Buy a book, read, and promote the concept of hands-on learning

If you are beginning to shop for Christmas or any other seasonal holiday and are a maker or one of those who love working with your hands in the kitchen, garden, or workshop and you wish others might understand you better, this little book of mine may help you to explain yourself to others. Buy it as a gift to yourself, as I know you'll enjoy it. Give it as a gift to others as a way of enlisting friends in a revolution.

If you buy it through this link, I receive a small bonus as an amazon affiliate.

We have about 30 making days left before Christmas.

Make, fix and create.

Seeking quality

We are killing ourselves and our planet with cheap stuff. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A00.ARcB.rR_6lDsGZwAn&smid=url-share

On Wednesday I picked up a computer desk I'd made about 20 years ago, it being donated by friends to the Museum of Eureka Springs Art. I'm building a base for it that will allow it to be easily moved around the museum. After a quick refresh of the finish, it will be good as new... not just because it was well made, but also because it's pretty enough to have been  taken good care of.

We must begin a renewed emphasis on quality, as it's the only thing that will save us as we hurtle toward planetary disaster. Things should be made to last, and things should be made to be repaired in the event they fail, and the sad fact is that they are not.

I'm not telling you this to preach, but also to remind myself. There are ships at sea, bringing us all cheap stuff. stuff that we have the right to refuse.

At this point we have about 30 making days left before Christmas. This is black Friday, a day celebrated by buying cheap stuff. It would be a better day to begin projects that develop skills and serve others.

Make, fix and create...

small drawers...

I'm making small drawers to fit the walnut stash boxes. The grooves for drawer guides have been cut, the bottoms fitted and the mortise and tenon joints that give the drawers strength and long life have been fitted and glued. A small square is used to assure assembly is square so it will fit in the body of the box.

Make, fix and create...

Welcome

I finished repairing and refinishing the music stand that Crescent Dragonwagon commissioned for Ned Shank. That it leans to the right was not intentional. That resulted from gravity and from it being made from green wood.

Art often tells stories within communities, describing the relationships we have with each other. Illustrating those relationships, telling those stories, is one of the reasons our new museum is important. It can describe for visitors and residents alike, how the arts build communities and how artists nourish and sustain one another.

Make, fix and create...

On the wonders of wood

On the wonders of wood... There are clearly wonderful things about wood. It grows from the earth. It pulls minerals and water from the earth, processes carbon dioxide from the air to make oxygen and then grows large and strong in its relationship to gravity and light. There is no type of living thing that has engaged man's imagination more than our trees. We write poems about them.

Steel, glass, clay and stone are each materials that must be forcibly extracted from the earth before our use of them. Wood emerges abundantly on the surface of the earth, nearly as a gift. There is no material friendlier to the touch. Steel, glass and stone are either cold or hot to the touch. Wood, even in the harshest of conditions is mild to the touch. It may be rough and with splinters at first and yet, the touch can solve that problem as well. It becomes polished to perfection through our caress.

You can walk right into the forest with an axe or a knife, find a deadfall branch and begin making art. No other material lends itself so directly to man's creative genius.

Wood can be such a simple and direct material with such depth of integrity, and yet we know that the wood most people have in the furnishings of their homes isn't really wood at all, but material mixed and compressed from a stew of random forest fibers, reshaped and decorated with printed images on plastic film.

There are several factors that go into the value of an object. One is the integrity of the material. You might ask, is it real? Real wood can be sanded, repaired and refinished. A piece of furniture made from real wood can thus be made to last generations. Another factor is the integrity of the craftsmanship. A craftsman can put into the making of things, the full extent of his knowledge and experience. How can he really know how to do that with newly invented materials? The best craftsmen choose materials with integrity that allow their use of techniques that make their work last beyond their own times. The third factor is the care that is given when the craftsman's work is done. Real wood sustains greater wear without loss of value or appearance, and seldom reaches that sorry point at which the owner of the work no longer cares for it.

The photo above is of a steam bent hickory music stand I made for a violinist. My intent was for it to look as though it just waltzed from the woods. In a sense, it did.

Make, fix and create...

fixing

I went to our new Museum of Eureka Springs Art to do a repair on the desk we brought in a few days ago, and found another piece of my earlier work had been delivered to the museum needing repair. This piece is a music stand I made for Crescent Dragonwagon to give to her 6 ft. 5 in. amateur violinist, Ned Shank. After his death, it ended up with John Mitchell, a well known art and antiques dealer in Eureka Springs. 

The back leg was broken, so is now being glued back in place, making use of the original mortise and tenon joint.

Back in its day Ned had it ornamented with crystals hanging from the  upper ribs. The music stand will  soon be ready to stand once again on its three legs.

Make, fix and create...

stash box progress

One of the advantages of working with solid hardwoods is that furniture made from them can be repaired, while veneered furniture can present greater difficulties. Today I'll do a bit of repair on the office furniture I'd made for the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, preparing it for another 20 year's use.

