Sculpture

Sculpture has a higher perceived value than more practical things but allows you to express things that some folks might miss. For instance a crafted wood object may fail to convey the craftsman's relationship with wood. Though it might be there, it might be missed or misunderstood, as wood is seldom regarded with the reverence it deserves.

This piece of simply done "sculpture" may not be valued by some. There is the speed at which it's done, but the message is simple and easy to understand. We fail to value all the wonderful things wood does for us, and we fail to protect the forests from which it comes. It's twisted, it is torn.

I took a piece of ash, too wide to pass through the planer and used the bandsaw to cut it into two narrower parts before planing.

I then used the compound miter saw to trim the ends, allowing them to rest stably on a base. After a base is made, I will use a rotary chisel to texture the inside edges and ends. An oil finish will bring the wood to life.

My thanks to arborist Larry Lowman for the wood. The cherry base was added. A friend asked me what I would do today. It brought me joy to have done this. Follow your own bliss.

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tapered legs, gentle curved top

I've applied the first coat of Danish oil to protect and bring out the natural color of the wood. Gentile curving top, slender, tapered legs. Table is nearly complete,

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Danish oil comes next.

I will apply a coat of Danish oil and then a wipe on polyurethane top coat for long lasting protection.

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finger jointed drawer

I've made a finger jointed drawer using an interesting technique that begins indexing from both sides of the board and meeting in the middle, thus allowing a drawer guide to be added between fingers. A drawer facing will be added to hide the joints when the drawer is closed. As far as I know, this is a unique feature of my work.

I share this because it might be useful to others.

It is ironic that it has been so difficult for educators to understand the necessity of hands on learning and all the additional learning hours that students will apply when their passions are engaged. 

Essentially, folks learn for the fun of it, and schooling can deprive us of that learning by taking the fun out. 

Matthew Crawford wrote the book "Shop Class as SoulCraft" without ever having attended one. But he did use lines that I had shared through my blog as the epigraph of chapter one of his first book, and in the concluding chapter of his second. 

In Schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged. --Wisdom of the Hands blog post of October 16, 2006

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Partly assembled hall table

I've glued up the leg assembly for the hall table and will make the drawer next. Then I will finish routing the top and apply coats of Danish oil.

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As was common at the time...

As was common at the time, as I was registering for high school, the guidance counselor asked me and my mother whether or not it was intended that I would go to college. With my mother insisting Yes, I was placed on the college prep track and rarely saw some of my friends again, that were "destined" for the trades. They took one set of classes, those being wood shop and auto mechanics, while I and other college bound freshmen were placed on a completely different track. And so it went. While schooling might help bring us together, each seeing value in each other, it, instead set us apart.

We live in a divided nation in which children mature at various paces and some are sequestered from the use of their hands in the exploration of the world while being told that they are the best and  brightest, set apart for learning more advanced and abstract things, and while some erroneously are informed by their placement that they'll never measure up or be capable of more advanced thought. Little could be further from the truth.

I repeat. Not all mature to the same things at the same time. All need to be afforded the opportunity to grow at their own pace. And all schooling should be hands-on, and thereby enriched.

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Looking at things upside down and backwards

Looking at my upside down table reminds me of the technique that Gaudi used to visualize his unfinished Church of Colònia Güell and the Sagrada Família.

https://dataphys.org/list/gaudis-hanging-chain-models/

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Upside down

I am in the process of making a hall table with drawer and it is currently upside down to measure the final  length of the cross stretcher that will stabilize the legs. It is made of white oak harvested on our property and dried in the barn.

It is assembled with mortise and tenon joints. 

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Skilled trades

Skilled trades should be included in every person's educational opportunities: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/where-the-future-of-stem-will-be-built-from-2025-onward-02b1fdb6abfa and would help us face changes from AI and other disruptions.

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Cherry...

I have a box nearly done, using a lid done many years ago, showing the difference between "new" cherry, freshly planed and old cherry allowed to age in the light. The difference is profound and noticeable here. Also shown is the simple design feature that allows the lid to open as though it is hinged. It simply falls into a groove at the back and sides, and then is held by that groove until deliberately closed. 

It is a technique I first used in my book, "Simply Beautiful Boxes" and available in digital reprint here: https://amzn.to/4morM7q

Do not worry about the color difference between old cherry and new cherry. Cherry is  a photo-reactive wood that will quickly age and catch up.

