carve...

carve (v.)

Old English ceorfan (class III strong verb; past tense cearf, past participle corfen) "to cut, cut down, slay; to carve, cut out, engrave," from West Germanic *kerfan (cf. Old Frisian kerva, Middle Dutch and Dutch kerven, German kerben "to cut, notch"), from PIE root *gerbh- "to scratch," making carve the English cognate of Greek graphein "to write," originally "to scratch" on clay tablets with a stylus.

In that mix, you will find the word kerf... another wood working term. scarf (n.2)

"connecting joint," late 13c., probably from Old Norse skarfr "nail for fastening a joint." A general North Sea Germanic ship-building word (cf. Dutch scherf, Swedish skarf, Norwegian skarv), the exact relationship of all these is unclear. Also borrowed into Romanic (cf. French écart, Spanish escarba); perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skerf-, *skarf- (cf. Old English sceorfan "to gnaw, bite").

I've ben told that escarvar in Portuguese is a verb referring to the process of connecting two pieces of wood into a continuous piece, while the verb escavar means "to paw,"as would a dog or a lover. The language of the hands touches nearly every aspect of our human verbal expression. And then there is the rest of what the hands do, connecting us with everything else.

Today on the radio, I listened to an interview with Jill Bolt Taylor in which she described an unbelieveable sense of bliss and connectedness that came as her capacity to speak and think in words was stripped away due to a stroke. I believe her experience was what Pestalozzi described as Anschuaang, a pre-intellectualized recognition of the wonders of reality that is often lost in formalized education.

Last night's White St. Art Walk was a booming success if one looked only at the number of folks attending. For me, sales were down, but with White St. out of the way, I begin preparing for my classes at Marc Adams School of Woodworking that begin on May 28. I heard there may still be spaces available in this class if you have time available to attend and learn box making.

Make, fix and create...

LA guerilla gardens

"Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do."



Ron Finley notes that kids need to be doing things that give them a sense of purpose and that have real value. Can folks not see that kids isolated from becoming providers will not receive the earliest and best possible guidance in becoming responsible adults? I am reminded of my friend Tom, who at the age of 12 was told to go out with his 22 rifle and secure dinner. If he did not, his mother informed him, they would not eat. Tom regarded that moment as a life changing experience. He had been asked to make a real contribution meeting to his family's real needs. Gardening is a thing that can happen nearly anyplace. We are not what we think, or what we know. We are what we do. And most sadly, schools these days offer little chance to do real things that are of consequence to family and community. Schools are about someday. Someday this, someday that. And what about now?

Make, fix and create.

"creative" day...

Carving a wooden bowl

Yesterday in the CSS wood shop, I had "creative" day in which the kids could do anything they wanted provided it was done safely, and that I had sufficient materials available. The kids prefer to call it "free day." But my own term is to describe what I hope is going on in their hands and heads as they wrestle with ideas and making them come forth in physical form. It is a great time to introduce tools they've not used before. Gouges, mallets and drawknives were introduced to various students and safely used.

One 2nd grade girl wanted to make a bowl. So I provided a block of soft wood, a gouge and mallet along with safety glasses. With the wood safely held in the vise, she worked carefully and quietly for almost an hour. Her bowl would not meet Pottery Barn standards. But I would have been proud to have made anything like that myself in second grade, and she was too. Each woodworking scholar made works from their own imaginations.

7th, 8th and 9th grade wood turners

My 7th, 8th and 9th grade students also had "creative day". Some turned pens, and it was a pleasure to see all of our school lathes in operation at the same time.

Today in the school wood shop my 4th, 5th and 6th grade students will also have "creative day." I'm also getting ready for White St. Art Walk on Friday where I'll show my work and perhaps sell a few boxes. Sunday is the annual Books in Bloom Literary Festival on the grounds of the Crescent Hotel. My wife is co-founder and co-director of the annual event which brings authors and their readers together for a lovely spring day.

Make, fix and create..

the persona of the maker...

This film is one pointed out to me in Robin Wood's blog.

Today in the woodshop at Clear Spring School we are finishing up the school year. Next week is the last for the year. My first, second and third grade students will have a "creative day" in which I'll be challenged to keep up. My 6th, 7th and 8th grade students will be turning pens. If we are lucky, they might even become engaged in beautiful hand writing.

Make, fix and create.

Kafkaesque...

