Laura Mays Woodworking

Also, it being Spring break and all, I finally managed to finish (well, almost complete, it could do with another couple of coats of oil) this wall-mounted single drawer box thingy in claro walnut. Liberon oil finish. Ebony pull made from an old piano key given to me by my erstwhile buttmate Leonard @lcbechler @thekrenovschool back in 2002. Title: Let it Go - It took a stupidly long time to complete - I became increasingly unhappy with it as time went by to the point where I ...wanted to abandon it but I felt so far in I might as well exit the project by finishing it. The problem was the huge dovetails, which were stupidly difficult to do, and I didn’t do a great job on. I know every craftsperson eagerly points out all the errors in a piece, and when a student does that, I try to draw their attention to the overall form, the bigger picture. But it’s hard to do that to oneself, and it makes me question to what extent the overall thing is reliant on the craftsmanship, the execution, or can the form carry it, despite very evident imperfections? Obviously to exist it has to be made, so its making is inherent to it. See more

The WTF box. Quick version: a dovetailed box in white oak, housing a small Bluetooth speaker from @rockler_woodworking . The longer version: everything about this is a bit complicated, even why I made it. A plethora of motivations. - A test of an idea of how to layout compound angled dovetails WITH NO DRAWINGS AND NO MATH. It worked, for the most part. The dovetails are not stellar but it was not errors in layout that caused problems (more on that some other time). - an ong...oing interest in making shapes that defamiliarize, that are perceptually perplexing, in other words, slightly confusing to look at, that throw one a little off kilter. - an admiration for the work of Wharton Esherick and Natalie du Pasquier and Ed Zucca (especially his series of wooden TVs) - juxtaposing so-called timelessness with inevitable technological obsolescence, which are often placed in a false dichotomy. What could be more traditional than a dovetailed box in quartersawn white oak, the wood of church pews and courtrooms and libraries? The Bluetooth speaker on the other hand will break soon, or be superseded, or just not work one day when some iOS update is implanted in my phone while I sleep. And the timelessness of oak and dovetails is absurd too. It’s not just that everything passes, but that ways of doing things, and the materials we use, and the meanings they hold are inevitably based in time and culture. For sure some last longer than other, but they also mutate and adapt. #whartonesherick @wesherickmuseum #nathaliedupasquier See more

Really happy/honored/excited/ a bit nervous to be back with ‘From WOO to You’ and again sharing my thoughts - aloud - about chairs, chairs I have made, and why, and how. Tomorrow, Saturday March 6, 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific. For more details and to sign up go the Workshop of Our Own website: www.aworkshopofourown.com A Workshop of Our Own (WOO) is a non-profit safe space for woodworking skill-sharing for underrepresented genders. Class enrollment is usually limited to non-binary, trans, and woman-identifying people, but now and then we extend that safe space to all. This is an ALL GENDERS class. @aworkshopofourown #workshopofourown #womeninwoodworking

The Water One. 73mm cubed approx. Red oak. - A woodworker’s nightmare, (unless they are a boat builder that is): to have their work immersed, submerged, in water, over an extended period. In this case 40 days. Wood, being hygroscopic, is in a constant of coming into equilibrium with the humidity in its environment, shrinking and expanding to the extent that it appears to be alive. Of course immersed in a bucket for an extended period is beyond dampness and the oak warped, but perhaps not as much as might be expected, and lost some color. It is a testament to dovetail joints that the box retained most of its integrity. #woodmoves #womeninwoodworking #aawpop

Back to the elements The Fire One. 73mm cubed. Red oak (charred), fixative. One doesn’t have to live in California for long to be aware of the power of fire. In the damp little coastal town of Fort Bragg the danger is not imminent, but a score of miles inland it is, and at the end of last summer the smoke and ash from a nearby fire turned the sky an apocalyptic dark orange at noon for a few days. The sense of destruction and the hubris of humans literally hung in the air. Bu...t fire is also regenerative, and a part of the forest ecosystem. Charring the surface of wood is ultimately protective. Which was all in my mind as I got out my tiny propane torch and charred this little box. I had charred a previous small box, but I went much further this time, allowing the surface of the wood to form a crusty broken-up texture. I then wire-brushed it to get rid of excess charcoal, and sprayed it with an art fixative. It was also much quicker than the other boxes #womeninwoodworking See more

When your about-to-be-nine year old daughter doesn’t know what Jenga is, let alone played it, and you find a lovely piece of figured maple in the free pile at the school shop....

The Air One. 73mm cubed (about 2 7/8 inches). Red oak. - This is in some way the normal box, the control one, the default. Red oak from Rossis, the local hardware store, quite rift, almost quartered in cut. I left it hanging around in my house (literally hanging - I hung it on my pull up bar in a doorway). I also put a different one outside, hanging in a tree, thinking it was *airier* outside, but I ended up not making that one part of the set - it was too similar to the one left immersed in water, just not as extreme. I didn't put any finish on it, I wanted everything as raw as possible. This one is my comfort zone - tight dovetails, crisp, not dirty or burnt or warped - and I suppose one of the things the project has opened is ways to be uncomfortable.

The Earth One. 73mm cubed (about 2 7/8 inches). Red oak, earth, fixative. - One of a series of four small red oak dovetailed boxes, made to the prompt /Elements/ from the American Association of Woodturners, to be a part of their Popup show of non-woodturners. One of the parameters was that the piece must fit into a notional 6 inch cube, so I figured 4 boxes of slightly less than 3 inches could fit. The boxes are all quite simple, with through dovetails that protrude a couple... of millimeters. The top and bottom are little floating panels. A very traditional method of making, with thousands of years of research and development. There is a thin lining, also of oak, which also serves to locate the lid. The construction does not rely on glue, though I did in fact glue the boxes. Burying the box brought up all kinds of associations - with buried treasure, covering secrets, and hiding things; with growing and planting, letting the earth work nourish and protect; and with burial of coffins, a terminal act. I buried the box on New Year’s Day this year, under a plum tree in my yard, and left it underground for 40 days. The timeframe was dictated by the limits of the show. Ideally I would have left it longer, and perhaps this prompts a future, longer project The durational aspect of the project also seemed pandemic-related. We have become much more aware of the passage of time, its ebbs and flows, how it can be fast and slow at the same time, and the habits that make up our days. I have introduced new habits since this all started, and my days are also more like each other. As we reach the one year anniversary of the lockdown, I am more aware than other years of the turning of the seasons, the pattern of sunrise and sunset, the slowing of growth and now it’s increasing speed as spring kicks in. It’s a lot for a small and simple box to hold. I brushed off the loosest of the dirt, then sprayed it with artists fixative. It is doing a surprisingly good job of holding the dirt in place - @aawpop #aawpop See more

The Elements Boxes. Little red oak boxes on which the Elements, or one set of them anyway, have been imposed. Buried, immersed, set alight, and left hanging: earth, water, fire, and air. Each is, or started as, 73mm cubes - the Water one grew, the Fire one shrank. I’m not sure what I was looking for in this project, so I don’t know how well it worked. Sometimes it felt like a science experiment, sometimes it felt plain weird. I suppose one could consider it material studies. For the most part I’m impressed by their resilience! In any case, these will soon be winging their way to Minnesota and the American Association of Woodturners, from there to an exhibition, and then to a symposium in Omaha, and finally they will be auctioned, sometime in mid-July. I think I’ve got that right. Follow @aawpop for deets!

The Earth box, fresh out of the ground. I think I’ll let it dry out for a bit, then decide how to clean it up. A bit, not too much