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3 things

At our local cemetery they've cut a few trees, some of which will be sawn into lumber like this pine, over 30 inches in diameter. Good lumber. In my shop I've fitted a box to an inlaid lid, and created a lift tab for easy opening. Yesterday my wife and I attended demonstrations and a lecture on woodworking. 

Jerome Bias is a black craftsman who uses woodworking to bring his people's history into better focus. Held at the community of Canehill, AR, it was informative and entertaining. https://www.winterthur.org/jerome-bias/ 

There is a long tradition of black craftsmanship that should be better known.

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Mitered finger jointed box

As part of my ongoing effort to finish unfinished products in my shop, I am making a box to fit a lid crafted during the filming of my book,  The Taunton Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making. https://amzn.to/4mJiHWm  It involves the use of shop made inlay. The box is made with a mitered finger joint, also illustrated in the book.

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Drying from second coat...

The second coat of Danish oil brings the jewelry box to a deeper sheen. It is drying, and I'll assess whether a third application is needed.

The side doors open to hold earrings and necklaces, and are held closed with rare earth magnets.  The complications of this box equal anything I've ever done.                

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Shaker Inspired Bench

Popular Woodworking this month features my article about making a shaker inspired bench.

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Finished desk

I finished the white oak desk. Mortise and tenon joints, drawer made with hand cut dovetails. 

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Testing a Base Camp dust mask

Testing a Base Camp dust mask.

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a writer's desk

My writer's desk is nearly complete but for some sanding, routing, finish and a hundred years of life. It is made from white oak harvested on our own property from trees that I've watched grow for the last forty years and which were harvested standing dead at the end of a long life. 

It is visualized to fit in a large room as a place to write letters, and the drawer is a great place to store your laptop and writing utensils well into the next century.

The natural white oak will darken with the application of a clear Danish oil finish.

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Pestalozzi's observation of the poor:

"I had observed for a long time that behind their coarseness, shyness, and apparent incapacity are hidden the finest faculties, the most precious powers; and now, even amongst these poor creatures by whom I was surrounded at Stanz, marked natural abilities soon began to show themselves. I knew how useful the common needs of life are in teaching men the relations of things, in bringing out their natural intelligence, in forming their judgment, and in arousing faculties which, buried, as they were, beneath the coarser elements of their nature, cannot become active and useful till they are set free.

"It was my object then to arouse these faculties, and bring them to bear on the pure and simple circumstances of domestic life, for I was convinced that in this way I should be able to form the hearts and minds of children almost as I wished. I tried to connect study with manual labor, the school with the workshop and make one thing of them. But I was the less able to do this as staff, material, and tools were all wanting. A short time only before the close of the establishment a few children had begun to spin; and I saw clearly that, before any fusion could be effected, the two parts must be firmly established separately--study, that is, on the one hand, and labor on the other.

"But in the work of the children I as already inclined to care less for the immediate gain than for the physical training which, by developing their strength and skill, was bound to supply them later with a means of livelihood. In the same way I considered that what is generally called the instruction of children should be merely an exercise of the faculties, and I felt it important to exercise the attention, observation and memory first, so as to strengthen these faculties before calling into play the art of judging and reasoning; this, in my opinion, was the best way to avoid turning out that sort of superficial and presumptuous talker, whose false judgments are often more fatal to the happiness and progress of humanity than the ignorance of simple people of good sense, and I am more than ever convinced that as soon as we have educational establishments combined with workshops and conducted on a truly psychological basis, a generation will necessarily be formed which, on the one hand, will show us by experience that our present studies do not require one-tenth part of the time or trouble we now give to them."

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desk assembly

I have started to assemble the white oak writer's desk and now have the drawer made and leg assemblies at both ends glued. I've yet to make a stretcher that will run across the width to stiffen the legs.

A bit of epoxy filler improves the appearance of the half-blind dovetails cut in the drawer fronts. A trial assembly will allow final measurements for the stretcher to be made. 

There is a similarity between the Norwegian words tilgivelse meaning forgiveness and tillatelse meaning permission. Both offer a path forward.

Forgiveness for a woodworker gives one permission to move forward and discover new things. The pathway opens.

