Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Trondheim: Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, starting August 6
The Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder is a big building in Trondheim that houses 34 professional artists´studios and space for 2 guest artists at a time. It was built as a school in 1906. I did not apply in time to take a formal residency here, but was able to rent the woodshop as a guest artist anyway. The woodshop is not necessarily what I would need to build furniture the way I am accustomed to at home, but has some major machines. For my purposes here, the only one I really care about is the nice big bandsaw. I brought a small box of hand tools from my own studio, and bought a few small Swedish knives along the way. After watching other people work for 6 weeks and seeing so many techniques, it was a great relief to have the keys to a woodshop for myself. Before I had aquired any wood to work with, I was eager to begin. I practiced with my new knives on a small scrap. I made a tiny strawberry and a spoony-looking thing with some shallow relief carving. I was just warming up and passing time until I could get started. Anyone want to buy a tiny wooden strawberry? Didn´t think so.
Everyone at Lademoen was very keen to make sure I was all set, had everything I needed, and would get something out of my stay. On my first official day, a Monday, one of the artists took me to find some wood. Her husband is the head of the industrial design department at the university in Trondheim, so we were able to go through the wood scraps and stores at that woodshop. I was not sure what I was looking for except that I wanted some natural curved peices and some fresh or at least air-dried pine. For a very small donation to the woodshop fund, I was able to get a couple of birch stumps that some eager student had abandoned, a halved log of pine, and a random selection of other sticks that would give me some options.
Back in the woodshop, I began to dissect the stumps on the bandsaw, slicing away to untangle several distinct curved pieces where the trunk spread into the roots. These were the building blocks I was playing with as I started imagining shapes, and also started trying to puzzle these curves into forms I had already imagined. I´ll tell you what I´m building when I see what I´ve done. I´ll tell you one thing . . . it isn´t furniture!
Everyone at Lademoen was very keen to make sure I was all set, had everything I needed, and would get something out of my stay. On my first official day, a Monday, one of the artists took me to find some wood. Her husband is the head of the industrial design department at the university in Trondheim, so we were able to go through the wood scraps and stores at that woodshop. I was not sure what I was looking for except that I wanted some natural curved peices and some fresh or at least air-dried pine. For a very small donation to the woodshop fund, I was able to get a couple of birch stumps that some eager student had abandoned, a halved log of pine, and a random selection of other sticks that would give me some options.
Back in the woodshop, I began to dissect the stumps on the bandsaw, slicing away to untangle several distinct curved pieces where the trunk spread into the roots. These were the building blocks I was playing with as I started imagining shapes, and also started trying to puzzle these curves into forms I had already imagined. I´ll tell you what I´m building when I see what I´ve done. I´ll tell you one thing . . . it isn´t furniture!
# posted by Anonymous : 9:45 PM
