The closer you get to the end of the year, the faster time goes by. Maybe the older you get the faster it goes too. Paula, Pret and I have started sorting out stuff for Greenwood Fest, who’s doing what, etc. But in the meantime, we have a few courses closer to the horizon. There’s a spoon carving class coming up in early December at Overbrook in Buzzard’s Bay.
Then the following month, after all the hubbub dies down, is Tim Manney’s sharpening class. This class is a deceptive thing. Sharpening classes are not as glamourous as a project-based class, but the skills you develop in this class reach into every aspect of your woodworking.
Tim gets things fiercely sharp, and is an excellent teacher. https://www.plymouthcraft.org/an-axe-to-grind Last year, people were scooting around asking “what else can we sharpen?” – I’m going to be around for it, and I’ve been cleaning my loft out in the shop. I plan on bringing a box of tools that will be free for the taking – but you’ve got to sharpen them!
If you have been to an event put on by Plymouth CRAFT, then you already know.
If you came to Greenwood Fest 2016, then you found out.
I said it there, & now I’m saying it again. If it were not for Paula Marcoux, none of it would happen.
We have many dedicated volunteers, board-members, guest instructors, etc – but altogether we can’t keep up with her.
The beginnings of Plymouth CRAFT stem from her vision. Once a bunch of us had moved on from our museum roots, she came up with the idea for forming this non-profit to teach various crafts. We all would have just kept saying, “yea, that’s a good idea, we should do it…” – but she went ahead and did it. So we just followed her lead.
I joke that when the idea for a Greenwood event came up, I said “bad idea, too much work.” But I also said I’d like to go to it, and she just listened to the 2nd part. I’m glad she did. We figured the notion was in the wind, following the great success of Robin Wood & Barn Carder with Spoonfest. So someone was going to do it in the US, and Paula decided it would be us.
Every email that got sent to Plymouth CRAFT about Greenwood Fest was answered by Paula. She personally handled everybody’s requests and comments.
Did all the registration stuff, and handled it when anyone needed to reschedule, refund – all that sort of thing. Sorted the waiting list, and delivered the news to those that squeaked in once spots opened up.
Then brought her bike to the event so she could get around the spread-out campus quickly enough to handle each emergency, request, or other logistical arrangements.
Paula also handled the after-classes planning & registration, then made lunch for 30 of us both of those days. And breakfast for nearly that many.
Those of us who have known her for decades are used to it, but I don’t want to take her work for granted.
So, here’s to the one who made it happen – Paula – thanks for Greenwood Fest 2016.
I know weird people. There’s an outfit formed around Plymouth Massachusetts this year that proves it.
most of them can’t even look at the camera
The fledgling non-profit Plymouth CRAFT is getting up and running; the website is being developed now, it will get fleshed-out soon – http://plymouthcraft.org/welcome/
The whole gig will be worth watching, or better yet, worth participating in. The word “craft” in the title stands for Center for Restoration Arts and Forgotten Trades. It is a loosely-knit group of artisans and craftspeople who will be offering workshops, demonstrations, expertise and other whiz-bang crafty know-how to students, amateurs, professionals, and other interested parties.
The other day a few of us assembled at Michael Burrey’s place to shoot some photos and video to be used in our fund-raising and as a general introduction to the question – “what goes on? “
First up, woodworker Michael Burrey, working clay. You’ve seen MIchael on these pages some before; https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/who-you-gonna-call/ and if you read Rick McKee’s blog Blue Oak, http://blueoakblog.wordpress.com/ (you do, don’t you?) then you are familiar with the scope and range of Michael’s work. On this particular day, Michael was molding bricks for a building on Nantucket. These go down low, around the perimeter of the building, with the ogee shape towards the sky to shed water…if I had paid more attention, I would have the name & date of the building, and more detail about the source for this brick shape. Once he has enough made, he’ll fire them in his wood-fired kiln, just beyond the edges of this photo.
and when I saw this rig on Saturday, I knew I had to hang around to see it happen… it looks like a “sweep” (that’s what Joseph Moxon called it, for making an arch from wood, sans lathe) – a scratch stock on a trammel essentially. Pen has a whole different vocabulary for it, here she was working plaster – gooping it up right quick…then swinging the molding scraper across the mess- out comes architecture. (the first shot is a rope of clay, to bulk up the demo piece – usually it would all be plaster…)
Midway through the process – these folks got to work quickly, before the stuff sets too much.
At this point, there’s a lot of refinement; filling in gaps with wet mixture, then swinging another pass.
she made this archway just for a demonstration – what work! It was a gas to watch that form come together…
Charlotte Russell came by with some drop-spindle stuff, some carded wool and Maureen sat right down for lesson # 1… Charlotte has been a textile artisan for over 50(ish) years -she spins, knits, weaves, has a passion for history and craft, and is a skilled teacher in all things fiber.
I took a quick stab (Oh, poor choice of words for teaching knife-work) at teaching one of the photographers some of the knife moves for working on spoon-carving. I have no idea if it was sinking in, there was lots to keep track of that morning…but his moves were right, and no blood was shed…
When we get further along with this endeavor, I’ll be writing more about it here, Rick will too on Blue Oak – so you’ll hear about it. There’s way more people and crafts involved than what we previewed the other day…that was just what we could round up on short notice. Have a look at the website, and stay tuned. You’ll hear more.
I think of Bill Coperthwaite’s quote – “I want to live in a society where people are intoxicated with the joy of making things.”
If Daniel hadn’t had a baseball game, we woulda stuck around Burrey’s for the rest of it. Just as regular order of business, it was apple-cider-making day…
PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES 