February Newsletter
Analog craft
My two sisters were shopping at a craft fair recently and struck up a conversation with the local woodworker who was selling charcuterie boards, trays and wall art. My family will often send me photos of wood crafts they encounter, and I enjoy seeing what other woodworkers make. They shared with this woodworker guy that they have a woodworking sister who also does craft fair vending, and from what I understand it quickly turned into, “Well, does she have a laser? You got to have a laser” and watch this other laser guy’s YouTube channel to learn all about it. (The laser is for engraving and burning graphics on wood.)
I don’t have a laser and I don’t think I want one. No disrespect to lasers users, but it’s not my aesthetic and I’m not sure what I would do with it. I’m not against new technology, it’s just another tool in the toolbox. Tools are a means to that end, but you have to start with a vision and I don’t have one that involves lasers.
I’ve hung around the spoon carving community who work with axes and knives and when I tell them I’m a woodturner, they ask if I use an electric lathe or a pole lathe. For the record, I use and electric one.
I come from a background of photography and I went to art school at a time when the skills of photography and videography were quickly overlapping. I never took to the moving image, it always felt like a language I didn’t speak. Even color photography was a reluctant medium for me. I stuck with black and white for longer than my peers and even preferred the historical processes such as cyanotype. These newer woodworking technologies, CNC, and laser engraving, feel the same way.
Sometimes with carving, I’m faster at removing material with a knife than I am with a power carver. Just because a newer technology exists, doesn’t mean that it’s the best tool for the job. The shape of the cutting edge and the bevel of the blade determine how wood fibers are sliced and removed. The machine or your body provides the force.
For the past couple years, I have been embellishing my work with a very basic wood-burning pen. It’s a very analog tool where I press each dot to form a line. The variability of the line quality that I get with this tool works for my aesthetic, whereas with the laser burner, it would look machine-made.
Personalization would probably be the best use case for a laser engraver. It would probably be a good business decision to get one and learn how to use it, but I can’t do it today, maybe tomorrow.
Upcoming Workshops:
April 19th, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Introduction to Woodturning - A Carver's Mallet at Brookfield Craft Center
May 17 & 18th, Introduction to Spindle-Grain Woodturning, Vases and Apothecary at Peter’s Valley School of Craft
Shop these ring dishes and more at Rivertown General in Dobbs Ferry, NY.
I love the simplicity of your designs - and the fact that they don't look machine produced. I hope in the new era of AI that handcrafted will become all the more valued.