Tuesday, November 1, 2011

College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 10 and 11

I wish I could say that the lack of writing was due to all the work I'm getting done on my project. I am spending a lot of time with it, but sometimes it seems like I'm moving forward slowly. Sometimes I move backwards. I can't believe that it has already been 11 weeks!

Week nine was an exercise in mistakes. I forgot to account for one of the angles in the compound angle on my leg, that caused some problems with the mortises I put in on the XY machine. After debating for a little while I decided to plug the mortises and drill them again. Soon after the eight plugs and eight new mortises I'm cutting a taper into the legs, moving right along... until I run the legs over the joiner and take it down right into one of my mortises. Basically I now have a hole where I don't want one. Well good thing I'm good at plugging mortises. Only four plugs and four new mortises to drill this time.

Dan Wacker Setting up the XY Machine for his chair.


I still find myself looking ahead. Though I'm enjoying the work my hands are doing I can easily get frustrated when I make a mistake, or when I think I'm going to slow. I forget that I'm learning, that working slow is ok, that making mistakes is part of the learning. The balance of fine craftsmanship with the curve of learning something new is hard to find sometimes.


Some satisfying planing.
Some nice shavings.


The first project was completed this past week. Carlos' bench is beautiful and crafted very well. Congratulations Carlos, and nice work!

Carlos' bench.

Carlos and his son Kevin.



A drawing exercise by Adam.




In addition to our lectures on various woodworking techniques, Laura has been teaching some drawing techniques as well. They've been great lessons, and are going to be a big help with designing pieces in the future.


Laura conducting a drawing class.


An exercise by Natch.