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Jeg vil ikke være perfekt, men tilgivende!

Looking at dovetails, forgiveness comes to mind. I've been cutting "through" dovetails and "half blind" dovetails for the first time since my stroke, and realizing I'm not quite as acute as I once was. Of  course I can blame it a bit on trying to make perfect dozuki cuts in white oak, and then chiseling tight to the marked line, when white oak is not the most cooperative wood. 

I can start afresh and get no better results, or I can remember the reasons for having done what I did in the first place. It has been a test, and the perfect craftsman I am not.

If the drawer was a utilitarian failure, not fitting as prescribed, I'd be unwilling to overlook its flaws and my own, and recut the joints but it fits as planned, and so I'll make do and forgive myself. And a bit of filler will help.

Forgiveness of self prepares one for the difficulty of forgiving others. And a bit of forgiveness is what it takes to build communities.  Forgiveness of self... something you learn from craftsmanship. 

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Answer to too much glue

Reader's must have had experience, as have I, in spreading too much glue or in having tiny and precise applicators plug up and require laborious cleaning. 

The answer can be found in Kindergarten. The Kindergarten plastic glue spreader is available in mass quantities from Amazon https://amzn.to/4monpcd

Buy in whatever quantities you want, knowing that even with the strongest glue that it comes off and you can use again. I bought enough to share with students and friends. https://amzn.to/3IOwRae

Spreading glue for linings in the photo, I laid a bead of glue with a conventional glue bottle, then used the spreader ti move some of the glue into corners. Easy.

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The point about Polyani

Polyani was in agreement with John Ruskin though at a later date, when he noted that not all human experience is recorded or even communicable in what we can say. For example, please tell me how you can recognize your dog from another in the same litter. You may look for distinguishing marks, or the wag of her tail, but there are points of recognition that defy language to convey, and yet the recognition is immediate. 

"Let the youth once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick level in its mortar, and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him." --John Ruskin, "Time and Tide", 1883

Having routed the parts of the apron, I'm making the stretchers that strengthen the legs of the desk. To do so, I use a small  4-in hand rasp to round the shoulders of the tenons to match the rounded shoulders of the mortises. This is shown in the photos.

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Polyani's walking stick

Michael Polyani, in his description of tacit knowledge described how a blind man's walking stick would at first register in his consciousness within the sensory framework of his hand and mind, but with practice would extend toward sensing in his mind the surface of a his path as well. Tools have both sensory and transformative relationships to the reality in which we live, and the human hand is the connective link. 

Today I'll be sanding and routing desk apron parts in preparation for assembly.

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The use of the hands

 Of the motor functions you will notice that as working movements become skilled patterns, they no longer require conscious attention to motor activities. Instead, they become conveyances through which other object qualities can be known as those objects are transformed. An example from woodworking involves the holding of a chisel. For a trained carpenter, the hand itself disappears from consciousness, but for a beginner, the proper grip and the angle of the wrist take tremendous concentration. 

As skilled movement is acquired the hand requires less consciousness and the mind senses only the engagement of the cutting edge at the end of the tool in the surface of the material being shaped. In essence, the hands move out of the way of direct consciousness to allow direct access of the mind to the surface qualities of objects. It is part of the miracle of the hands that they are empowered to act in seamless unconscious harmony with thought, so perhaps it is only natural that the importance of their contributions to our learning would go unnoticed in modern education.

There are a number of areas of research that tell us that the hands must not be overlooked in education. As expert musicians will testify, the playing of a musical instrument critically involves manual dexterity and sensitivity (see Wilson, 1986), and research suggests that playing of instrumental music in school has a significant effect on the development of math proficiency (Catterall et al. [2002, Reference] This research was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It is truly astounding how rarely the United States Government is able to take its own advice. It is a clear case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

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Joints...

I have almost all the mortise and tenon joints formed for the writer's desk. Enough for one day. Next I'll make the drawer guides and then the drawer.

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Emerge Magazine

Emerge Magazine has published their latest issue and contains my article about Kindergarten, "A garden of children:" https://emerge-magazine.com/a-garden-of-children/ 

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Mortises

I decided to go to the woodshop while it's relatively cool out and managed to rout the mortises in desk legs which will be joined to the aprons with mortise and tenon joints. Cutting the tenons will be a lengthier and more complex procedure on the table saw.