In the wood shop I'm making progress on stash boxes.  The first photo shows cutting parts to length last week. The second photo shows the boxes partially sanded and ready for making drawers.

Make, fix and create...

A homecoming of sorts...

Yesterday I drove to Jacksonville, Arkansas to pick up furniture that I'd made years ago that's being donated to the new Museum of Eureka Springs Art. I had made the furniture for Paul Harvel, then director of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce for his office in their new building in downtown Little Rock.

The office overlooks the Arkansas River.When Paul retired from the State Chamber, the furniture went with and was used in his offices at Chambers of Commerce in Fort Smith, Russelville, and Jacksonville, and for a time was loaned as the office furniture for the director of the largest advertising firm in the state. 

You can see that it was well traveled before arriving back here in Eureka Springs. Today we'll be setting it up in its new home, and I thank Paul and his wife Barbara for taking such very good care of it and for making such a generous gift to our new museum. I'd talked with Paul for years about his interest in donating the furniture to a museum to assure it would be taken care of. The launch of our new Museum of Eureka Springs Art came just in time. The photo was taken in its original home. The work is all solid wood, but for the glass tops, sugar maple trimmed in walnut.

Make, fix and create...

making a stash box

Over the years, I'm sure that many of the boxes I've made have been used as "stash boxes," a term used to describe a place to store drug paraphernalia. I've been asked to make box specifically for that use. 

These walnut boxes in process are made with finger joints and each will have a drawer. The design is based on one from my book Beautiful Boxes: Design and Technique.

My customer wanted it to be done in a darker wood. I'm also making it slightly larger. in width, length and depth to hold more stuff. 

The drawer will provide two levels of storage, so one needs not dig to the bottom to retrieve smaller objects. The larger of the two boxes is sold. The other will be available at a later date.

Make, fix and create...

do good work.

Here in the Ozarks we wonder whether this fall will be as beautiful as last. It makes a difference when you look out. Most of the trees capturing the morning light are red and white oaks. Touches of green are cedars and elm. The deep orange in the understory is from dogwood trees. The steps lead down to our front porch where I often sit with Rosie, our 5 year old golden doodle as she watches for squirrels.

There is a reason to observe the beauty that may surround us, and to share it with others. A recent survey found that folks were pleased with their personal lives, and were pleased at the success of their communities, but terrified for the future of our country and the world, that view twisted by our obsession with the national
news.

The folks out there want us to be angry, so that we can be controlled and manipulated. Beauty helps us to find our center, to be powerful and at peace. This doesn't mean that we should not be concerned with such things as the travesty of national politics, or the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, but that we formulate our views based on an inner sense of beauty and peace, that we may thence be led to manifest those things in this world.

There's a Chinese saying that I paraphrase — When you perceive evil, do good work.

Make, fix and create...

Artificial intelligence vs. hands-on learning

Interesting research at Perdue in 2009 illustrated how hands-on learning was superior to lecture and book based learning for all students. The results were even more significant when gender and language barriers were considered. https://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2009a/090128DarkStudy.html  And so the question becomes, can hands on learning help to moderate some of the issues of polarization and tribalism currently plaguing  our culture and politics.

In the days of educational sloyd, manual arts were considered to have particular value, not only to those destined to become tradesmen, but even more importantly to those privileged to have leadership roles in the culture and economy. The point was for the upper classes and economic elite develop respect for all labor. 

Work with the hands is an equalizer. It helps those who may not be academically inclined to demonstrate expertise. When schools took on the role of sorting kids it was disastrous. Some students were targeted upward and some down based on standardized test scores that we know to be faulty and biased.

With the rise of Artificial intelligence it is more important than ever that we develop a common framework of understanding that arises  in each and every child through the senses. The hands have a particular role, as the eyes and ears are easily deceived. The hands measure the weight, size, density, and texture of objects, and thereby help us all to build a better framework for discernment of truth.

Make, fix and create...

Building a shared foundation for shared belief

The way the hands bridge between the arts, science and religion is directly associated with the way we learn as was described by Diesterweg (an associate of Friedrich Froebel) and was described by Otto Salomon in the Theory of Educational Sloyd.

We start with interest of the child

We build from the known to the unknown

From the easy to the more difficult

From the simple to the complex

and from the concrete to the abstract.

Fundamental science begins early, as you can’t whittle a stick without observing the effects of the knife. If the blade is digging too deep, you “hypothesize” and alter the angle or reverse the stick to compensate for the direction of the grain. Religion is dangerous because we are constantly asked to accept on “faith” that which is proposed by others, often for the purpose of manipulating us, rather than being trusted to build upon shared experience. 