On Sunday, I found that my truck wouldn't start without jumper cables and a boost from the Subaru. So after getting it started, I drove to Walmart, the only place to have a battery installed on Sunday. I decided to have the oil changed at the same time. After about 30 minutes I checked in at the service department and found that there was a group of Walmart administrators gathered about my truck, scratching their heads. The terminal end had come apart in some place that it shouldn't have. First one administrator had been called in, then another and another as they tried to figure out what to do. Finally an automotive expert was called in from his day off to examine the situation.

During all that time, I was left waiting. Because I was not a Walmart employee, I was not allowed to even see what was wrong with my own truck.

The truly odd thing is that it was a problem I could have fixed myself. Instead, my truck was kept overnight. I went without its use for the balance of the day and the next. They wouldn't release it to me due to their concerns that a temporary fix to get it running would lead to my truck catching fire and they would be sued.

Yesterday, I spent an extended time on the phone. I learned that everything any mechanic at Walmart does to your car is recorded on DVD so they can review it in case they get sued. In the meantime, having fallen into a bureaucratic quagmire, my truck sat in their parking lot until 4 PM and I was stuck without its use as they waited for a tow truck to take it to another local mechanic so he could order the needed part. For most of the day yesterday the mechanic, under the impression that the entire wiring harness was destroyed led me to believe that it would take 3 or 4 days to get the correct parts. From Webster's:

Kafkaesque : of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality – Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays.

I should get my truck back today. With the truck finally delivered to an experienced mechanic, the trouble was found less complex and expensive than presumed, and the part was located for installation this morning.  In celebration of better days in American history, the following is from the Knickerbocker, Volume 39

The Yankee boy, before he's sent to school,
Well knows the mysteries of that magic tool.
The pocket-knife. To that his wistful eye
Turns, while he hears his mother's lullaby;
His hoarded cents be gladly gives to get it,
Then leaves no stone unturned till he can whet it;
And, in the education of the lad,
No little part that implement hath had.
His pocket-knife to the young whittler brings
A growing knowledge of material things.
Projectiles, music, and the sculptor's art,
His chestnut whistle, and his shingle dart,
His elder pop-gun, with its hickory rod,
Its sharp explosion and rebounding wad,
His corn-stalk fiddle, and the deeper tone
That murmurs from his pumpkin-leaf trombone,
Conspire to teach the boy. To these succeed
His bow, his arrow of a feathered reed,
His wind-mill, raised the passing breeze to win,
His water-wheel, that turns upon a pin;
Or if his father lives upon the shore,
You'll see his ship, 'beam-ends upon the floor,'
Full rigged, with raking masts and timbers staunch,
And waiting, near the wash-tub, for a launch.
Thus, by his genius and his jack-knife driven,
E'er long he 'll solve you any problem given;
Make any gim-crack, musical or mute,
A plough, a coach, an organ, or a flute;
Make you a locomotive or a clock,
Cut a canal, or build a floating dock,
Or lead forth beauty from a marble block;
Make any thing, in short, for sea or shore,
From a child's rattle to a seventy-four.
Make it, said I? Ay, when he undertakes it,
He'll make the thing, and the machine that makes it.
And, when the thing is made, whether it be
To move on earth, in air, or on the sea,
Whether on water, o'er the waves to glide,
Or, upon land, to roll, revolve, or slide;
Whether to whirl or jar, to strike or ring,
Whether it be a piston or a spring,
Wheel, pulley, lube sonorous, wood or brass,
The thing designed shall surely come to pass;
For, when his hand's upon it, you may know
That there's go in it, and he 'll make it go.'

Make, fix and create...

100 acts of sewing...

One of 100 dresses by Sonja Phillip

Sonja Phillip, craft artist, decided to make 100 dresses in 365 days. That might be seen as an ambitious project, but if you had been in the building that collapsed in Bangladesh or in the fire that recently killed 8 in that same nation, more than 100 sewn garments would have been only part of your daily work. It is odd that the simple act of making something to wear can be an expression of humanity, or can be distorted as a means of human exploitation.

Sonja Phillip says:

"It may be unrealistic for everyone to make their own clothes, but everyone should know how to sew. At one time students did learn in home economics. I went to an international school overseas where all students – male and female – took needlework and cooking, as well as woodwork and metalwork classes. Maybe it was this experience that informs my thinking – that even if a person doesn't make their own clothes, knowing how to sew leads to appreciation of skill and recognition of quality. It also enables people to mend or modify the clothes they purchase, helping extend the life of the garments.

