nature and Machinery (Pittsburgh, 1833), proposed a utopian scheme in which the sun, the tides and wind would be harnessed to do all things, much the same way engineers are proposing now. Thoreau found a few things wanting in Etzler's scheme and it's best to read it yourself, as you can do here: https://gutenberg.org/files/63459/63459-h/63459-h.htm not just for a view of modern times through an earlier lens but for additional insight into the thoughtful mind of an American visionary.

I puzzled over this from Thoreau's essay:

"What says Veeshnoo Sarma? He whose mind is at ease is possessed of all riches. Is it not the same to one whose foot is enclosed in a shoe, as if the whole surface of the earth were covered with leather?"

Do we put our minds at ease by limiting our experience of nature and of life? And is such "ease" a richness or an erasure of riches? Etzler's scheme was proposed to eliminate work, when work is a richness of life, and to propose the mind at ease as possession of riches, is to ignore the richness of the mind at work, fulfilling its true purpose.

This last spring some of my students at the Clear Spring School began abandoning foot wear, choosing to go barefoot instead, just as I and my sisters and friends did when living in the south. At winter's end, off went the shoes and we began to "toughen our feet," so that we could walk on rocks and hot pavement without feeling too much pain from the effects of engagement in the real surface of things.

At Walden Pond, my daughter took off her shoes to "get her feet wet" a symbolic thing that implies getting more deeply into the reality that surrounds us. Th photo shows one of many places along the shore of Walden Pond provided to do so. Etzler, finding a few investors in his utopian scheme led them to build colonies in South America, getting their feet wet as they died of tropical diseases and starvation. Etzler survived but disappeared from public record. Thoreau's reflections on Etzler remain informative as technocrats try to make things easy just as Etzler proposed in 1833.

Make, fix and create...

Paradoxical counterproductivity

Ivan lllich plays a small role in my book The Wisdom of  Our Hands, as I mentioned in my chapter on Tools, the need that we place emphasis on tools that offer what Illich called "conviviality." There's an excellent article about Illich in the summer edition of American Affairs: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/05/the-corruption-of-the-best-on-ivan-illich/

Illich’s examination of schooling helped lead him to a broader thesis he called “paradoxical counterproductivity.” This was a dynamic that took hold “whenever the use of an institution paradoxically takes away from society those things the institution was designed to provide.” It is not simply that school fails to impart knowledge; it also degrades and cor­rupts knowledge by enclosing it within the system of self-perpetuating rituals and perverse incentives other social critics have designated “credentialism.” Anyone who has taught will be familiar with the type of student who hasn’t the slightest interest in the subject matter but an intense concern with how to get an A. Whatever their other faults, such students are proceeding from a realistic view of the institution they are operating within, which has replaced learning with artificial signs of it.

Illich was controversial on the right due to his being identified as a socialist, and criticized on the left due to some easy to make misunderstandings having to do with a book he wrote on gender. While women were necessarily asserting their equality in the workplace, Illich was responding to the degradation of both men and women as tools of the economy, for surely we are each so much more. In the commonly held view, we are tools to be bought and sold to profit those who have the most money. But we are more than that, and Illich was attempting to point that out. The article mentioned above suggests Illich's work may reaching its "hour of legibility." I hope that is the case.

The point of course is that there are those things we do for money, and those things that we do for joy, and we're extremely lucky when they overlap and intersect, and we're even luckier when we are able to assist others in finding that same concurrence. Unfortunately, in our current economy, it's not often the case. All seem slaves to the wage one way or another, and despite attempts to bring change, for most women and men it's become worse.

I'm getting ready for classes with the Central Indiana Woodworkers on August, 17, 18 and 19. I'll share information about signing up later in the week. The image above illustrates the dignity of work and is from Otto Salomon's Educational Sloyd suggesting the value of woodworking for all students.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

stabilizing logs at Bandsaw

I have a quick tip in this month's issue of American Woodturner Magazine, the publication of the American Association of Woodturners. The tip concerns stabilizing logs on the bandsaw to enable a safer cut. There are various jigs that you can buy, but I offer a simpler approach that doesn't require waiting for the UPS truck to arrive. People have wondered what I'll do with myself after retiring from teaching at the Clear Spring School But there're still things to teach to both children and adults, and a variety of ways that I'm offered to share what I've learned. 

If you are an experienced woodturner, these photos from the magazine (originally from my shop) may tell you all that you need to know. To get the magazine on a monthly basis, become member of the AAW.

Make, fix and create...

Homo economicus

The term homo economicus is the assertion by some that the purpose of man is to engage in commerce, the buying and selling of stuff. What a despicable assertion that is, for it views human beings in far too narrow a light. The idea of course is that if you have enough money, you get what you want because other folks are so hungry for money they will give you whatever you want if you offer enough of it. Would that we were more like the Dutch. To be average is good enough. To fit in to your community as a member in full, without having to buy your way in is cause for celebration at all levels.

Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, decided to build a half billion dollar yacht for himself (without actually lifting a finger, of course), and the company building the yacht did so in a ship yard from which one cannot reach the sea in such a tall ship without dismantling a hundred plus year old bridge. The Dutch people said no. And I love that the richest man in the world can't just buy whatever he wants. The article describing this turn of events is in the New York Times. And I'm cheering for the Dutch. The photo from the New York Times shows the bridge that stands between Bezos' big toy boat and the sea.