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A tower of boxes...

There is a heatwave in Northwest Arkansas, and the AC in the shop is having trouble keeping up. As an alternate to keep my hands busy, I'm finishing a few remnants from earlier projects in the finish area (one end of the house). 

This is a tower of boxes left over from my book Beautiful Boxes, Design and Technique published in 2014. It is held together by rare earth magnets.

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Desk top

I've begun working on a writing desk. The top is cut to shape and assembled from two wide boards. It is routed. 

Tasks that remain are shaping the legs, making the aprons and stretchers and making a drawer. A little bit each day will bring it to completion.  If cared for it will last a hundred years or more.

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Four corner match and three corner match How to

Making 3 corner and 4 corner grain matches on mitered boxes.

Testing Glancy's No 1 Penetrating Oil Finish on Inlaid Boxes SD 480p

 This is a test of Glancy's No. 1 Penetrating Oil Finish.

In days past

In days past one could tell the species of wood being cut by the sound of the axe, even at a distance through the forest. Not so, now, so we go to more extreme efforts to get folks acquainted with the beauty and diversity of our native woods. 

I sign the names of the woods used in making my small inlaid boxes on the underside, helping folks now and in future generations to thus know that the woods have taken part in the creation as much as I. 

Each box is a collection of natural woods in natural colors and a gift to subsequent generations.

It's time to sign boxes.

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Twenty eight boxes

These are 28 inlaid boxes, assembled, shaped and ready for sanding. They are walnut and linden and inlaid with a variety of local hardwoods.

Make, fix and create. 

A simple box

A simple box may have four sides and a top and bottom but are things really all that simple? There are a huge range of techniques involved as suggested by my students as they exercise their own creative inclinations. I will have a three day class in October.

I am currently working on a few  (28) boxes to sell though galleries and online.

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Three tiny Tiner

Three of my tiner arrived safely in Stavanger, Norway, while the ship replica of the Restauration, departed there for a voyage to America celebrating the immigration of Norwegians in America. The Restauration was the first ship carrying Norwegian families to America. This is the bi-centennial year. 

Tiner is the Norwegian plural of tine, meaning cheese box, and rather than them being used in the making of cheese as they once were, they've taken on a ceremonial role as gifts for weddings and special events. They are useful as well for keeping beautiful and useful things.

The tiny tiner are shown on a candle stand made from a piece of twice recycled Douglas Fir that had arrived in Stavanger as drift wood (a mast), then spent years as a barn timber before being crafted into a work of art.

The Restauration is expected to arrive in October.

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Today, happy 4th

In the shop I'm inlaying 27 boxes while out back folks are regrouting the flagstone patio, and playing ethnic music. I am thankful for skilled workers as we all could best be. How do we change things so that all would be afforded the dignity they deserve? Let's welcome all those who work to make the world and their own (for it is ours too) a better place.

Otto Salomon had suggested that the manual training Sloyd had two effects. One was economic in that it made us better workers. A second effect was formative, meaning that it had more general effects in making us more human. For that reason, it was offered to all people, including those going on to advance degrees, or jobs in religion or politics, for it would generate a respect for all labor, and sense to assess whether or not it was suitable work. As John Ruskin had said, Plane a plank or level a brick in its mortar and you'll have learn things that the lips of man could never tell. Though here, I'm making a feeble attempt  to tell.

Are you worried about the world? Do something about it. 

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twice the effect

The hands play a particularly important role in the development of human intelligence in that they are both sensory and active. We see and hear and that's basically the end of things for some folks. We might see something or hear something and be changed within, but the hands have the power to change the external reality of things. We touch and things are disrupted and transformed by our touch. 

If the purpose of schooling is only superficial, we do that quite well. If we are looking for deeper effect, we know how, and that is to make certain that the hands are engaged creatively in learning... that they are allowed to respond creatively with the hands to what the other senses have allowed them to feel.

ESSA, our Eureka Springs School of the Arts, has become one of my happy places because it is full of people learning to their deepest effect and are happily transformed be the experience. We may grow tired, and frustrated on occasion but the joy of creation wins out. We do things that we did not know that we could do, and in the process make the world a better place.

