Curves and Chaos Theory

The popular way to describe chaos theory is that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can cause a storm on the other side.  In the wood shop that means a small choice made at the beginning of a project can make a huge difference down the line.  That's how my initial choice of making a cabinet with a coopered door feels.  I chose it because I thought it would be pretty (it is) and fun (it was...for the first 2 hours of planing).  I had no idea what I was in for.

With a concave door, comes sides angled outword.  They can be flat or one can take an extra step and give the sides a slight curve, as Casey Moffitt did on his cabinet.  The top and bottom of the cabinet also needs to have curves to be consistent with the door while paying close attention to the grain on the front edges.  Next comes the drawer box, again curves top and bottom, sides angled just right to fit tightly into the cabinet.

Now the final challenge is those drawer fronts.  Curved and shaped to fit the portion of the drawer box they'll lie in and edges cut at an angle to fit the sides.  But.....those edges need dovetails!  And the back of the drawer fronts have to be flat where the sides meet but wait....the back is curved.  Oh, did I mention the back also has to be straight vertically?  What about the fact that this drawer front is only a little over 2 inches in height and less than 3 inches wide.  In my previous posts I mentioned that I have to do both drawers perfectly to keep the continuity of the grain.  So, if I mess up on the second one after spending a huge amount of time on the first, I get to start all over again.  And it doesn't end there but rather it continues into a chaotic world that has made my head spin continuously over countless weeks.

Throughout all these feelings of upheaval, I not only learned and developed wood skills I never thought I was capable of but I also learned more about myself than I would have liked.  At one point throughout all the lows of making the drawers, Doug Mackay asked what I was working on.  I just pointed at myself and said "me".  We both just quietly laughed, shook our heads, and shuffled back to our benches.

Polka Dots and Stripes

After all these weeks of working on my cabinet and looking at stripes everywhere, I'm in the mood for something different. I want polka dots.

Specifically, I want to use this piece of Japanese Oak.  It's the first piece of wood I fell in love with when I first entered the wood room.  I saw, I wanted.  And I so want it for my drawer fronts.  But even though it's thick enough to get two pieces out of it, it doesn't follow the rule for continuity.  With two drawers side by side, the visually appealing thing to do is to choose wood so that the grain flows from one to the other.  This piece isn't wide enough and there isn't any more.

Thus, for the past two days, I've been working with Madrone, my fallback choice, thinking I was going to add some polka dotty texture to it.  But today, I couldn't stand looking at it's blah-ness and chucked that idea.  I'm feeling stuck.  I want to break the "continuity rule" so I can use that Japanese Oak....or maybe I really just want to break any rule.












We're finishing up week 13 and I'm finding it more difficult to keep at bay the part of me who always wants what she wants.....mostly, to do things her way no matter the outcome. I keep thinking about what Laura said more than once: that this experience will be like a roller coaster.  I never imagined it meant that I would have to continually struggle with myself, who I am versus who I want to be.

The phrase "I want"?  Some friends will ask: "how's that working for you?"  It isn't....not in the wood world nor in the real world.  So it's time to borrow that "let go" phrase from my last post and let go of everything.

Except maybe those polka dots and stripes.  I will be using that oak in my drawers......the bottom, where there are no rules. 

Let Go

We have just entered week 13.  Glue ups are happening.  Some with excitement, others with lots of trepidation.  I dragged my feet towards gluing up my cabinet.  I would reach for other things to work on and when I had questions about my more urgent pieces, Jim Budlong was the first to tell me to put it aside and get my cabinet ready instead.  I tried again with Laura a few days later and she told me the exact same thing.  "You're just like Jim!", I wailed.  But now my cabinet is glued up and I'm able to move on to those other things.










One of those things is a small drawer box that
fits inside the cabinet.  This school is well known for its Krenov cabinets but what makes them so special is how the drawer slides in and out of the drawer pocket.  Of course, there's no rattle, but even better is that when one pulls the drawer open, it slides smoothly, and before it's open all the way, there's a slight pull that keeps the drawer from slipping out completely.  That's called "let go".  To get that clean feeling, one has to put in at least 2 1/2 days of very detailed work....at least, that's how long it took me.  And then it took about 2 1/2 minutes for me to blow the box apart....not enough glue.  All that precision work gone. Poof!


After drowning my sorrows with a friend that evening, I dragged myself in the next morning, poured a ton of glue into the joints of my drawer box, clamped it up, and went home....all before noon.  And I didn't come back. That was my first time taking any time off and that's when my epic fail turned into one of those "aha" moments.







Getting some unscheduled rest snapped me out of whatever funk I had been in the past few weeks. After spending weeks on the smallest of details, feeling like I was getting nowhere, doing the work I was doing was becoming drudgery.  And with that feeling, I was quickly getting to the point of not caring.  Too tired, too discouraged.

Now?  Game is back on.  Along with those 8 hour days, 6 days a week, is rest.  Lots of it. Play too.  If I'm going to do serious work, I can't take it too seriously.

