Lessons in Good Design

This past week I had the privilege of being invited back to my high school shop class to share and demonstrate some of the vast knowledge I acquired while in college (ha!).  I sat and pondered what would be the best use of my short time.  I talked to my dad about what I was up to and he recommended I recall the things that I struggled with the most while in high school shop and try to help in those areas.

The dominate area of struggle for any aspiring high school woodworker has to be design.  On a basic component level nearly everything made in the school shop was a rectangle of some nature.  Nothing wrong with a well proportioned rectangular box, in fact the best piece in the shop was a lovely rectangular buffet that looked very elegant not only because it had great simple detail but it also had balance in it's size (really wished I had took a picture to show you.)  There are things wrong with a rectangle if it is a rectangle simply because that's the shape plywood comes in and the shape that table saws cut.

 So for all you struggling with design out there here is a brief lesson from a project I'm currently working on.

Original side view sketch

While designing I usually work through several sketches and then move to a scale model.  While working on a dining set for a client I made a terrific discovery when I moved from sketching to modeling the chairs.  Whenever one builds a chair, or any piece of furniture for that matter, visual balance is vital in order to subconsciously convince the potential sitter to sit.  Moreover, actual physical balance is far more important, or else that potential sitter will also be a potential ER patient.  So, when I made the scale model chair, on a whim I set the chair up without it's front legs attached, and it balanced on it's back legs!  It's amazing to witness accidents like this, I had visual balance on the drawing and now the chair was balancing physically on it's back legs.  Now no one would sit in the chair as is. It obviously would fall forward.  However it does direct me in regards to the nature of the front legs.  They should be visually light tapering in some way down to the floor, implying that they just barely touch the floor while at the same time feeling sturdy once the sitter has sat.

I never would have made this discovery had I moved from drawing to full scale prototype.  Modeling in three dimensions will reveal mysteries and give you invaluable information as you move forward in designing any 3D object.

Nothing says Bed and Breakfast Axe Murder Quite Like...

Good Morning!

So, it's monday morning and there's no need for anything heavy.  So here's a little humor.  While shooting photos for my profile I thought it would be sufficient for me to simply stand and hold my hewing axe while the sun rose, you know real poignant and stoic.  Nope.  The results instead were something that called to my mind a serial killer who preferred to do his work on sunny weekend mornings at the nearest B&B.  Happy monday morning, you survived the weekend!

It is good to grasp one and not let go of the other.

After my first blog post I went on Facebook to check out how the linked looked, and there was my face, filling the whole screen in an unflattering way.  I knew then the first improvement to this blog would be a more appropriate photo.  So now you will see me wielding a hewing axe silhouetted by the sunrise, a typical saturday morning.

Looking at this photo in context to my last post got me thinking about the woodworking process and it's ancient tradition.  It's technology has evolved from the dawn of creation from whittling a spear with a sharp piece of flint to modern day CNC machines that can mill wood to micro tolerances.  This vast variance in technology has created a lot of strict camps among craftsmen.  What do I mean by strict camps?  I mean there are those among us, traditionalist, who would never even think about letting a machine cut their joinery for them.  Then there are others who would say you're a fool for not embracing the convenience and efficiency of modern technology.  Feelings about the "right" way to go about woodworking run deep and cause many divisions in the craft world.  A basic battle of tradition vs. progression.

So, am I firmly rooted in tradition or do I move with the movers?  What to do...Well let me pull some wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes (yes I spelled that wrong the first time) to clarify what I believe.  Chapter 7:14-18 abbrev. "Do not be overrighteous...Do not be overwicked...It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other.  The man who fears God will avoid all extremes." Balance, that is the answer.  So you will see me using a hewing axe in one moment and then using a power tool in the next.  The question in life and in the wood studio then becomes; what tools do I use and which do I disregard?  This is the sticking point where a person ought to spend his lifetime soul searching to determine what is right.  If we cling to our traditions to tightly we will lose perspective and relevance in the world, but if we plunge head first into the tidal wave of modern technology we will forget the fundamentals that got us here in the first place.

A big thanks to my Uncle Kevin Gronli for
Supplying me with the Oak to build this
shaving horse

This is why I think Heritage Tree (see previous post to learn a bit more about Heritage Tree) is so important.  The latest and greatest thinking is often attractive and easy to move along with but it takes discipline to reflect and learn from the past.  I want to take both the tradition and technology of wood craft to help us be disciplined and look to our elders and learn from them.  This so that we can look to the future all the wiser and shape a better world with both the spokeshave and the power saw.

This shaving horse is almost ready to help me make some chairs

Seeds

Well to begin I had better explain myself so I can figure out exactly what I'm up to here.  The intent of this blog is to share thoughts and ideas about art, spirituality, things that matter, and craft (particularly around woodworking.)  I honestly feel sheepish doing this.  I've been sitting here at the computer for about and hour now trying to figure out this whole blogging thing out.  But I'm motivated enough to take the time and let you know what I'm up to.

Since becoming a daddy in 2012 I've been thinking more and more about family.  The family is where we learn the most, for better or worse.  As I've grown from being a son and brother into a husband and daddy I've seen my families dynamic change.  My brother sister and I are adults with kids.  That makes my parents grandparents and my grandparents great grandparents.  And then I realized that mom and dad and grandma's and grandpa's have been around a while and are going to die sooner or later.  They'll be gone and I had better write a eulogy.  Well I'm not much of a writer.  So what is to be done?  Well I'll tell you what I am good at, changing a tree into fine furnishings; woodworking.  This generated an idea I've come to call Heritage Trees.

What's a Heritage Tree in a single sentence?  It is a collection of objects made from a single tree that commemorate the legacy of a life or family.  I've begun the idea with my mom's side of the family, the Stangeland's.  I've taken a beautiful black walnut tree from their lake home to use.  The question then becomes, what do I make?  I'm still working on that, but after interviewing my grandparents it looks like there's definitely going to be a coffee table and other objects inspired by our ancestral roots in Norway, Germany and Holland (more on this later).


I feel I've left a lot hanging in space on this first post, but that's good, there will be plenty to write about later.  In the mean-time, here's a short video of me in studio getting to work on the Stangeland Heritage Tree.  Enjoy.