February Guild Meeting: Sketchup & Making Use of our Websites

Our February guild meeting will be held late in the month this time -- we are scheduled for Monday, February 23 at the Lewis and Clark Library. We have the large conference room scheduled from 5:30-8:30pm and the computer lab scheduled from 6-8 so we'll be in both rooms after our social time and meal.

The Guild is providing the entire meal, including beverages. We'll eat in the large conference room off of the library's new lobby. Please do not bring your own beverages this time -- the library does not allow alcohol on the premises. The meal is on us!

Bill Daigle will demonstrate the basics of Sketchup, which he uses to design his woodworking projects. The library will have the software loaded onto computers in the lab, so we can follow along with Bill on the overhead monitor.

There are 10 student stations in the lab, so plenty of computers for us to share. Even if you don't know how to use a computer, you might like to see what can be done with computer-aided-drafting/drawing and design.

Maureen will have at least two computers set up in the conference room, to give us hands-on practice using the Guild's websites and Facebook network (left)

Basics to be covered by Maureen will include setting up online photo storage, uploading photos, setting up simple websites for members who do not have an online presence, and registering for your own Facebook page so that you can participate in the Guild's Facebook activities and announcements. Please consider checking this out even if you don't think you'll spend much time on Facebook or the guild's website. There are many ways you can make use of the Guild's online offerings, not only for participating in Guild activities, or to promote your woodworking hobbies or businesses. With your own web site or Facebook page, you can share your woodworking with your friends and families.

Another simple SketchUp sketch with the final product below:

LINKS:

• Sketchup Graphics showing workbench and exploded view of tv cabinet © Design Click Build
• Fireplace Sketchup Rendering and Photo © by Wizum
• Lewis & Clark Library, Helena, Montana
  

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Hands-on Timber Framing Opportunity: Learn More and be of Service

Guild member, Bill Pratt sent a link and a Missoulian article about a special opportunity for woodworkers to participate in a hands-on timber framing project in Missoula later this month -- on September 22 and 26th.

Please consider volunteering for the Silver Park Small Shelter Project. The Timber Framers Guild will host a workshop to build one of the three winning timber and log designs in the Silver Park Design Competition.

"The Bonin design, shown below, will give participants an excellent oppor-tunity for honing their skills in compound joinery. This shelter, plus the other two winning designs that are being cut at local shops, will be raised in their eventual home in Silver Park, which is adjacent to Osprey Stadium where the workshop will be held. There is no fee but you do need to register."

The Timber Framer's Guild is offering this project as a free workshop to registered participants. The public is also invited to visit Ogren Ballpark to watch and learn by observation, something about timber framing. So if you are interested, please contact:

http://www.tfguild.org/SilverParkDesigns/

Phone: (888) 453-0879 (toll-free)

Email: maureen@tfguild.org

Links:

• Free Timber Framing Design Standards
• Timber Framers Guild
• Missoula's Home Resource: a Building Materials Re-Use Center
• Habitat's Re-Stores, another re-use resource - we have one in Helena
• Registration Form/Online Survery for free workshop
  

Timber Frame Construction Presentation

Come Join the Helena Woodworkers Guild for an opportunity to learn about timber framing from a master!

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How many of our woodworkers have woodworking "genes" running in their families? Judging from the photos in this article, it's obvious guild member Dave Carlson's woodworking talents have been passed on. Dave's son, Scott Carlson, an accomplished timber framer from Ohio, will give a Power Point program on timber frame construction, history and techniques while he is in Helena visiting his family.

Scott's presentation will be June 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm in the large meeting room of the Lewis & Clark Library (left.)

Please join us -- looks like it will be fun, inspiring and educational.

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Scott, a professional timber framer from Ohio, owns his own timber framing business which specializes in traditionally hand crafted timber frames for homes, public buildings, barns and out buildings. Scott's business website is Sweetgrass Joinery.