Law of Distraction

Now that we are all in the thick of our projects, the bench room has quieted down.  People are focused on the tiny details of what they are creating, not wanting to make any mistakes now that they've invested so much time and energy.  But this level of concentration for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week requires superhuman abilities.  Or other things of less importance to do.

While some go outside for a smoke break, others linger in the reading room looking at old year books filled with pictures of former students' work.  Tall students reach for the climbing things, doing pull ups, as they pass through the room. Sometimes we wander over to someone else's bench to chat or watch them work.






I like to believe I'm productive so I make easy tool/wood helper things out of some free purple heart.  But most times, I reach for my smart phone and check facebook.  I tell myself I'm staying connected to home but I when I'm home, I know it's also how I stay connected.

















While on a beach walk with a friend, I spoke of these distractions.  She related a story about a young nephew who called the things that pull us away from something "attractions".  Hmm...I really like that.

Insanity

Definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

This is what Laura reminded me of when I called her over for the umpteenth time to check my hinge mortises.  Last week during her lecture, she stressed the importance of getting the top and bottom hinges lined up so that the line through the pivot points are vertical.  But because my door is concave, the sides of my cabinet angle outward and the edges of those sides are shaped at an angle.  Thus, it's difficult to get a good reference point for the knife hinges.

Plus, I have to deal with someone (me) who has difficulty taking anything slowly (or listening to Laura when she tells me to use a wedge for a guide).  And this process is soooo... slow.  Two days of measuring, checking measurements, slightly chiseling, slightly filing, fitting and refitting, and then finding a gap in the mortise or a hinge that's not aligned.  I call over Laura again and ask her to tell me what I don't want to hear:  "yep, you should do it over." Patch kit comes out.....again. 

Somewhere in all this I asked Laura:  "how do people do this day in and day out?"  Her response:  "that's what you're doing."

Yes, I am. 

doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html#dFcbmkf7OMObKhg3.99

doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html#dFcbmkf7OMObKhg3.99h

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html#dFcbmkf7OMObKhg3.99

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html#dFcbmkf7OMObKhg3.99

A Woodkorker's Hands

My hand

Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
Are awake through years with transferred touch and go on glowing
For long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
Warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.

D. H. Lawrence

The other night I was introduced to a man as a student of the woodworking program here in Fort Bragg. His comment after we shook hands:  "You have woodworker hands".  In my other world, this would have bothered me but nowadays it gives me fodder for a blog post.

I've asked a lot of my hands over my lifetime and it shows. After years of abuse, they're now more dry, rough, and hardened than they ever been.  And for over two months now, these hands have been through the worst beating ever.  They've been sliced by a variety of sharp blades to the point where I'm running out of band aids, bruised from forgetting to keep my hand out of the way while pushing my plane through wood, I've had splinters underneath fingernails that make me want to scream, and of course there's that arthritc thumb that's in constant pain.

Yet throughout all this abuse, these hands are becoming a delicate tool. A tool in which I'm learning to use to feel wood. They are acquiring a sensitivity to the bumps and ridges the machines or my hand planes leave behind.  They're understanding that edges that have been gently rounded over are "friendlier" than edges with 90 degree angles.  They are learning to slow down, touch each piece of wood lightly and gently, as if everything mattered.  And it all does matter.  Because these rough, dry, woodworker hands are allowing me to create things of beauty.

So whatever your hands find to do, they must do with all their heart, there are thoughts enough to blow men's minds and tear great worlds apart...   Don't worry what you are not doing, because your voice cannot command, in time you will move mountains, and it will come through your hands.

John Hiatt

Choosing

We are all past the stage of choosing our project.  For some (me) it was rather easy.  I've been looking at the "Krenov" cabinets for years and coming into this program, my plan was to build a very sweet and small one with dovetails and beautiful grain patterns.  I've even saved a space on my wall at home where I envisioned three cabinets would hang.  But now, so much has changed.

Laura gave us guidelines to follow as we thought about our project: sweet, small, solid, and simple. In the past, she has stressed the importance of making sketches, technical drawings, and mock ups but she also encouraged us to allow the project to evolve organically through choice of wood or design.  That's what happened with this beautiful piece of Japanese oak.

When I first walked into the wood room, this piece of wood caught my eye in a big way.  I wanted it.  But someone said how rock hard it is so I walked away knowing I could never cut a dovetail into it. Then came Jim Creger....a big guy with big arms.....and good taste in wood.   Originally, he wanted to make a cabinet as his sketches show.  But along came another Jim.....

Jim Budlong, who suggested he make a table instead.  To him, that's what the wood is meant for.  Agreeing, Jim Creger has now started down a different path with his project. 

I imagine all of us are experiencing this change in direction to some degree.  We have an idea of what we want, we make a plan, and set out to make it happen. And then something gets in the way and throws us off.  Some can shift gears easily, as Jim has, while others will dig in their heels and keep their heads down to stay on their original path.  Either way, we are all choosing what is right for us at the time. 

And as one friend commented awhile ago....that's kinda like life, isn't it?