Make art and split wood on the street

The Museum of Craft and Design | A San Francisco treasure filled with passionate folks who care about, well, craft and design (duh) of all kinds. They care so deeply about enabling learning with folks of all ages. Recently (8/6/22), I did a demonstration and design a hands-on, all-ages wood activity at the museum’s quarterly MakeArt Family Day. It was all so much fun and all attendees seemed very excited to see the practice of traditional woodcraft conducted on the street.

DEMO

I used the opportunity to field test my new pole lathe, which I’m tentatively naming “goth lathe”, “black beauty”, or “dark horse". I’m really not sure yet on the name, but the mechanism and design seems to be VERY nice. Damnit, it does spread joy and wonder. In any demo I’ve done, no one has ever seen a pole lathe, so it’s very fun to discuss. On the new design, I’ve only turned 1 bowl on it so far, but there will be many more.

The simple machine that is a pole lathe is a very practical DIY (i.e. PUNK ROCK) woodcraft tool and also a working STEM experiment for kids. It’s time to write up a design plan and distribute it.

I balanced the demo with splitting wood and spoon carving. I brought a few wood rounds to split into spoon billets, but I couldn’t have done the work without some short volunteers. A few kids took on the challenge of using various mallets to help split the rounds into manageable pieces. Some of the Valley Oak logs I had contained some rather juicy grubs which made for extra “enjoyment” during the process. I managed to chop out a few spoons with the carving axe and answer questions along the way.

The most memorable moment was the rather difficult Sycamore (London plane) log refusing to split, which led to some unbelievable echos all along the street as my mallets struck the splitting wedges. I thought for sure there would be complaints. But, the MUNI train horn is way more obnoxious.

ACTIVITY

Inside the MakeArt Family Day event, attendees had the opportunity to engrave or “kolrose” a small wood tile and turn it into a pendant or small piece of decor. I axed and split about 100 small wood tiles of maple and poplar that had one smooth side and a hole for hanging. Each artist can sketch their design, then trace the design with a knife tip to engrave it. Then, rub fine coffee grounds or cinnamon into the sketch, which embeds into the knife cuts and allows your drawing to appear. Finish with a touch of coconut oil and hang it around your neck. It was a lot of fun (from what I heard)!

CLASS

The demonstration for me was a big promotion for a spoon carving class I’m doing Aug. 27 at MCD. As of last week, all 8 seats are filled and we’re planning a possible second class later! I’m beyond excited to teach a class in the space. Teaching spoon carving to new many kinds of audiences and venues was my main craft goal this year.