A busy month has passed since my last entry and I am super stoked to be back in the shop this week for our fall session.
On Monday we welcomed a small group of new students to the school, and returning students John and Alberto to the Composing and Upward Spiral programs. It’s wonderful to have you both back.
Thursday signalled the start of something new for me. In the morning I finished weaving the seat of my chair, marking the end of a year and a half of going deep into Vidar’s chair, building another immediately after completing my first one and guiding another student through the process. I felt a great sense of accomplishment to have reached this point, tired and happy.
Then I jumped into my first round of individual consults with the students following the afternoon lecture, which I shall be doing once a week this session. My excitement for this work rose up quickly as I talked to our new students about spokeshaves, my most used and loved tool for this last period of chairmaking. I loved feeling their shared excitement as they got to know their tools, shaping their Gumby legs to gleaming sheared surfaces.
After cleanup, I delivered my chair on foot to Robert’s shop at home, just 300 metres up the road from the school. It gave me great joy to set it down at Robert’s red cedar writing desk, knowing it will live next to JK’s bandsaw, surrounded by planks of precious wood that have been with my teacher for many years.
Robert and I then sat down for some tea. Sometime during our discussion of my next project, Robert had an idea, went into his shop and came out with an incredible plank of European boxwood. The wood is hard and heavy, butter yellow, with the smoothest finest grain. Then Robert handed me one of JK’s planes and plane hammer and I took a couple of shavings.