Everything in life from the most simple things, offers the challenge of observation and interpretation. Both religion and science are perceived as theoretical abstractions, when people, even from the youngest child, have the capacity to observe and reflect, but are cut short from building a cosmology of understanding within their own lives.

Personal and international tragedies mounted in the name of religion, cut short the building of those cosmologies within individuals. What’s happening in Gaza and Israel is an example.

I had an interesting experience in high school. We’d taken a standardized test in Biology and after grading, the teacher asked me to stand up so he could acknowledge me for having scored in the 99th percentile. No other student in the class had even come close. What I chose not to tell him was that none of the questions on the test were in any way related to anything he’d taught in class. Nor were the questions related to anything I’d studied on my own. What happened was that my having some experience in the real world, I think, gave me a foundation for discernment in separating the truth, from stuff made up to resemble the truth.

Instead of trusting children to make observations based on experience and the use of their senses, we begin indoctrination at a very early age, insisting that children believe what they are told that comes second or third hand from others. You will note the difference between first and second “hand” as the word hand is a direct reference to the acquisition of knowledge. In German there are two forms of knowledge, kentniss, which refers to knowledge gained directly, and wissenschaft which refers to knowledge being gained 2nd or third  hand.

Of course, we can’t possibly learn everything from experience, as there’s a lot to know, but a basic structure of knowing that comes in the manner described by Diesterweg offers a foundation for discernment of truth. From the known to the unknown, from the easy to the more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract offers a view of the construction of what Jerome Bruner called scaffolding… an internal construction of understanding, built through the senses in response to observation and the encouragement to reflect. We all have hands, and common use of them begins to build a structure of shared understanding that actually has the power to remake the world in which we live. That’s probably not why the Kaiser outlawed Froebel’s Kindergarten in 1851, as he would not have been capable of understanding that.

Make, fix and create...

Legos

I found the original lego that I'd printed to test whether or not my sketchup illustration instructions (precisely followed) would print a lego accurately enough to fit a real lego. The blue one is an official lego block The clear one is one that I printed using PLA filament on a MakerBot in 2015.

It is satisfying that they fit so well.

Make, fix and create...

"red-handed revolutionists in swaddling clothes."

The horrible dangers of Kindergarten, led  to it being outlawed by the Kaiser in 1851, as was later noted in KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION,  a pamphlet from the US Department of the Interior By ALMIRA M. WINCHESTER, 1919

No other phase of education·is more completely democratic and American than the kindergarten. In this respect the prophecy of the founder has been fulfilled that in America, the new world where new life was and is unfolding, the new education of the human race would take firm root. In Germany, the geographical birthplace of the kindergarten, little more than the outer form and the name is discoverable; the essence is missing. The kindergarten is not at home in Germany.

The edict of the Prussian Government in 1851 forbidding the establishment of kindergartens is tacit evidence that a system of education for the people based upon the principle of self-activity, freedom, and respect for individuality was considered a dangerous foe to the success of military autocracy. It was charged at the time that the tendency of the kindergartens was toward atheism and revolution, an indictment that inspired the Berlin comic paper to point out as objects of suspicion "those three-year-old demagogues with their inflammatory speeches, those red-handed revolutionists in swaddling clothes."

All education should be bought to bear a closer resemblance to the original Kindergarten, where kids were to learn by play and by doing real things.

Make, fix and create...

Make Mag.

I received a contributor copy today of Make Magazine, volume 87, their November 2023 issue. It includes my article about making super-sized Froebel blocks representing gifts 3 and 4. And introduces readers to a bit of Froebel's philosophy of learning.

The article introduces the maker community to the wonders of Kindergarten, some perhaps for the first time since Kindergarten is no longer what it once was.

If you like making cool things involving chips, wiring, solder, 3D printing and LEDs, you are probably already familiar with Make Magazine. The company sponsors Maker Faires across the US and around the world.

The book stand is one I made for an article in Woodwork Magazine years ago.

Make, fix and create....

proposed publication date

Yesterday I learned that the planned publication date for my new book, Designing Boxes, is April 16. In my shop I'm finishing some work that I'd put aside for various reasons. With the completion of the book, I have lots of clean up to attend to, and finishing of unfinished work is part of that.

I'm working on an article for Make Magazine about 3D printing your own legos using Sketchup software to design them. Gabriel at the Clear Spring School printed some for me on the school's printer. The photo shows that they fit together. Further testing will confirm that they fit real legos.

The point of the original exercise was learning to use the software to build a design, and students had the option of personalizing their designs using raised or embossed letters.

I received a contributor copy today of Make Magazine, volume 87, their November 2023 issue. It includes my article about making super-sized Froebel blocks representing gifts 3 and 4.

Make, fix and create...

new items on Etsy

 I added five new listings on Etsy today. They can be found in my shop at

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/DougStowe

Among them is this one-of-a-kind box made of mahogany. It has a textured lid, is made with hidden spline joints visible only when the lift-off lid is opened.

