With the approaching wood unit, I became more and more anxious because I am not a very crafty person. Not being able to do the woodshop training became very worrisome for me as the process began. I would say that I probably got off on the wrong foot when my hand was the victim of the chisel during our wood demonstration at the BeAM space. After taking care of my wound, I began to brainstorm how to make this container, hopefully without any further injuries.
I was concerned that I was going to mess up the wood since we only had one piece of wood to use when making our creation, especially since I have never worked with wood before this project. The BeAM demonstration quickly proved how I was not artistic by any means when it came to the wood burner, chiseling, and using the hand saw. After some time, I knew I wanted to make a container from which I dug into the wood. I had the original idea to create a container that was inspired by Russian stacking dolls, but I learned that removing large chunks of wood was harder than I anticipated. I eventually scrapped that idea and went a little simpler. I decided I was going to carve out the center of the block with a chisel.
I began by cutting off the curves of bark with the handsaw. I found it difficult to get a precise line when using the hand saw, so I tried to sand the sides as much as possible in order to get a straight line. I may have sanded my hands a few times, but I managed to get as straight of a line as I could. While sanding, I also rounded out the corners to give my block a more continuous line around the edges. Then, I began the very long process of chiseling the center out of my block. I started by drawing out the square in the center with the wood burner, so there would be a more defined line for me to see. I used a chisel with a semi-circular tip and made holes in the center of the block. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to break up the lines that were between the circles I was making. So, I decided to use a larger and flatter chisel with a hammer to tackle the center of the block. I saw that this worked a lot better than the smaller chisel, but I could only use it in the middle in order to avoid cracking the wood. When I reached how far I wanted to go, I began to chisel down the sides even more with the smaller chisel.
The process of chiseling and sanding took a total of about five to six hours over the span of two days. Let’s just say I became best friends with the BeAM staff, especially Jess, by the end of this process. While working on the chiseling, I noticed my wood was beginning to splinter down the sides. I tried to sand it down as I went on, but I couldn’t stop the wood from splintering completely. I also couldn’t get precise lines I desired with the chisel. The sides of my wood block have some dips and dents from a wild chisel, but I managed to get the overall shape that I desired. I had finally reached the depth I had desired in my box. I was almost successful, but I knew that I still had more work to do.
I knew that I needed to add a decorative element to my container once I had hollowed out the center. The bottom was still slightly uneven from the chisel, so I decided to add a grid pattern in order to disguise the uneven texture that couldn’t be removed from sanding. Using the wood burner, I slowly dragged the tool across the bottom creating a line across the wood. I then added dots on two of the outer and inner sides, and I added dots to the top of the box in order to bring in a decorative element that helped connect my box with Lara’s box.
I finally completed the box with (some) blood, sweat, and tears. I was extremely proud of myself for doing this project without woodshop training, and not much experience with wood before this class. It was definitely a learning process, but I managed to not break the wood while I was working. I have a new found respect for people that work with wood on a daily basis, and for those create elaborate pieces using wood. From this experience, I learned that wood is something that requires careful planning and extreme attention to detail while crafting. It was a difficult task, but I managed to accomplish something I never thought I would be able to do.