Class of 2024

[Larry]

The last two weeks of June I was a mentor with Doug Stowe in an intense woodworking residency program at the Eureka Springs School of The Arts (ESSA). The residents lived on campus in small cabins. The residency was not the first for the school, but was the first in the woodworking shop. We did not quite know what to expect as the residents were told they could build anything they wanted and we would help make it happen. The residency was a huge success, and end of course feedback told us the only way we could improve it is if we ran it for 3 to 6 weeks.

I've often said that the teacher sometimes learns more than the student and it proved to be true.

I planned to build a chair as a demonstration project but really didn't get much done as I was far too busy assisting students. Did a few quick little demos and spent a lot of time in the lathe room helping students learn.

If your interested, this link ESSA 2024 Woodworking Residency has tons of pictures from the class and you can learn about the school. ESSA is a small craft school similar to many other craft schools. The big difference is the school is a super bargain compared to many established schools. Lots of pros from all over the country travel here to teach. Iffen your thinking of a fun place to visit and learn in the beautiful Arkansas Ozarks......highly recommend!

[aigheadish]

This is cool Larry! Neat to hear there is interest in such things and folks get to learn from your wisdom!

Whoa! That girl's tiny tables are really cool too! I may have to try something like that! The tiny table can be seen in the collage picture in Larry's post, you just have to look past that beaming smile!

[Larry]

Actually those are Tiny Desks.

They tie in with the NPR Tiny Desk concerts. Nicole is from the east coast, I guess the concerts are a big thing there.

"Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of former All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. Wikipedia"

I worked with Nicole to make the legs on the lathe and Doug worked with her to trim the drawers in cherry. This was the smallest thing we worked on in the residency. Nicole wanted to explore the wood lathe and she came up with a bowl design in Osage Orange. Easy.....except she wanted to turn it in end grain osage orange and way off center so it was extremly out of balance. We got it done!