Make, fix and create...

parts arriving

Parts to fix my Grizzly 6 x 48 in. belt sander will arrive this morning. In preparation, I've taken the sander apart to the point that it can be reassembled with the new parts in place... at a savings of over $500.00 and a savings to our local community and the global environment as well. 

Imagine a world in which things could be made to last, and repaired as necessary. We don't live in that world, but one in which complex devices are made to blow each other up.

I'm reminded of the American bombing in Viet Nam.  We would drop cluster bombs on villages to kill the Viet Cong... each bomb costing thousands of dollars, when if we were to drop Kubota tractors as an alternative to bombs we'd have saved millions of dollars and made friends instead.

There's an article in this month's National Geographic about people living on a small island in the Indian ocean that just wants to be left alone. They defend their solitude by shooting arrows at anyone who lands on their beaches. And of course, they are right. They see the detritus from our civilization in the form of plastic waste arriving each day on the tides and know that what we are doing to the planet should be avoided.

In the news we see children's bodies in body bags, and must remember that each has parents and grandparents that felt them sacred to their own lives. Can we not see that we are one, that there is no other, and that we must begin to act as though we are each sacred to each other? I say this as a new grandparent concerned for the safety and protection of my own grand child.

We have a lovely fall day in the Ozarks. The leaves are falling as they must do each year for refreshing and renewal. If they were not to fall, the ice and snow would tear our trees apart. There are people who drive hundreds of miles to see what I see from my porch. At this point about half of my new book has been turned over to production. What remains is in the hands of my editor for review.

Make, fix and create...

fixing, wearing out and fixing again.

Yesterday, being international repair day https://openrepair.org/international-repair-day/ and all, my Grizzly 6 x 48 in. belt and disk sander started making a loud thumping sound. I managed to get 44 boxes through their first sanding before the sound became completely unbearable. My choice became buying a new sander to replace my 30 plus year old machine or fixing the one I have. The difference in cost of one vs. the other is enormous, and fortunately Grizzly still has parts for my old machine. How often in this horrid age of planned obsolescence is that still the case?

The repair of the machine, after parts arrive in two days, will take less time than taking a new machine out of the box and bolting the parts together as they come out. Add to that the waste involved in a new machine....  Raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, shipping to the US, distribution by truck or train in the US, delivery, recycling of the old machine and disposal of the packaging that assured the safe delivery of the new machine. The economic costs are reflected in the price paid. The environmental costs are unmeasured.

Then let's consider what are called the "opportunity costs"* 

To compare, I could buy a new machine and have it delivered for $800.00 or fix the one I have for $75. In the latter option I'm left with $725.00 to spend in my local community or save, and the not-insignificant cost of disposing of packaging materials by my community would be spared as well. Those who observe toxic garbage mountains growing in place of real mountains might take note.

There are economic, environmental, social and psychological aspects to consider. There's the money that's saved when things are fixed. There's a savings to the environment when things are given longer life. We build stronger local connections when our resources are directed within our communities rather than squandered abroad. And we receive a greater sense of personal enrichment and psychological empowerment when we fix things, or make the things we find useful in our daily lives. If depressed, make something or fix something. If you fail, no worries. You'll get better at it when you try again.

The photo shows a few boxes readied for routing and finish sanding.

Make, fix and create...

*the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.

International repair day

Today is international repair day, celebrating the idea that things should be fixable by the end user, and that we and the things we own should not be held hostage by the companies that manufacture stuff.

The idea of course, is that if something can be fixed and is useful, it should be fixed rather than disposed of and replaced. 

Fixing things not only extends the life of the things we think are important to us, it also builds confidence and competence in society at large, and by doing so, extracts us from slavery to stuff and the folks who supply it. It also alleviates some of the burden borne by our landscape, which currently suffers from abuse.

Make, fix and create...

Mad Hatter Ball

Tonight our annual Mad Hatter's Ball will be held at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs. It is a fund raiser for the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, now celebrating its 25th year. You can view and bid on auction items through this link: https://www.silentauctionpro.com/bidonlinegrid.php?groupId=3567 The event is sold out, but you can still bid. And you will likely be impressed by the creativity in our community.

Yesterday I inlaid 43 boxes, so hinging and assembly comes next.

Make, fix and create...

Job opening, Furniture design program

The Windgate Center of Art+Design at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock has announced a job opening for the furniture studio instructor. There is no better way to learn than to teach, and the job comes with full access to the furniture design studio. 

My hopes are that they attract some good candidates for the tenure track position. https://uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UASYS/job/Little-Rock/Assistant-Professor-of-Art-Furniture-Design-Woodworking---9-MONTH_R0046989?q=R0046989&hiringCompany=720b21cbdf2401e26b5b1759c4019006&fbclid=IwAR2iy4cssJAnld6yUXk8v-vb1EsT4BDirc1OJnEjakvnl9ZoimKwwRmzsmM

The woodworking studio is excellent and the job offers an opportunity to collaborate with others in art and design education. 

