Chop Wood Carry Water

Much of my youth was spent in the north, and often in remote communities. It was there that I formed a deep sense of admiration for indigenous peoples. Today, I am reminded of the intimate relationship many of these people have with the environment, and the intensional lives they lead. Since making the move to island life, I feel much more connected to our land and the way we live. For nearly two decades now, wood, as well as a source of inspiration, has and continues to be our primary source of heat. This enables us to cook and clean during power outages. Yesterday evening, we had one of those, the third time since moving to Keats Island. After a quiet evening and restful sleep, we awoke to silence. None of the white noises that I am aware of while meditating were there. It was a beautiful way to begin our day. Coffee really does taste better when you have collected the rain water, and built a fire to heat the water.

Keats Island has a reputation for having a limited water table. Ironic perhaps given we live in the Pacific coastal rainforest. While we have been diligent in conserving water since we arrived. Due to the extremely dry summer, we are watching even closer. This fall we will be adding a rain catchment system on our cabin, and the school. In the spring when we begin adding our on site accommodation for our students, each sleeping cabin, will be equipped with a rain catchment system. The intension here, is that combined with a small wood stove the sleeping cabins will be quaint, but very efficient in their purpose, and use the resources readily available to us.

Yesterday, while in town to do our recycling, and pick up groceries and water, we had another beautiful visit with a dear friend. We have known Gary for many years, and he continues to be one of our dearest friends. While I miss our walks together in the creek, I so look forward to each of our weekly visits. A few weeks ago, Gary, delivered the gift of a bench that he made for the entrance to our school. It is made from a plank of figured western maple that Gary said, that he has had with him nearly his entire life as a craftsman, nearly five decades. We are so grateful to have Gary in our lives, and for his evolvement with our small family operated craft school.

We have just completed our third week of the program. James, is making wonderful progress with his chair. The back leg joinery and shaping nearly complete, he will be moving onto the three rear rails this week. Matt, finished the week preparing his two side assemblies for Monday glueup. This is a significant step forward for him, given all the time away from the piece. Having to revisit a few things before moving ahead, can make it challenging to find momentum. He really is doing wonderful work, and it is a pleasure to watch this fine young craftsman develop his skills in the craft. This week, he will be moving onto the centre unit with drawer compartments. Yvonne is sawing her third and fourth set of pins. For someone who says she is not much of a woodworker, I can tell you with very little bias her work is impeccable. Her patience and approach to the work, sets a fine example for all of our students… and me. She has resumed her role with our machines, changing the knives on the Large jointer on Friday afternoon. I have finished hanging the doors, and am nearly complete with their final shaping. I will be moving onto final surfaces and edge treatment this coming week. I have continued to spend my afternoons dialling in our facility and feel that the school is not just a progression from the old school in Roberts Creek, but a refinement of what was a creative and supportive environment. I feel so grateful to be able to work among my students, it really is a dream realized for me to what has been a long term goal of the school. Upon completion of my little cabinet, I will turn my attention to a commission I received a few years back.
Be well, and enjoy your work,
Robert

Relationships

Sometimes I worry our students tire of me talking about the relationships in our work. Relationships between, the wood, the tools, and the details, yes, but it’s more than that… 

Its a cool, but sunny Sunday morning on the island. We have just finished our second week of the fall term, and Yvonne is out for her morning walk. I thought it a good time to talk about relationships. 

She has been my partner in life and work for more than thirty years, and each day I feel so grateful for her presence in my life. Building a school together for a second time, it has been all about our relationship with each other, and our new environment. When we made the move late last fall, I wrote in my notebook that I hoped that the new school would be intimate and inspiring, which I think it is. Perhaps now I understand more importantly, that it has a good feel. Yvonne has put her work boots aside, with some hesitation I might add, and has begun the dovetail joinery on a small box of French walnut. The grain is very fine and a joy to work. We purchased the log a few years back and it has been used in a few very special pieces at the school.

Our students are making fine progress and discovering  their own relationships in their own work. 

James has all of the pieces for his chair selected, broken out, rotated and settling. The white oak he is using is the nicest I have ever seen. A few years ago we purchased two and then another three planks from a massive tree through A & M Wood Specialty in Cambridge Ontario. The tree was harvested locally there and has wonderful grain and colour, and was dried carefully, thus a joy to work.

Matt, finished the joinery on the upper rails of his side assemblies. He has selected, cut, shaped and has nearly dialled in the shoulder to fit the curve of the upper leg. This piece was underway when the lights went out last year. I find it can be difficult to get back into a piece after being away from it for a while. After some of the initial excitement for the piece has faded away. The progress made this past week has allowed him to reconnect with this piece, and the work shows it. The woods selected, both the gondola Alves and the pacific yew have aged so beautifully together.  

I began my week fitting my back piece to the case. I used my small vera jointer on its side on the bench, and gently sheered the sides and ends away to a fit. Enjoyable work.