The photograph is the work of a friend and Arkansas Treasure, Hank Kaminsky. The words spell peace in a number of world languages, and as the globe spins  our hands and fingers tell us we are living with the same hopes. 

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small cabinets

I finished a five day class on making small cabinets at ESSA despite having had a stroke on December 1. It was a test for me of both endurance and temperament with it being the first 5 day class post stroke.

Fortunately my students were both productive and forgiving. A number of small cabinets in various student designs were made.

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Why woodworking can be a political act

This is an attempt to explain why woodworking is a political act.

A democracy cannot endure if a large segment of its population is denied access to education which has relevance and meaning to its life. . . . This is one of the reasons why we must provide vocational education. What is more important, it is one of the reasons why we must have a valid conception of what vocational education is and what it isn’t. – John Dewey, 1919

A 2024 article titled “AI, Misinformation, and Manual Training," by noted woodworker Doug Stowe claims that eliminating shop class and  related courses teaching a mix of manual and mental skills has left today’s students without the tools they need to combat misinformation in an age of artificial intelligence. Stowe’s argument is persuasive, and he makes it based on broad learning from texts ancient to modern plus decades of teaching woodworking at a progressive school in northwest Arkansas and blogging about the experience.— From a paper by Connie Goddard, "Lessons on Industrial Education." 

In some situations folks are insufficiently experienced to see their connections with others. One of the primary lessons of Frobel's original Kindergartens.

Tomorrow I begin a five day class in making small cabinets. The photo is from my book about making small cabinets. 

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I was asked...

In response to a reader question, these are the next steps in making inlaid boxes. I cut stock at about a 6 degree angle so the lids will be of sufficient depth at the back edge for the hinges, but sufficiently thin at the front edge. It would be bulky design-wise if not cut and the angle adds interesting effects to the box. The process also allows for cutting two lids at the same time from the original stock. Thrift comes into play. 

Next, I'll inlay the pieces of walnut and linden using the patterned stock I'd prepared in earlier steps. (These are shown in the photo and in my books.) 

I was asked to leave politics out of my posts. All things are political in nature, including the choices we make in the woodshop. We try to make things that are beautiful, useful, and lasting in the hopes that they will live beyond our times and be beautiful, useful and lasting in subsequent generations. That's political. We may not aways be successful. That's where forgiveness comes in. Self then others. 

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Yesterday and next steps...

Yesterday I cut the mortise and tenon joints for 27 inlaid boxes, using the tablesaw and router table. The joints are barely visible in the finished box, but have lasting effects. The joints and floating panel bottoms (also prepared) will give the boxes (if cared for) a long life. Next I will cut and inlay the lids.

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the making of beautiful and useful things

We seem to  be nation at war, though despite the bombs, the Iranians had removed the enriched uranium and personnel before the strike. That no one was injured was a good thing. An odd thing was that American personnel  watched via satellite the removal of men and equipment and then made a big show of striking to little ill effect.

In the meantime, there are good things to be made, and violence or war are seldom the answer to our problems. It's the old swords vs. plowshares thing. One leads to greater peace and other in the wrong direction. Both are made with a craftsman's skill, but only one leads toward peace. Let's pursue the making of beautiful and useful things. 

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core values

Yesterday, I spent time in my woodshop planing and cutting parts for 27 boxes to fill spaces in my inventory. When finished they'll be sold to galleries, and then find places in the lives of others. 

I also finished a table that will be given as a gift to the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. It is made of white oak and a wide plank of spalted sycamore.

Woodworking for me has never been a disconnected arm hanging useless in space. It is deeply entwined in the rest of reality. It is a connecting point, that leads to greater things. And if it did not, what would be the point? 

Yes, it can be used to isolate oneself from the world, hanging out safely and alone in one's own wood shop. Or it can be a practice through which one attempts to be of greater service to family and humanity. It can go one way or the other. It has been a way to learn and practice core values. Craftsmanship, Creativity, Compassion, Connectivity and Forgiveness. I suggest some time in the wood shop. Attempting to make beautiful and lasting things from real wood is a great way to practice core values. 

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even the worst of us...

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

Popular Woodworking at ESSA

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

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

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Shaker tape

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

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Spoons

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

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

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

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Hippie Christmas and too much stuff

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

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

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It's not easy

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

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

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

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

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

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