Make, fix and create...

beauty and meaning

A couple days ago I mentioned the concept beauty, though of course it means different things to different people, which is why they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It is truly a vague concept. We see it when we see it, but what we see has a great deal to do with different predispositions to identify it.

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....

kids need a break for learning.

This OpEd in the New York Times spells out clearly why shop classes and home economics are still of value in American education.To Prepare Kids for the Future, Bring Back Shop and Home Ec 

As I usually state:

Make, fix and create...

Useful Beauty

 

I live in an arts community, where so many of us are focused on beauty, (and attempting to sell our representations of it)  and yet I think that part of the beauty in things lies in their usefulness. 

Beauty is  a reflection of the whole thing… how it’s made, the motivation of the maker, the responsible use of materials in the making, reflecting how it will serve in the simple practicalities of life, as well as  the ability to recycle or repurpose at end life. I find a particular value in making objects for use, not to just to be looked at, so if a few of my things have been worn out and discarded or recycled, that's a good thing.

I’m reminded of an interview years ago with Yo Yo Ma about his visit to a village in China. He described playing in the home of Chinese peasants, and as he would play the children would get on the floor and wrestle, and when he would stop, they would stop. 

That flies against the notion that music should be listened to, only as a thing of beauty might be listened to, and suggests the role of music as an essential, practical element of daily life. In that line of thought, a painting that simply lays on the wall, being noticed only once in a while, may serve in various ways, but consider how much more precious an artist's time might have been applied in making something that more deeply fulfilled various purposes in daily life… even if the result was that it was used up, worn out, recycled or turned to kindling to warm the children at night.

The photo shows a practical application of the mitered finger joint, in allowing the top edge of a box to be inlaid before the joints are cut. The finger joints assure that the box will maintain its strength and integrity for generations, while the inlay along the top edge offers a touch more beauty.

Make, fix and create....

the suddenness of decisiveness...

Tomorrow I'll head to Worcester, MA to meet my grand daughter Sylvie for the first time. In the shop today I've finished assembling blocks of inlay, so I can inlay box lids when I return.

Have you ever wondered how decisions are made, and how necessary change begins to take place? I've been watching the news and the complete chaos in the House of Representatives. I called my congressman this morning to express my concerns that our representatives need to awaken to the necessity of  working together, for the benefit of all. 

Philosopher William James shared some wisdom on the subject in his 1890 book, Principles of Psychology, as follows: 

"We know what it is to get out of bed on a freezing morning in a room without a fire, and how the very vital principle within us protests against the ordeal. Probably most persons have lain on certain mornings for an hour at a time unable to brace themselves to the resolve. We think how late we shall be, how the duties of the day will suffer; we say, “I must get up, this is ignominious,” etc.; but still the warm couch feels too delicious, the cold outside too cruel, and resolution faints away and postpones itself again and again just as it seemed on the verge of bursting the resistance and passing over into the decisive act. Now how do we ever get up under such circumstances?

"If I may generalize from my own experience, we more often than not get up without any struggle or decision at all. We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs; we forget both the warmth and the cold; we fall into some revery connected with the day’s life, in the course of which the idea flashes across us, “Hollo! I must lie here no longer” – an idea which at that lucky instant awakens no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor effects. It was our acute consciousness of both the warmth and the cold during the period of struggle, which paralyzed our activity then and kept our idea of rising in the condition of wish and not of will. The moment these inhibitory ideas ceased, the original idea exerted its effects."

There can be a suddenness to decisiveness, just as James describes. That gives me hope... In the meantime, call your Republican representative if you have one, and offer the nagging sound of alarm. Pass the budget, you must demand, one that the Senate can also approve, and support Ukraine in its never ending hour of need.

Make, fix and create...

Play with blocks

Today in the wood shop I'll be making inlay for boxes using a variety of Arkansas hardwoods. The process starts with play with blocks, carefully cutting them to uniform size and arranging them in a pattern  of alternating colors and species that can then be glued into a long block. The woods used here are ash, sassafras, cherry, maple and walnut.

This is to prepare for making inlaid box lids.

Make, fix and create..

ginormous blocks

My article about making big Froebel blocks for the Clear Spring School campus is going to appear in the next issue of Make Magazine. In addition to plans for making the blocks, discussion of their history and use, and great photos of CSS kids at play, the article presents links for extra reading, including this one from 99%invisible.org about the effects of Froebel's kindergarten on the arts. The link is here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/froebels-gifts/

The article in 99%invisible is a good introduction to what Kindergarten once was.And as I point out in my own article, history is important for two reasons. One is to avoid tragic circumstances from the past. The other is the possibility of restoring those very good things that most have forgotten. Froebel's kindergarten is from the latter category.