In the mid 1800's, a man by the name of John Adolphus Etzler wrote a utopian book about technology and the power of the earth in the form of sun, winds and tide, The Paradise within the Reach of all Men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature and Machinery: An Address to all intelligent men, in two parts (1833). Emerson gave a copy of the book to Thoreau asking him to read it and comment upon it, which he did in a text called, "Paradise (To Be) Regained."  

It is worth reading and noting that the power to do all things may be best reserved for this who may have evolved beyond the condition of the common man, beyond greed, beyond avarice, and beyond self-importance, and in this case, I'm not talking about the founder of Amazon, but rather those danged Dutch who value something more than the big bucks. In Thoreau's text he concludes by making reference to love. I'll not quote but urge you to read it on your own. You'll find direct similarities between Etzler's proposals and those who now seek to accomplish the same thing, realizing the power of the earth to keep them from ever having to lift fingers, and failing to realize that it's through lifting fingers and doing real work that our character and intelligence are formed, and perhaps also lifting fingers is how we discover love.

Make, fix and create...

St. Joseph the Worker

A  new Catholic college is opening next year in Ohio that aims at equipping students for careers in the trades while also providing a four year degree in Catholic Studies. Makes sense to me.  As Rousseau had noted, when putting young persons in a wood shop, their hands will work to the benefit of their brains. They will become philosophers while thinking themselves only craftsmen. 

Such a scheme would offer both intelligence and humility, with the latter being too often lacking in the divide between academics and the trades.  Judgement stands as a barrier between social classes. A point I attempted to make in my book Wisdom of Our Hands, is that we each have direct responsibilities to encourage the growth of hand skills, for they are of direct impact on the character and intelligence of our nation.

The new Catholic College of St. Joseph the Worker promises a low cost college education at a time when education costs leave students carrying a staggering debt load and leave them poorly equipped to pay it off. 

https://www.collegeofstjoseph.com

A recent review of my new book on Amazon noted: 

"Listen to Doug's hands, they are a voice of sanity 

"Doug distills the practical wisdom that comes from a lifetime of experience into an enjoyable, personal and reflective read. If you make things, his experience will resonate. If you don't make things, here is a look into what's possible if you do (spoiler alert: very good things)."

Make, fix and create...

at Walden pond 2

The photo shows me standing in the doorway of a replica of Thoreau's cabin, taken by my wife, Jean. If you want to know more, there are links to many of Thoreau's published works on the Wikipedia website. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau

All  worth thinking about, as how many of us might benefit from taking a more direct view of the complexities in which we've become embroiled?

Make, fix and create...

 

Walden pond.

Today  my wife, my daughter Lucy and I visited Walden Pond. I know Thoreau would be surprised to see as much activity on the lake he loved but even then there were changes afoot.

Today there were bathers on the beaches, and paddle boards at both ends of the lake. But it is still, and never-the-less, a place of great beauty. Even in Thoreau's time trains would pass by at one end of the lake, and there was one today as we walked the trail to his cabin site and around the circumference of the place. 

By the replica of his cabin, a bronze statue of Thoreau appears to contemplate his hand held in front. I urge you to do the same. In these complex times, we're still human beings and given a chance are very much like the man who built a cabin the woods. May we each seek a simpler, more meaningful life. 

Make, fix and create...

Museum of Eureka Springs Art

Today an important announcement was made about the formation of the Museum of Eureka Springs Art, MESA. We have a board, non-profit status and a place for the museum to exist for a few years while we get it off its feet. Founding a museum to celebrate our art has long been a dream among many here, so this is an important step.

From the press release:

The recently formed Museum of Eureka Springs Art group has secured a space at the Eureka Springs Community Center in what has long been known as the Highlander Room. (Highlanders, you remember it as your old cafeteria!)

The museum will not occupy the space until renovations on the community center’s former band room. Grants have written to transform the former band room into usable space for classes and events.

The museum itself is a cause for celebration! “Our community has waited for a long time, actually it’s past due, to really recognize the great contributions made by the artists here," said business owner and artist Jim Nelson. The founding museum board consists of Steve Beacham, Glenn Crenshaw, Lucilla Garrett, Jim Magee, Jim Nelson, Elise Roenigk and Doug Stowe.

The museum seeks to promote and preserve the beautiful works executed by past and present artists. “In a town that flows with history, art is part of the stream. From the early days of photography and visitors paintings to an art community in the wartime era, to the flowering movement of the art galleries in the 1970s to the present day, Eureka‘s art is part of the lifeblood of our community," said Beacham, museum board chair.

As the museum grows from this simple start, there will be many ways in which the artists and art collectors of Eureka Springs can participate. The photo shows members of the Eureka Springs Community Center board with members of the new board from the Museum of Eureka Springs Art.

Make, fix and create...

table bases

Yesterday I glued up the table bases and sent photos off to folks at Fine Woodworking to see if they might be interested in another article about table design. Next I drill holes in the table tops to connect with the bases.