With the back piece fit. I came in the next morning and spent some time with Jim’s Stenberg tablesaw, since the move out here I have not used the sliding table, and was in need of adjustment. It really is such a simple, well made machine. I crosscut the doors to a not quite fit off the saw and returned to my bench. With the doors carefully supported in my tail vice, I planed them to a slip fit and with the back piece in place I marked the hinge placement. 

As I was fitting them to the cabinet I noticed a tiny bit of wind between them and how they relate to the cabinet. While this is to be expected given the wood, the time, and of course the very human element involved. Do I pull the two corresponding hinges ahead? And how does this effect the relationship between the door and the front edge of the sides? top and bottom? The side rabbet helps here yes, but will you see it? I am happy with the shape of my door, and the surfaces are fine, do I want to revisit the rabbet and plane the doors where they meet? Perhaps both, pull the hinges ahead just enough that adjustment of the doors will be slight. So much to think about on my afternoon walk in the woods.

On Thursday morning, after my morning lecture, I feel relaxed and ready to set the hinges into the doors. While cutting the dovetails and cleaning out the corners of the rabbet I had discovered just how brittle the brown oak is. However, with a light touch, sharp chisel and bit of patience the work was almost mediative.
Be well and enjoy your work,
Robert

Anew

We have just completed the first week of classes in our new school. Our school, is now located on beautiful Keats Island, just across the harbour from Gibsons, British Columbia. We opted for just two returning students this term to enable us to fully dial in the new facility. We will be operating at our full capacity of three students for our winter term which begins November 15th. With the smaller class size and new online registration system, classes are filling quickly, so if you are considering taking our Impractical Cabinetmaker Program, it is best to plan ahead.

We have so much to share of our journey, but at the moment Yvonne and I are catching our breath after what has been a very busy nine months. With the school now set up, we both feel very blessed to be able to continue to offer quality craft education for the aspiring amateur in such an inspiring new location.

A few years back I invited Shawn Hunt, a local first nations artist to speak to our students. One of the things he spoke of, that has always stayed with me, was saving the work of a detail that you are most excited about for near the end of creating a piece. As setting up our new school was very much a creative process, I decided early on, that it was bringing the wood into the school that I was most looking forward to, and would save that for last. While the facility was essentially ready for the start of our term, it wasn’t until the wood came into the school this past week that it really felt complete.

Our new bandsaw mill will be arriving later this fall, at which time, we will begin milling the material for a large drying shed, green house and modest onsite accommodation for our students. In the coming years we plan on selectively harvesting wood from our property to be used in our school.

Our new school is a working school, returning to the vision Jim and I shared nearly two decades ago. I am filled with gratitude to be able to work among my students in such a beautiful place. This week between assisting our students in their work and moving wood, I returned to my own work and began the surface preparation and edge treatment of my little brown oak wall cabinet. This coming week, I will be moving onto fitting the two curved doors.
Be well and enjoy your work,
Robert

Next Chapter

For the past fifteen years, Yvonne and I have felt so blessed to live and work in such a beautiful and inspiring place. With that said, our current term, will be the last at the school in the heart of Roberts Creek. We will be branching out into distance education while we take the time to set up our new working school. The working model returns to the vision, that Jim and I shared so many years ago, at my bench, working along side a few students. 

We have enlisted the services of a Vancouver based production company to assist us in producing two quality online programs. The filming is scheduled to take place in November, and we will be launching our distance learning programs in January.

The new school will be home to Jim’s original Stenbergs, and the Inca machines he used in the latter years of his life, as well as a few of the workhorses from the school, dear to our alumni.

It makes me very happy to see our remaining machines go to our alumni, including five of our Canadian made General machines which will be traveling to Oren’s school in Israel. We will be selling a few of our fine Swedish workbenches, alumni interested, should contact the school by email. 

Since I began teaching I have always carried a small moleskin notebook with me. It is there that I have kept my thoughts on teaching and on the craft. The smaller school will also enable me to return to my writing, including the book, that I am reminded by my students, and a very patient publisher is long overdue. Much of the photography for the book will be completed along side the filming in November.

One of my favourite pieces in our home, is a reproduction of Jim’s pipe cabinet made by Jake Maughan in his Upward Spiral term. When he presented this beautiful piece to Yvonne and I. He asked “What will you put in it?” I suggested that we would just enjoy it on its own and that it would one day hold something special.

At the time I had been keeping my notebooks in Jim’s cabinet. One morning, I was thinking the notebooks needed a new home. I placed one of my notebooks in the pipe cabinet, it was as if it was made for them. As I placed each of the notebooks in their new home, I reflected back on all the beautiful memories I have had as a teacher.

Years later, after a series of very busy terms and at a time when I was unable to do much of my own work, that cabinet was approaching full and I suggested to Yvonne that when the cabinet is full, I’m done. 

One thing the time away from the school has taught me is just how much I love to teach, and that my passion for the craft is stronger than ever. When I realized that the cabinet was nearly full, I began another to make room for the next chapter for our school and in our lives, which in many respects has been one in the same. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the community of Roberts Creek, our friends, our family and our students past and present. You have shaped our school and our lives.
With Love & Gratitude,
Robert & Yvonne