Make, fix and create. 

Baby watch

We're on baby watch with our first grandchild coming in just a few days or less. When the stress level goes up, and in order to keep active and unworried about a thing, I resort to my manufacturing mode. I turn my attention toward the well-practiced, tried and true making of inlaid boxes. 

Years ago, I imagined myself making inlaid boxes into my 80's and here I am, turning 75 next month. I still have some productive years to go so I'll extend my imagining of continued box making into my 90's. By then I'll be old and cute and folks will clamor, "Make one for me, please!"

 I've made thousands of these boxes in batches of about 50 or  so at a time, and the fact that I have orders and holes in my inventory, means that the world still has room for more.

The photo shows various parts ready to begin assembly. Before that happens, I'll need to make and inlay the lids.

Make, fix and create...

old work

 

I have been at my work for some time now, and some of it has travelled far from home. A woman contacted me, asking "Is this your work?" and included two photos of a mirror and frame I'd made and sold in 1984. The frame is cherry and inlaid with a variety of Arkansas hardwoods. I etched the mirror using a sandblasting technique to give it a bit of extra value.

It is nice to see that it was  well cared for a number of years before being turned in for resale at a Goodwill Store in Ohio.

I commented that it seemed well cared for, and the buyer assured me that she would care for it as well. Who knows how long it will last?

Today I went over a pre-release article on making giant Froebel blocks I wrote and photographed for Make Magazine. It will come out in the next issue.

Make, fix and create...

How in the world to pay for it?

In a Senate subcommittee meeting this last week, Senator Kennedy from Louisiana got a chance to grill a labor expert on the effects of the covid pandemic on children and child care. He insisted that there's no money in the budget to do the things necessary to keep our children safe. The expert assured him that if we were to raise taxes, there would be plenty of money, and that our budgetary problems are the result of 40 years of budget cuts resulting from the failed philosophy of trickle down economics.

 https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/25/2195417/-Watch-a-Republican-senator-get-owned-on-child-care-funding

Wishful thinking assumes that given the opportunity to make more money, rich folks, instead of becoming lazy and self-satisfied, will be driven to create new jobs. 

After testing the theory for the last 40 years, we have a society in which the rich became very, very rich, and we have children living in squalor and parents living in desperation.

Isn't it time to get real? Let's raise taxes on the wealthy and spend wisely to insure that every child has the opportunity to rise to full potential.

How do we spend wisely? "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, he wants for all children as well."

In my woodshop today I'm preparing stock for making boxes to fill orders that were put on the shelf while working on the book. I'm made thousands in the past, so getting back in the swing of things is comforting.

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

My own moon jar

This is a vessel I made as a potter in 1976.

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in the meantime...

There was a serious motorcycle accident on hwy 23 North last night in a spot that has had many other accidents in the past. Today the roar of motorcycles will likely be that of bikers headed home, and I hope their journeys are safe. Many of us  who live here look forward to quieter times.

I'm working with my editor at Taunton Press to tie up the various loose ends of my new book, Designing Boxes. 

How-to books are different than fiction.  What I do and portray is real, and the object is that readers be enabled to do what I do. The editorial process, involving text editing, photo editing and careful layout requires a team to get the best results. How-to writers do not have the luxury of just making stuff up and careful editing can lend value to any book. That's one of the clear values of working with Taunton Press.

When presenting lessons to woodworkers on design, many have never thought of such things before. So it was interesting and rewarding to present an array of boxes in physical form  on Friday for art students to use in our joint exercise exploring the principles and elements of design. One student from Korea found the box shown above to be particularly appealing due to its irregularities. She said, as she moved her hands across the irregularity of the surface of the lid, "I love this box." We discussed the perfection of the imperfect and the spontaneity involved in making it. Later she equated this simple box to the Korean moon jars that sell for millions of dollars due to their rarity and cherished irregularly spherical shape.

You can find this box for sale on Etsy.com for far less than a million dollars. https://www.etsy.com/listing/905111845/maple-and-white-oak-box-with-hidden

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wail of sirens, thunder of cycles.

Here Eureka Springs today I'm sitting on my front porch with Rosie. The rumble of motorcycles from the highway below our home is steady, pierced only by the occasional sirens of ambulances. Fortunately most of the injuries are relatively minor and from which bikers will recover to ride next year.

I've heard that some local businesses are closed here due to the belligerence of some of our guests. Those who truly love this place will learn to schedule their visits when the swarms of motorcyclists are not here. And I remind myself that many of the bikers are nice, like the couple that stood in front of me at the Post Office. They were shipping home several packages of stuff they''ed purchased in our local galleries... art, no doubt.

We console ourselves in the current situation by remembering the money the bikers leave in bars and restaurants and remembering that while the noise is overwhelming, they are only here disturbing our peace for a short time, and will carry their resounding rumble home after the weekend.