Jean and I attended a James Taylor concert last night and note that at 74 years old, he is still in top form. It was a lovely concert. His voice is still lovely and the music was sublime.

Make, fix and create...

subtle

Today I continue working on two tables, each with curly maple tops. Because the tops are 2 in. thick, I routed the undersides with a very large 45° chamfering bit to make them appear lighter, and I used a wide, flat, tapered shim double stick taped to the surface, supporting the router to cut deeper and hence thinner along the front edge at the center of the board. 

This is intended to add interest, stopping the top from being just a thick, massive, square ended chunk of lovely wood. 

Perhaps you can see in the photo by observing the front edge, how the routing provides a sense of greater thickness at the ends, making it appear less heavy at the center. This is experimental. You can tell me now whether you think it works, or wait until the table is finished and assess then.

Exacting rectangles and straight lines don't occur in nature, which relies more on waves and bubbles to produce form. The ends of the table top have also been gently shaped so as to be less rectangular, more fluid and sculptural. In addition, I cut in along the front, making the table top slightly more narrow at the center. My shaping of the rectangular table top is intended to make it more fluid and natural.

Today I will begin sanding the legs and other various parts prior to assembly.

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

Woodworker West

Woodworker West has featured an excerpt of my new book, Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life  in the July/August issue. The same issue features Robyn Horn's exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Craft & Design. 

To supplement the excerpt, Ron Goldman, editor at Woodworker West asked me to supply photos of some of my furniture. Among the pieces of furniture featured is a cabinet that I made for Robyn Horn.

I have been listening to a good book, Overstory, by David Powers. It is a book about trees but is also a book about the interconnectedness of things. So, I find the notice of Robyn's exhibit only a few pages from the excerpt from my book is interesting. When encountered by coincidence, it is not intended to direct us left or right at the next light, but it does serve to remind us that we are connected with each other in ways we will likely never understand, and of course that may be it's point, and sufficient at that.

The photo is of my walnut workbench that was first featured in Fine Woodworking and now serves as an illustration of my work in Woodworker West.

Make, fix and create...

ADHD and depression

This article from the New York Times, suggests a steep rise in ADHD and depression resulting from the pandemic. Folks, are naturally stressed out, depressed and anxious and a sharp rise in medication for these issues shows the severity of the problem.

There are, of course, non-medicinal solutions that should be considered. For instance, the purposeful engagement of the hands can alleviate symptoms of both. As I described in this blog and in my new book Wisdom of Our Hands; Crafting, a Life, effort driven rewards of positive mood enhancing neurohormones can alleviate symptoms of depression. In addition, training of the attention through focused hands-on work can counter the effects of ADHD. Woodworking, as an example, is a great way to hone and enhance the powers of attention.

Yesterday I received the July/August edition of Quercus Magazine in the mail containing an excerpt from my new book that covers these exact points. If you are a subscriber in the US you will have received your copy in the mail.

Make, fix, and create.

San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design...

The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design has mounted a major exhibition of the work of Arkansas Artist Robyn Horn, with the exhibit being described here: https://sfmcd.org/exhibitions/robyn-horn-material-illusions/ 

Humble, personable and unassuming Robyn has had an impact on the arts reaching far beyond her own work, in that she's long been active in promoting the growth of others, both as a patron of the arts, and through the Windgate Foundation. Yesterday I mentioned the impact of Black Mountain College on the arts. In 30 years time, the efforts of Robyn and John Horn to promote the arts, will be known as equally profound.

The image is of a piece of Robyn's work.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

Black Mountain College

Black Mountain College is featured in this interesting article in the New York Times.  Our artist power couple Louis and Elsie Freund had visited at Black Mountain College, and the spirit of the place was akin to what so many of us were looking for as we began gathering in Eureka Springs in the 1970's. The article is worth reading.

Today my wife and I will go to Little Rock for a book signing at the Central Arkansas Library, 5-8 PM.

Make, fix and  create....

A more real education

In the wood shop I've been working on thick curly maple table tops, shaping them along both ends and along the front, making them appear less massive despite their mass. I've made a shim that will allow a routing on the underside to pass deeper at the center of the cut, adding additional interest to the design. How can I describe what I have in mind? A picture when you see it will suffice.

William James book, A Talk to Teachers on Psychology published well over a century ago, tells the essential truth about learning that all educators (and parents, too) should study in depth. 

James, one of the famous founders of modern psychology, was an advocate for manual arts in school for the following reasons: 

