Day 1 - Catherine

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Today was the first day of the Advanced Woodworking A-Term and it was also my first time in the new Tinkeria (double cool). This day was dedicated to deciding and planning what projects we are interested in and how we are going to make them over the duration of the course. Mr. Grisbe outlined the goals of the course and some basic guidelines for our project but, for the most part, we had free rein with our project choices. With so many possibilities and ideas out there: furniture items, cutting boards, shelves, etc., it was a tough decision –especially for someone as indecisive as me. Recalling the wooden cutting board that I made in Design Tech sophomore year using strips of wood that showcased the natural grain, I decided to make another cutting board but this time using smaller pieces with the end grain of the wood on display allowing for more intricate designs and an ultimately more durable cutting board.

Mr. Grisbee showed me several examples of cool end-grain cutting board designs and shapes and after doing some additional searching, I settled on two designs. The first is a rectangular cutting board made with several uniform small pieces of wood of similar colors that I will arrange and glue in an alternating pattern. The second is a narrow rectangular serving platter with a small handle. I plan on making the design of this platter a little more tricky with woods of different sizes and two contrasting colors arranged to create an optical illusion. Once I decided on my pattern, I created a simplified blueprint including the design idea and dimensions. I am not yet 100% sure how I am going to cut the pieces to make the optical illusion like my inspo picture but it will be fun to figure it out. I'm excited to pick out our materials at the Rockler and Home Depot tomorrow and maybe even get started on my first project!


Design sketches



Design inspiration

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