Many locals just hunker down for the weekend and let the bikers ride it out. 

A study suggested that there are 21% more organ donors and 26% more organ donations during major bike rallies in the US...  reflecting a great loss for some and the savings of others. And so it goes. We are connected with each other in unseen ways, and I'm attempting to learn better of my fellow man.

To my college students yesterday I mentioned that making a box ought to be a requirement for high school graduation. Never having made boxes before, but were watching me make some, they agreed. Making a box you learn the truth of what Ruskin had said, (paraphrasing here): 

Take a straight shaving from a plank or lay a brick level in its mortar and you'll have learned things that the lips of man cannot teach.

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A great two days...

I did an afternoon presentation yesterday in the U of A Sculpture studio yesterday afternoon, and today I did an all day box-making demonstration. We made two boxes, one with a hinged lid, another with a lift off lid. 

Then I made another partial box to demonstrate the making of a mitered finger joint box. Then one of the students asked if I could demonstrate making a bandsawn box. Taking a piece of spalted maple left over from a demonstration by artist Robyn Horn, I quickly designed and made a bandsawn box.

I also made a sled, and led an exploration of the principles and elements of design. These were two good days and now I get to refocus on the edits for my new book, and spend time with Rosie on the front porch.

The photo shows my young audience for my Thursday afternoon talk.

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this afternoon

I have a presentation to deliver at the University of Arkansas Sculpture department at 5:30 this evening. It is open to the public at 687 W. Praxis Lane. 

In the meantime, folks have been working with wood for over half a billion years, according to discoveries described in the New York Times. Ancient Logs Offer Earliest Example of Human Woodworking. I'm not surprised.

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a video preview...

The new Museum of Eureka Springs Art is taking shape at the Eureka Springs Community Center thanks to a team of volunteers and donors. Thank you Jim Nelson for the video. 

We have new lighting, a polished concrete floor, rolling walls that can be arranged however we want, and plywood panels offering display areas on the concrete block walls. Art comes next.

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U of A Lecture 9/21/2023

On Thursday September 21, 2023 I'll be making a presentation at the University of Arkansas Sculpture Department. This poster offers the details. The Thursday afternoon presentation is open to the public.

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beyond the gift of individuality

We are each given the gift of individuality. Some are given a greater gift of seeing beyond it. 

I learned this morning of the death of a good friend... a talented woodworker, a student in my classes, a supporter of the Clear Spring School's woodworking program, a loving father, grandfather and husband. His physical presence will be missed.

In my friend's honor I share my dad's favorite poem, that I also found in a mimeographed book of poems collected for manual arts teachers.

Isn't it strange that princes and kings,
And clowns that caper in sawdust rings
And common folk like you and me
All share this common destiny:
Each is given a set of rules,
A lump of stone and bag of tools,
That each may carve ere life has flown
A stumbling block or stepping stone. — Anonymous 

Here's to you Bob. You lifted us up, enabled us to reach higher places and made the world a brighter place. 

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Fresh from five days

After a five day class at ESSA building small cabinets, I plan to spend the day putting things away, cleaning the shop, and responding to my editor on questions regarding my new book.

I got a question from a reader concerning a process in my book 25 Beautiful Boxes, which is a compilation of projects drawn from my first two books, written over 20 years ago. I'll need to go back and try to refresh my memory as to what he's talking about. He wrote, that as a novice woodworker, he was trying to build the project in chapter 20, and had questions about a particular joint. In a way that's like starting Moby Dick at chapter 89, except that fiction does not require chapter by chapter growth, the way a how-to book may.

I try to order my chapters the way we grow in skill and understanding... from the easy to more difficult, and from the simple to the complex. In fiction, no particular development of the individual is required. In how-to books, you have the option of passivity if you choose, or to use what's offered to actually change your life and the physical world in which you reside. And that's rarely as easy as it looks. 

Human beings of all ages learn through the same pattern of growth. We start with the interests of the child,  then move from the known to the unknown, from the easy to the more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract. I mentioned to my reader that building a sample joint might help him to come to a better understanding of the joinery used in chapter 20. Maybe so. 

In any case, I'll look back at the book and see if I can figure out how I might help.

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sale at ETSY

ETSY.com is having a sale in which any order over $25 can receive a $5.00 discount on my products, or the products of other makers.The discount comes from ETSY not the merchant. The discount code is Get5  My shop is located here: 

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/DougStowe

My students and I had a great class building small cabinets at ESSA as you can see.

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Doors...

My students in my small cabinet making class all have doors, so tomorrow we will finish assembly and plan on putting on hinges and hardware. The photo shows an example.