Constructiveness is another great instinctive tendency with which the schoolroom has to contract an alliance. Up to the eighth or ninth year of childhood one may say that the child does hardly anything else than handle objects, explore things with his hands, doing and undoing, setting up and knocking down, putting together and pulling apart; for, from the psychological point of view, construction and destruction are two names for the same manual activity. Both signify the production of change, and the working of effects, in outward things. The result of all this is that intimate familiarity with the physical environment, that acquaintance with the properties of material things, which is really the foundation of human consciousness. To the very last, in most of us, the conceptions of objects and their properties are limited to the notion of what we can do with them. A 'stick' means something we can lean upon or strike with; 'fire,' something to cook, or warm ourselves, or burn things up withal; 'string,' something with which to tie things together. For most people these objects have no other meaning. In geometry, the cylinder, circle, sphere, are defined as what you get by going through certain processes of construction, revolving a parallelogram upon one of its sides, etc. The more different kinds of things a child thus gets to know by treating and handling them, the more confident grows his sense of kinship with the world in which he lives. An unsympathetic adult will wonder at the fascinated hours which a child will spend in putting his blocks together and rearranging them. But the wise education takes the tide at the flood, and from the kindergarten upward devotes the first years of education to training in construction and to object-teaching. I need not recapitulate here what I said awhile back about the superiority of the objective and experimental methods. They occupy the pupil in a way most congruous with the spontaneous interests of his age. They absorb him, and leave impressions durable and profound. Compared with the youth taught by these methods, one brought up exclusively by books carries through life a certain remoteness from reality: he stands, as it were, out of the pale, and feels that he stands so; and often suffers a kind of melancholy from which he might have been rescued by a more real education.—William James

So what might a "more real education" do? For one thing, it might help some young people to find greater meaning in school, more reasons to attend, more reasons to pay attention. By deepening the relationship between the concrete and abstract, putting real tools in student hands, they would sense their own creative powers be much more likely to avoid guns and the idealization of destruction in their search for identity.

In the woodshop, in making table tops, I've employed a variety of tools, each demanding deep attention, while also reinforcing a sense of self. A photo is shown.

Make, fix and create.

A crystal clear explanation of the value of Sloyd

Today I'm sitting on the front porch, waiting for the heat of the day to drive Rosie and I inside. We've some serious play to do first. 

In the shop, I've about 4 small projects going at once, in an attempt to clear the decks for new work. There are very clear reasons why all schools should have wood shops and other means for students to learn directly from life. The following is from William James.

"The most colossal improvement which recent years have seen in secondary education lies in the introduction of manual training schools; not because they will give us a people more handy and practical for domestic life and better skilled in trades, but because they will give us citizens with an entirely different intellectual fiber. 

 "Laboratory work and shop work engender a habit of observation. They confer precision; because, if you are doing a thing, you must do it definitely right or definitely wrong. They give honesty; for, when you express yourself by making things, and not by using words, it becomes impossible to dissimulate your vagueness or ignorance by ambiguity. They beget a habit of self-reliance, they keep the interest and attention always cheerfully engaged, and reduce the teacher's disciplinary functions to a minimum" -- William James

You can dissect what William James says in these short two paragraphs and see clearly where American education errs. The idea that teachers are to have a "disciplinary function" is somewhat terrifying, as it makes the assumption that kids will be unruly, and of course they will be if restrained against their will in activities that fail to capture their interests.

We are needing a major new investment in schools and in teachers, unless we are wanting to create a society in which people are led like sheep and controlled to serve a powerful elite. We are needing to create a society like James describes as having an "entirely different intellectual fiber." But don't hold your breath waiting for it.  Act as follows:

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

pricing at Amazon

I have been troubled lately to find some of my books on Amazon selling for more than the suggested retail price. So instead of buying from Amazon, please go to LeeValley.com. There you will find "Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life" and two earlier books, "Making Classic Toys that Teach" and "The Guide to Woodworking with Kids." All are priced below suggested retail price.

If you are interested in "the Box Maker's Guitar Book," you'll find it on Amazon for $50.00 or on BN.com for the suggested retail price of half the current Amazon price. It appears that Amazon has a very weird computer controlled pricing algorithm that may be screwing folks if they're not watchful. They are also screwing authors by inflating the price of our books and deterring sales.

In the shop I'm experimenting with a different top on the torsion tables. The top shown is curly maple.

Make, fix and create.

Set and setting...

Back in the seventies as young folks experimented with LSD, they were advised that set and setting were important to control the outcome of the trip. A trip could be good or bad depending on the circumstances set up in advance. What you expected and the reasons for it (set) had impact on whether you had a good or bad trip. Where you did it and who you did it with (setting) were the other parts... So hang out in lovely places with good folks unless you want to suffer needlessly.

An article in CNN ( https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/23/opinions/surprising-solution-to-gun-violence-ludwig/index.html) discusses how to approach the problem of gun violence, centered on research done in 1973 in which divinity students were presented the opportunity to be "good samaritans" while walking to a venue in which they were to lecture on "the Good Samaritan." Whether or not they acted along the way as "good samaritans" depended on whether they were part of the group told that they were running late. Those who were "late," were not to be bothered with the needs of others. So, set and setting have real consequences even for those who are not experimenting with drugs.

Our predispositions can have dire consequences. If you think the world is a dangerous place, your attitudes may have helped shape it to be such a place, at least for you. If you are angry about gas prices, will you carry your anger out into the roadways where consequences of your anger can lead to your death or the death of others? Big terrible things fester from small wounds to fragile egos.

Perhaps that's where craftsmanship might come in. In the woodshop, I take matters and materials into my own hands. Sometimes, things work out. When they don't, I take my emotions in hand and shift to "Plan B." Sometimes to C or D, if necessary. Perhaps if more of us were "set" on creating useful beauty the setting in which we find ourselves would be vastly improved.

