On the first weekend of this new year Schemata Workshop was privileged to collaborate with Sawhorse Revolution on a Winter Skills Workshop. Sawhorse Revolution is an outreach program aimed at high school aged youth which builds leadership, responsibility, maturity, and self-reliance through hands-on education in carpentry, construction and craft. To learn more about Sawhorse Revolution and their mission a link is provided here. Workshop attendees included 3 administrators/builders from Sawhorse Revolution, 16 youth volunteers, and 3 volunteers from Schemata Workshop. A special thanks to Coyote Central who was gracious enough to let us cover the entirety of their space with sawdust for the day.
The Skills Workshop was coordinated to build a series of shelves and display boxes for a Hanjicraft art exhibit which will display the work of local artist Young Ok Kim. Hanjicraft, which dates back to well before 105 AD, is an intricate Korean art form which was used to tell stories and keep history at a time when communication was very limited. For more information about the history of Hanjicraft, exhibit and workshop dates, and examples of Young Ok Kim's work, follow the link here. An example of a Hanjicraft side table made by Young Ok Kim is below.
Copyright 2014 Schemata Workshop
The Skills Workshop was organized into two shifts: the morning shift and the afternoon shift. The morning shift began with a brief introduction to the workshop and commenced with breaking into small groups to itemize the pieces necessary to build each box or shelf. Each box consisted of a 2" x 2" wood frame and a 1/2" birch plywood skin and each shelf consisted of 1.25" poplar wood boards. Groups then developed a strategy to economize materials and then began cutting the necessary pieces.
In regards to the shelves the afternoon shift involved preparing smaller boards for joining by using a biscuit joiner. The smaller boards were then glued together and sanded to hide indication of their union. Once dried the boards were drilled with a drill press and hanger bolts were installed. The shelves were then stained to better match wood in the existing exhibit space.
For the display box teams the afternoon shift consisted of nailing the frames together and skinning the frames with the plywood pieces. Care was taken to make sure that the boxes were built plumb and square. Once assembled the boxes were painted white to neutralize their appearance in the gallery.
The tools learned during the workshop were the biscuit joiner, table saw, chop saw, circular saw, hand-held belt sander, drill press, and pneumatic nailer. Lesson of the day: measure twice, measure again and cut once!
Young Ok Kim's Hanjicraft exhibit will be will open on Thursday February 6th at the SRG Gallery and will run through the end of March. For more information about the SRG Gallery follow link here.