Here are a few more examples of Scott Carlson's work to get you excited about attending his timber frame presentation on June 30:

Add this event to your own Google Calendar (an online, free calendar with optional reminders) Click the button below:

How to Grow as a Woodworker: Invite a Critique

Our Guild had the pleasure and honor of being critiqued by three excellent commentators Tuesday evening, November 12. The three "jurors" this year were Liz Gans, co-director of the Holter Museum of Art, Janeen McCarvel, interior designer at Boxwoods, and Richard Notkin, a ceramics sculptor and former resident of the Archie Bray Foundation. Liz, Janeen and Richard shared their personal responses to the variety of functional and art objects crafted by our woodworkers.



This is the second year we have had a critique during the run of our woodworking exhibit, and it was again educational and inspiring to hear from three very different people who are all so knowledgeable in their fields.



Richard Notkin asked of the group, "How do you challenge yourselves?" I am not a woodworker, though I feel blessed to be married to a woodworker. Even so, I really resonated with Richard's question because I make a living as a designer and artist, and that's something I ask myself constantly. How not to become stale with my designs and my artwork? For me, being the recipient of a critique has been something of a challenge most of my life. It ain't always easy to be open to criticism, even if the criticism is constructive. If you really put your heart into your work, you are personally invested in it. And it's easy to take a critique too personally.

So .... I would say in some ways, the members of the guild who attended Tuesday night's critique were challenging themselves. And hopefully everyone took away something positive from the critique -- perhaps more self confidence, a renewed commitment to growth in your work, or maybe an affirmation that your woodworking is going in a good direction.



I hope the guild continues to invite critique as a regular part of our annual exhibits and as a way to challenge ourselves to look critically at our own artistic growth.

all photos Copyright © 2007 by Maureen Shaughnessy

What's in your Woodworking Library?

Tim and I are bibliophiles. We love books and we love reading. We each have a stack of books in the bedroom (this is Tim's current stack, left) and our an extensive library fills shelves in three rooms of our five-room house.

Living in a rural state like Montana, books help us stay connected to the wider world, to inspiration and education through reading about what others in our fields are doing all over the world. With that in mind, I'd like to ask any woodworkers or wood-lovers who wish to, to share with the rest of the guild, which books have inspired you, taught you, kept you going in your chosen craft.

Fine Woodworking #121 included an article titled, Woodworking Libraries in which five craftsmen talk about the books they have most valued over their careers. You have to be a member of Taunton's online service to read the pdf file (FW's reference service is well worth the $!)

Here is an excerpt by Alphonse Mattia, a furniture design teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design. He uses a metaphor of escaping to a small island studio with only the bare essentials of life and his craft. As his tiny rowboat takes on water he jettisons his woodworking books a few at a time until just one book remains:

"I only have my inspirational books left, and the boat is still taking on water. Ways of Seeing and About Looking by John Berger and The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye are sent to the depths. Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces are next. Carol F. Pearson's The Hero Within follows. These books help us discover ourselves and understand our journeys as artists.


Robert G. Henricks' translation of Lao-tzu's Te-Tao Ching would be the last to go. It's a Bible of sorts. My books go down like the Titanic, slipping silently into a powerful swirling vortex ... created by their weighty significance.

Then I remember that these books are only symbols of knowledge. I've read them (or at least looked at the pictures) and assimilated what I could at the time. I haven't really lost them. And I still have my single most important book. It's the one book every artist should have, the record of my development and the map of my journey. Never complete because it describes an ongoing and nonlinear process that branches out and reconnects. Ultimately, that sketch book is the most valuable book of all."

How about it, all you woodworkers out there? Tell us what's in your library and we'll start a list on essential woodworking books in the sidebar. Magazines and journals count too!

I'd love it if you shared some of your favorite books and magazines -- either woodworking or inspirational -- by leaving a comment after this post. Or, if you'd rather, just send me an email to helenawoodworkers@gmail.com with a list, long or short, or books on your shelves. Thanks.
--Maureen, CBO