I've been at work on torsion style hall tables. The torsion style is of my own invention and relies on round round mortises and tenons adjusted and glued into simple, rigid forms. But I'm struggling a bit with the top. I had intended to use spalted maple, but I'm going to use a plank of curly maple instead that I've been saving for just such a time. I decided that the table is too tall, so I'm going to cut it down by 3 inches in height. An attitude of willing adjustment can play wonders in life, just as in the wood shop. The photo shows the table in test assembly mode. It will get better, just as I've described. And life in the larger world will get better also,  I hope.

Make, fix, and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

concrete vs. abstract

A good example of the relationship between the concrete and abstract comes from people's understanding of Educational Sloyd. If, in the early days of manual arts in schools, you were to mention Educational Sloyd, people assumed you were talking about a series of useful models to be made by students. That error is made today as well. What Otto Salomon had in mind, however, was not a series of models, but rather a series of exercises that represented the development of skill and character. The models were simply the means of delivery for those exercises. The various model series were arranged based on those deeper abstract concepts. 

The same goes for my  books. The idea is not to make stuff, (though that may be the idea that readers have in mind) but to develop skill and creativity that allow for personal expression. I'll repeat the basic precepts of Educational Sloyd for two reasons. First, there may be new readers and secondly, the principles of Educational Sloyd ought to inform every educational enterprise. 

Start with the interest of the child (whether actual child or adult learning like one).

Build from the known to the unknown.

Build also from the easy to the more difficult.

From the simple to the complex, 

And from the concrete to the abstract.

In the wood shop today, I've been making small stubby tenoned parts. I could make these parts on the lathe, but you can see in the video how quickly and accurately they can be made using a Veritas tenor mounted in the drill press along with a pen drilling vise to hold the stock accurately in position. These short parts, tenoned on both ends, will support and connect the tops of tables to torsion bases. At some point I'll have photos to share.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

 

2nd Friday Art Walk

I will be at the Central Arkansas Library Galleries at Library Square on Friday, July 8, 5-8 PM for a book signing. Since my focus will be turning more and more to education and reshaping the way we teach kids, I'll have copies of three books available: The Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life, The Guide to Woodworking With Kids, and Making Classic Toys that Teach. 

The Gallery at Library Square sells my work in Little Rock, and I'll also be delivering a few new boxes to them for sale. Watch the gallery's facebook page for more information about the event. https://www.facebook.com/gallerylibrarysquare/

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Making a jewelry chest.

My curly maple jewelry chests are far enough along now to show more than a box full of loose parts. Assembly and the fitting of drawers and doors is now complete including magnetic catches on the side doors. A chest like this is as complex as most of the large pieces of furniture I've made, so that explains why in bringing it to this stage it languished in my shop for almost a decade. I was busy with other things. I was at the point of either throwing all my earlier work away, or putting in the effort to complete them (there are two).

I've still a lot to do on them before the finish is applied.

Make, fix and create...
 

Movement builds the child's brain...

Part of what I've been up to over the last few years has been to examine learning, how we learn, and how we can design schooling to be responsive to how we learn best. I've been extremely lucky to have the woodshop at the Clear Spring School as a laboratory for my own growth. Now,  with my retirement from Clear Spring School, I'm in need of additional ways to share what I've learned.

In my book, The Wisdom of Our Hands, I was only able to touch the surface of all that's known about the subject of how our hands form the foundations of character and intellect for the child, and also for society at large.

The following link is to an interesting article on the relationship between movement and brain development that should be informing every educator in the US. https://extension.psu.edu/movement-builds-a-childs-brain 

Understanding the relationship between movement and brain development is of particular importance as children are held captive at desks, and as we've all become captivated and captive to digital devices. 

The hands I take symbolic as they represent the whole child's body, mind and spirit of full engagement in life. And you can help. If you are lucky enough to have young people in your own life, do things with them. If you are a teacher, rebel at least strongly enough to get your students out of their desks, doing real things, and cast aside the yoke of standardized testing and standardized expectations. If you are a policy maker, or administrator, reduce class sizes to enable teachers to better relate to the individual needs and interests of each child. And if you are a parent, please understand that children are not clockwork. They don't all grow at a standardized rate, and their bodily maturity that comes from doing real things in the real world is more important than reading a book, and that the two are closely related.

You can see in the video, that Clear Spring School students' play with blocks is both physical and intellectual. Our Froebel playground is always in flux as designed by our kids.

Make, fix and create...

Woodworker West

Subscribers to Woodworker West Magazine can watch for the next issue (July/August) to come in the mail. It includes an excerpt from my book Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life. The excerpt comes from my chapter on developing technique and includes a few photos of my furniture not included in the book.

This is the first time I've had anything in that magazine due to it being exactly what the title suggests, Woodworker West  having works from the western half of  the US. Arkansas doesn't quite make that cut.

Among the photos featured with the excerpt is this cherry cabinet that I did for the Horn Collection of American Crafts.

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Useful beauty...

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful."—William Morris. 

And yet, there may be things that appear pretty on their surface that lack beauty, for beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the beholder may be looking more deeply into things. What about objects that represent the enslavement of man to industrial processes? What of things that come to us from the pillaging of the earth's resources, a bit of beauty brought here at the cost of great loss in other places or to the earth itself?

