DAY EIGHT, It's only Monday and I'm already tired. I spent all weekend catching up and now the craft bus has taken off again. This is definitely starting to feel like a marathon. I don't think I've worked 14 hour days 8 day in a row in my life, and now I'm doing it voluntarily, we all are.
Anyway, PK gave us a pretty long lecture on adhesives and what I find amazing is the glue we use is actually stronger than the natural glue that holds wood fibers together. He also attempted to show us how to joint wood, that means put two pieces of wood together to make a wider piece of wood. I say attempt because the machinery, PK, didn't get much sleep the night before. I'm finding out that woodworking is some complicated stuff. It seems like you have to do 10 things before you can do one. For example, if you try to edge joint 3 pieces of wood you have to put biscuit joints or dowels or a rabbit and dado joint to keep them straight, and the clamps have to be engineered in just a way that they distribute pressure evenly from front to back or the wood will bow. Or you have to rig the wood.... You get the point. There is quite a bit to think about when your just putting two pieces of wood together.
There weren't any great leaps into our projects, but my battle buddy Daniel, the over achiever, has started his. The rest of us did the usual, practice joints, sharpen chisels and planes, etc.
It's Monday and that means SLIDE SHOW!!! On the program tonight was Aaron Fedarko, our TA and a local furniture designer. About 4 years ago Aaron quite his job traveled to South America. He was visiting a salt hotel in Sal de Uyuni in Bolivia where the furniture was made out of, you guessed it, salt, when he decided he would pursue a passion of his and make furniture. When he returned to America he studied under Brian Boggs and then soon after went through the 9 month program here at The Center For Furniture Craftsmanship.
A bent laminate chair by Aaron
Here is a game table by Aaron. Just a little something he did in the 9 month program.
Aaron's Bridge table on display at Rayr Wine Shop and Gallery in Camden
Next up was Pete Schlebecker. Pete is another local, and a very interesting guy. He has been practicing Nichiren Buddhism for some time and slowly got into woodworking in the 80's after he built himself and a few friends Butsadahns. Over the years he studied design acquiring an MFA from the Rhode Island School Of Design. He does a lot of conceptual work and wood art, and is currently teaching the Joinery in class next to ours.
Some of Pete's work.
Finally it was the school founder PK's turn. PK was born and raised in Philly in the 50's where he attended a Quaker school and graduated a hippy. He found woodworking or rawther (PK's way of saying it) woodworking found him while he was working as a carpenter on Nantucket, then a small local community of 3,000 of which only 30-50 were not born there. Back then there was no Fine Woodworking Magazine, James Krenov hadn't written his ground breaking first book, and woodworking was somewhat of a lost art. PK, slowly taught himself how to make furniture after he purchased a few books on joinery, and eventually moved to NYC and started a studio business. I'm going to run through the rest of his story. He then taught for quite a while at Anderson Ranch in Colorado, while it was in it's infancy and finally headed to the east coast again to start his own school, thus CFC. PK has a great view of craft and the philosophy behind it as well as it's spirituality and ability to aid in personal fulfillment. Seeing his slide show was a definite inspiration, and a reminder to make your life the life you want. Peter's slide show focused more on the revival of modern craft from the 70's until now, sprinkled with a few of his pieces, but it's hard to find images around the Internet.
If you are interested in some books on Craft Philosophy check any of these out.
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