"The act of making anything by hand comes from a place of contradiction. It will probably always be cheaper, faster, easier to buy a mass-produced item. It's the way the market functions, economies of scale.

"To go counter to that comes from a place of concentrated attention. Can we begin to see labor and craftsmanship as valuable? Can we go beyond labels and logos? Can we determine value in the context of provenance, memory or lineage?

"We need to fill our lives with meaningful objects and not simply quantities of stuff."

The point of "making your own stuff" is not always about the "stuff." When we become engaged in making something, developing skills, growing in understanding of materials and techniques, we are engaged in the construction of self. What we do in the making of self, effects our own lives, and reshapes our relationships with all those whose lives we touch.

As you can see in the photo at left, I continue to make boxes. These will be chapter 5 in the new book and will have drawers. The top panels are basswood, that has been textured and painted, either with spray paint (black) or milk paints. A similar sized box will be made with dovetails.

Make, fix and create...

No true wealth but life...

John Ruskin 1850s

The Hillside Club in Berkeley, CA will host a one-day symposium on John Ruskin, No Wealth But Life, on July 13. I am constantly amazed by those who have so little sense of cultural integration that they see only the dollar as their measure of success.

Neurophysiologist Matti Bergstöm named a sociological and cultural syndrome, "finger blindness" referring to those who have not learned their sense of self from a true connection with reality...  like that acquired through the making of beautiful and useful things. He refers to those folks as being "values damaged," in that their values are restricted and narrowed to a single measure of reality. Bergstöm said, "Just as the blind man cannot see the the shape of a physical object, the finger blind cannot perceive its intrinsic worth." Rather than understanding the diverse cooperative values associated with craftsmanship, the only measure for the finger blind is that of competitive financial success. And some of the richest folks in our society suffer from it.

We see the effects of this all the time, from the SWEPCo plans to put a huge superhighway of electric power through my back yard, destroying 48 miles of Arkansas forests in the process, to schools in which the administrators overlook the interests of each child in order to foist schemes of greater profit and short term cost-effectiveness, on our kids.

"Ruskin attacked the insufficiency of nineteenth century notions of 'value' and 'wealth,' insisting instead that 'There Is No Wealth But Life.' For Ruskin, as for us today, the great challenge was to teach people and nations "to desire and labour for the things that lead to life." As an antidote to the gospel of greed, Ruskin taught "the first law of the universe" the law of help which governs all healthy biological and social systems."

Ruskin's law of help is as follows: "Government and cooperation are in all things and eternally the laws of life. Anarchy and competition, eternally, and in all things, the laws of death.^[98]"

Today in the wood shop, I'm cleaning and getting ready for the week. This is my next to the last week of classes for the year at Clear Spring School. I'm also getting ready for the White St. Art Walk here in Eureka Springs next Friday night, and I am preparing for my trip to Marc Adams School of Woodworking in two weeks. Class there will begin on May 28, and there are still openings for students to sign up. Go to MarcAdams.com for details.

Make, fix and create...

china DIY

The US has long had an edge in technology due to the DIY culture that is currently making a resurgence.   Make Magazine, and the huge array of junk available to us play roles in this. I remember a few years ago when my friend Roger found a man at his door who had moved from Chicago and in that move, he wasn't allowed to carry his huge pile of junk. The pile of junk in Roger's back yard was just what he was hoping for. He needed a place where he could scavenge for bits and pieces of old metal to use in whatever he wanted to make. He asked, "Will you sell me your junk pile?" Roger, a tinkerer in his own right, and knowing that he had more than enough to go around offered to share.

Many of us find it necessary be creatively engaged in some fashion, and if there is an ongoing American Success Story, it is that of the backyard inventor. Orville and Wilbur Wright come to mind.

An article in the Atlantic offers photos from the Chinese DIY movement. I don't share this as a cautionary tale. Who cares whether or not they are catching up to American ingenuity? Regardless of culture, or nation, the exercise of hands-on creativity is essential to healthy human moral values, and I applaud all those who make things... the more beautiful and well crafted, the better, but even the junk is better than nothing.

John Ruskin declared:

"It is only by labor that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labor can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity. It would be well if all of us were good handicraftmen in some kind, and the dishonour of manual labor done away with altogether."

Today I'll be working on chapter 5, making jewelry boxes of a simple design.

My readers may also see some beauty in this...

Make, fix and create...