And then there are things that glow from an inner beauty in that they represent the maker's growth, a thing not seen quickly or at first glance. And then there's that beauty that's found in relationships that objects may represent. In other words, things are complicated, but we need ways of assessing what things we bring into our own lives lest we be overwhelmed by meaningless stuff.

A week or so ago the New York Times invited readers to share with them objects considered heirlooms, objects that carry meaning from on generation to the next. I submitted a photo of my father's WWII service watch that he'd worn through 199 days of combat in Germany. 

After the war, my father watched as thousands of similar watches were smashed by a steam roller on an aircraft runway to keep them from being carried home and destroying the watch market in the US. Over the years, the chrome plated bronze case was deteriorating badly so I had a jeweler friend plate the watch in gold, and I recently had it cleaned so that it runs again, keeping perfect time. This watch is a 17 jewel Hamilton and the video shows that it still works. The tiny shaft that keeps the second hand moving is only a fraction of a millimeter in diameter.

Asked by the New York Times to explain the importance of the heirloom, I explained that my father had it on his wrist and kept it wound as he directed traffic on the Red Ball Express, as his division (the 104th) fought its way through the  dikes of Holland, as they held a defensive position in Germany during the Battle of the Bulge, as they fought for the Hürtgen Forest, as he crossed the Bridge at Remagen, and as he witnessed the horrors at the liberation of Camp Dora, a Nazi death camp outside Nordhausen. It was there as they waited at the Elbe River for the Russian troops to arrive as arranged by agreement between FDR and Stalin. 

In other words beauty can also be found in objects that connect us through generations. Cleaned, cased in gold and lubricated, my dad's watch is good for another 75 years, at least.

Make, fix and create...

Skip the middle man.

Skip the middle man. An article in CNN suggests that big box stores are so overwhelmed with returned merchandise that in some cases they're telling shoppers to "just keep it." The cost of returns and the processing and storage of all that junk has become too much. 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/business/retail-returns/index.html

So how about this idea? Let's make the things we need or buy things of extraordinary beauty that thus offer deeper meaning.  We can avoid time wandering isles to buy things we really don't need and invest that time in making our lives more meaningful. 

I've written before about the half life of objects. Their time between manufacturing and deposit in landfills is brief. Their cost to the environment is enormous. And while the making and distribution of meaningless stuff keeps folks busy and employed we would find deeper meaning if we were to follow these simple rules: 

If you buy something, be sure it's worth the time someone spent to make it. If you can make it yourself and learn from the process, do so. 

There will be a temporary loss of meaningless employment while we move incrementally toward a sound relationship with the environment. But think of the amount of gas we'll save by not making so many trips to the store.

The jig shown is for making drawer pulls for a jewelry chest. It pivots to guide a rectangular piece of wood through the cut on the bandsaw. The same simple jig is also used with a disc sander to finish shaping the curved form.

Make, fix and create...

Tables at ESSA

Steve Palmer's furniture design class returned to ESSA this last week as students gathered to make tables. You can see in the photo that it was a successful 5 day class, with each student making a table utilizing their own design inclinations.

Steve uses a loose tenon technique for joining parts. In that technique, a solid wood tenon is formed that is inserted in mortises cut in both parts. When properly sized and glued in place the loose tenon technique provides as much strength as a conventional mortise and tenon joint. This article explains the technique:

 https://www.woodcraft.com/blog_entries/joinery-class-loose-tenon-joinery

Make, fix and create...

A pleasant conversation...

 

I had a pleasant reading, book signing and conversation at the Two Friends Book Store in Bentonville, AR today. And it was particularly pleasing that three woodworking friends came to it. I have long known that woodworkers are particularly generous in wanting to share with each other. It is my belief that attempting to make  beautiful and useful things grooms us for assuming constructive roles in society and  builds a generosity of spirit that's needed now, more than ever given the monumental challenges of these times.

Something I've noticed is that big things have a tendency to grow from small humble things. We can think of the wisdom of our hands in that light. Nourish them with good things to do, keep an eye on them and see what they can accomplish in time. The result may be no less than miraculous. 

The jig shown is one that I use for making cuts in the corners of boxes to install contrasting keys that decorate and strengthen mitered joints. The box rests in the "V" as it passes over the saw blade. The position of the cut is adjusted by simply moving the table saw fence. Having a few tools and knowing a few techniques help to do good work.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in living likewise.

Cube boxes

One of these days I'll have real boxes to share with you. I actually have two large jewelry boxes in the works, but they take time, and my work on them is proceeding at a snail's pace. Tomorrow I have  book signing at the Two Friends Book Store in Bentonville, and I hope a few friends show up. Scroll down to an earlier post for details.

The small cube box illustration shown is one that was featured on the cover of my book Basic Box Making.  https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Box-Making-Doug-Stowe/dp/1561588520/

It is made with a keyed-miter joint and mixing and matching woods is an ideal way to add additional interest. The design principle involved is contrast. Contrast lures the eyes into deeper engagement with the object.

Make, fix and create...

A Jewelry Box design.

I continue to refresh my SketchUp skills, not knowing whether they will come in handy or not except as a means of sharing with you. 

This illustration is another box from my book Beautiful Boxes: Design and Technique. The most difficult thing on this project was to make Brusso JB-102 hinges to fit.