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Today at ESSA, doors

Today in my making small cabinets  class at ESSA we are ready to begin making doors. I woke up early this morning to go through the process of making bridle joint doors, for both glass and raised panels, as my students will be making both. I am so lucky to have practiced such things over the years and to have skills to share and to have found a market for these skills. 

My book on designing boxes is moving through the assembly process. A cover is being designed, marketing materials are being developed, the words and photos are going through the usual editorial processes, an illustrator has been chosen, and there again I'm lucky to have skills to share and a great team to help me share them. This will be my fourteenth how-to book, not including three translated and published in German.

The photo shows one of my student's small cabinets in trial assembly state.

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

Building small cabinets.

Today we had day one of my class Building Small Cabinets. To make things interesting the students determined the sizses of the cabinets that would be most useful in their homes.

All the students chose cherry as their wood of choice though some may add accents of white oak to offer contrast.

This was also the first day in using our new Harvey Dust Collector. That was a resounding success. At low speed it handled the table saws and jointer, and at a decibel level that allowed conversation. With various tools running it was hard to tell by sound whether the dust collector was turned on or not. As an added bonus, it is low profile so we now have a clear view of the table saw from all sides. That allows for closer observation of student safety.

In the photo students are drilling dowel holes in cabinet sides. Dowel holes to fit the top and bottom will be drilled tomorrow, and we will begin making cabinet doors.

For those not in class this week, my entire DVD Building Small Cabinets is available on my youtube site.

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New dust collector

Yesterday we installed a new dust collector at ESSA with the intention of improving the noise level and teaching environment. It's made by Harvey and has a low profile, fitting neatly between table saws, and at a height low enough that materials can pass over. 

I'm preparing for a class at ESSA on building small cabinets, that begins on Monday.

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let there be legs

I've made a few walnut legs to fit to boxes. They are easy to make and assemble, and can be shaped using the band saw, scroll saw and sanding to a variety of interesting shapes.

My book, Designing Boxes is now in the editing stage, and an illustrator has been assigned to take my drawings to a more refined state.

On editing, I'm grateful to be working with Peter Chapman, former director of Taunton Books, and with whom I've worked before.

To make the legs, I simply cut a miter down one side of a piece of walnut, then cut it into lengths. I tape the mitered edges together with glue and then after the glue dries, I had a reinforcement piece that also serves as a place upon which the box rests as the legs are attached.

Today I'll assist with the kindergarten woodworking class at the Clear Spring School and help to install a new dust collector at the Eureka Springs School of Arts, ESSA.

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Reality poised to strike

Yesterday at this time, I'd boarded my flight home from Atlanta, and was ready for takeoff. The Atlanta airport is believed to be the busiest in the US with more traffic even than LAX in Los Angeles or JFK in New York. Today I'm sitting on my front porch. Rosie has a stick to chew. A gentle breeze is passing through the trees and it looks like it might rain.

I had a curious ride from the Woodcraft Store in Alpharetta, Georgia to the Springhill Suites at the Atlanta airport where I spent the night prior to my flight. The driver was talkative as he wove in and out of lanes, telling me that if they were to attach an alternator to each wheel of the car, it would need neither a battery nor engine, as the power for propulsion would be provided by the alternators drawn from the rotation of the wheels. Would that not be a  great thing? He then wanted to tell me about an investment opportunity in which a 10,000 dollar investment would be turned into 2.5 million over a 2 year period, guaranteed and without risk. I simply said, "that's great," not wanting to distract him further from getting me to my destination.

There's a great editorial in the New York Times this morning by Michelle Goldberg, "A Brilliant Examination of a Berserk Political Moment." It describes in detail how folks go off the deep end. I'm concerned that living detached from nature and spending way too much time in altered reality states is a danger to us all. 

Crafts are a great way to get involved in real reality, as we watch and measure the transformation of materials and as we hone useful beauty in our own hands. With my driver to the airport, I left a couple questions unasked. The first was that if his investment is such a good one, "Why was he still driving a car?" The second was that "If he'd made so much money, why he didn't invest in alternators for each wheel and save on gas?" For all of those of us who would rather live in fantasy, I'll note that sooner or later, reality speaks on its own behalf.

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Homeward

I had a great class with the Woodworkers Guild of Georgia and will be headed home in the morning.  I ws too busy to take photos

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Woodworkers Guild of Georgia

This afternoon I fly to Atlanta for two days of classes with the Woodworkers Guild of Georgia. I plan to make two or three boxes in the two day demonstration class with nearly fifty woodworkers attending https://www.wwgofga.com/ I'm also taking a large checked bag with boxes to initiate a discussion of design.

At ESSA we're installing a new Harvey dust collector to serve two table saws and a jointer. It has a low profile and will sit between saws allowing a clear line of site for monitoring safety of student work, and being the same height as the tops of the saws will not impede the movement of materials. It's also promised to be quieter for a classroom setting. I'm excited about the new addition. And our setting for this piece of equipment is ideal.

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