You can buy or borrow the book for additional details on making a box like this for yourself.

I remind my readers and friends of my book signing on Saturday at Two Friends Book Store in Rogers, 11 AM on June 25.

Make, fix and create...

A pivot lid box

I've been refining my illustration skills using the SketchUp 3D modelling program, a favorite among woodworkers. It is almost easier to make a box, than to illustrate the box, but I expect that with practice, my illustration skills will improve. If you want to get good at something, do a lot of it. 

The box shown is one that was featured in my book Beautiful Boxes: Design and Technique published by Taunton Press. https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Boxes-Technique-Doug-Stowe/dp/1621139557/ It can be made with hand or power tools.

A second variation is shown here, also.

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Bentonville Book signing

I have a book signing and reading event on Saturday June 25 at the Two Friends Books Store at 11 AM. Beat the heat, browse books, and give me a chance to explain how the hands bring things together for better lives and richer communities. 

The map and address will help you find your way andTwo Friends Book Store is a place you will enjoy having discovered.

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Amazon

 I checked pricing on two of my books on Amazon and learned that they've jacked the price up over the suggested retail. I don't know the reasons for it as most publishers find Amazon's strategies to be inexplicable. In the meantime, LeeValley.com has my Guide to Woodworking with Kids, Making Classic Toys that Teach, and my new book The Wisdom of our Hands available for immediate shipping. These are the links:

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/111950-the-guide-to-woodworking-with-kids

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/75487-making-classic-toys-that-teach

and https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/114136-the-wisdom-of-our-hands-crafting-a-life

There are times when Amazon offers the best price and times when you'll want to ignore them and choose to shop elsewhere. In this case Amazon is hurting my sales by pushing the prices up to their benefit, but not mine.

And I would prefer that if you are buying my books, you get them at the best price.

Make,  fix and create...

Pen and Ink Box

I have a class with ESSA tomorrow making spoon carving knives. We'll use both the wood shop and the metals studio to do it with 8 students.

In the meantime I've been practicing and learning with sketchup, to create new box designs.

This box is a pen and ink box to hold both a bottle of ink and two pens. There's a compartment below the pen tray for additional necessaries.

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development of neural pathways

Imagine you walk each day from the backdoor to the outhouse, and keep the path well worn. Grass and loose stones are knocked unceremoniously from the path by the movement of your feet, and weeds are kept clear by the same effect. If you've been away from home for the summer you'll have found the weeds grown up in your absence and the journey to and from may take greater effort. You may need a weed-whacker to restore the path. But when the weeds are cut back, there again you'll find your well-worn path.

The same applies in the use of tools as repeated use builds neural pathways to and from the brain. Let the tool fall into disuse for a time and when you pick it up again, it may feel a bit awkward at first, but the comfort of the grip will soon return and it will settle into your hands like an old friend. 

The very first time a tool is used an early awkwardness sets in that requires a great deal of brainpower to overcome. And through repeated use, the impressions the tool leaves on the musculature and nerves of the hands refines the passage of information to and from the brain and even within the brain itself. That, of course, is why hands-on learning is so important, so engaging, and so powerful in comparison with online lessons, or lessons delivered through books, articles, lectures, and the like.

Field Marshall Rommel in WWII was described as having fingerspitzengefuhl, an intelligence of hand and mind derived from having done real things in real life and having been a careful observer of what he and others had done. For Rommel, fingerspitzengefuhl gave him a secure sense of the battlefield, even those parts at a distance that he could not see and so you can see that hands on learning is not just for those destined to spend their lives working in the trades.

There is a law in geology that falls somewhat akin. It's that the present is the key to the past. In other words, what you see now, going on around you, is informative. There's nothing in the world that you can't do mindlessly if that's your intent. And of course the difference between one thing and the other is the amount of passion you bring to bear. Are you blasé and dismissive of that which surrounds you, or are you willing to engage your attentions with passion and intent. If the present is indeed the key to the past, then or course, viewed deeply and with passion, that which surrounds us can be viewed in a new light... Even when it's a well worn path to the outhouse and back.

Today was my last day as the director of the Wisdom of the Hands program at the Clear Spring School. While I'm retiring from that job, I'm not retiring from woodworking, from teaching adults, mentoring teachers or from writing books and articles about woodworking or education. The work in those fields is far from complete.

The photo shows the lines used to lay out the carving of a sphere from a wooden cube. Known to be an amateur woodcarver, Friedrich Froebel would have carved such things as he walked from one village to the next. It is a form of contemplation.

Make, fix and create.  Assist others in learning likewise.

this week...

I have been reviewing two soon-to-be published excerpts from my book, Wisdom of Our Hands. One will be in Quercus Magazine in the UK (also distributed in the US) and the other in Woodworker West. Each focuses on different sections of the book. 

I learned this morning that my Wisdom of Our Hands book is in its second printing. That's a good sign that the message within it is gaining traction.

This coming week will be my last as director of the woodworking program at the Clear Spring School. And so I hope to step into a broader but continued role as an advocate for hands-on learning. 

Also this coming week, my Guide to Woodworking with Kids will be back in the warehouse and ready for sales with a reprint being complete. On Saturday I have a class on making spoon carving knives to be held for adults at ESSA. The class will involve both the blacksmithing studio and wood studio at ESSA. We'll make both straight whittling knives and my own improved version of spoon carving knives.

Make, fix and create...

Brusso JT-101

With just a bit of help from a friend David Heim, who wrote a great book about SketchUp, I managed to made a 3D model of the Brusso JT-101 hinge. It's one I need to finish a box model for an article I'm proposing, and it feels great to be getting better at using the SketchUp 3D modeling program as it will allow me to better prepare for publishing a few extra box designs. 

My big challenge that I had to ask David about was how to develop chamfers in the holes where the screws fit. He did them for me in one leaf and fortunately left the other for me to do with his instructions. So, now I can do them myself!

You can find David's book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/SketchUp-Success-Woodworkers-Drawings-Accurately/dp/1950934063/

Make, fix and Create...

Box Making at ESSA

Yesterday I finished a five day box making class at ESSA with 9 students. This was my first full class since the start of the Covid pandemic and it was good to have a class again at the full capacity. Students each made three or more  boxes during the five days, and each learned a lot.

I am grateful to have made new friends.

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This is my day

Yesterday I was honored at a retirement party at the home of Sally and LeRoy Gorrell. I'm retiring this year from teaching at the Clear Spring School after 20 years teaching kids in the Clear Spring School wood shop. 

My wife, Jean and our head of school Jessica Fitzpatrick, had arranged with the Eureka Springs Mayor to proclaim June 4th as "Doug Stowe Day," so this is my day. I want to thank all those who celebrated with me yesterday, and all those who supported my work over these years. And thanks to our mayor for making this my day.

On this special "Doug Stowe" day, I'll be gardening a bit, playing with Rosie, and getting ready for a five day box making class at ESSA that starts on Monday.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Whittlin'

Yesterday I went by the Clear Spring School as students were camping in our field. They had insisted they wanted to whittle, so Dustin Griffith had gone to the woodshop to get a few sloyd knives out for them to use. More and more students wanted to join in, so the number of whittlers grew and I brought out the whole set. Using the sloyd knives and pocket knives brought from home, many sharp sticks were made.

One of my students, Gabe, told me that he whittles nearly every day at home, and I can assure you that whittling is a meditative process that leads to a sharpened point, both in the wood and in the mind of the whittler. To whittle is not the simple minded activity one might assume. To whittle requires one to observe, hypothesize, and test one's hypotheses. As the hand becomes skilled, the knife becomes an extension of mind, and the powers of the mind are set free to explore the realities of life that surround us. We do that through the exploration and use of metaphor. Metaphor is a construction of mind built upon concrete experience. Without the concrete experience metaphor crumbles in abstraction when tested and measured against real life.

A friend suggested a book about chain carving and I ordered. Chain Carvers, Old Men Craft Meaning by Simon J. Bronner, having to do with the minds of old men, arrived in my mailbox on the same morning I was taking a wood carving friend to the clinic for tests. I passed it along for him to read during his recovery from surgery and will get it back later on. I'll read it myself and then pass it along to a friend who is busily crafting wooden chains in his retirement years.

I'm working on an article for Woodcarving Illustrated about children and whittling and so yesterday I took some good photos as the children brought their sticks, and minds to sharp points.

Make, fix and create...

A matter of the senses...

Comenius had put forth his argument that the senses form the core of learning:

"The ground of this business (education) is, that sensual objects be rightly presented to the senses for fear that they not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this is the foundation of all the rest; because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which are to be done and whereof we have to speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding which was not before in the senses. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving of the differences of things will be to lay the grounds for wisdom and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in one's course of life, which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the things that are to be learned are offered to scholars without their being understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward and offereth little benefit." 

Comenius was considered the father of modern education. And if you look at what other educators have offered you begin to see that Comenius, though ignored these days, has had his theories expressed more recently by others. For instance, Howard Gardner came up with his theory of multiple intelligences, which isolates the particular senses and proposes them as being expressions of intellect. And yet, we have almost completely ignored Comenius' point. Instead of engineering classroom work to offer avenues for engagement of various forms of intellect as is proposed by followers of Howard Gardner, Comenius proposed that children become engaged in doing real things that connected them more deeply to community and culture. ...Making things of useful beauty, for example. Engagement of the senses is key. 

Why are the senses key? The engagement of the senses and the input they provide is the boundary between the concrete and the abstract. It's the boundary line between those things that have been engineered by teachers to instruct, rather than empower. When the full array of senses is engaged, students know that they are involved in real life, which then commands their full attention. Lose the students' full attention, and you've wasted their lives as well as your own.

When students walk into a wood shop, they know it's not a typical classroom. It is full of tools that have the capacity to alter wood into useful and beautiful forms. They are first of all greeted with the smell of wood having been sawn, and they notice.

I want to return your attention to the quote from Comenius to point out that it's not just about career and technical education and applies just as well to those planning to go to college rather than enter into the trades.  .... "the right perceiving of the differences of things will be to lay the grounds for wisdom and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in one's course of life."

To attend the Make Magazine author interview, you will need to register through this link:

https://make.activehosted.com/f/38

Make, fix and create...