CANOES! (Works In Progress)

[Canoez]

As is typical, the school where I teach has it's annual exhibition on the first weekend in June so that the students can display their work. As I've mentioned before, the school teaches a great variety of arts and crafts - including furniture making, painting, sketching, cooking, weaving, sewing, knitting, quilting and some more obscure things as Ukrainian Easter egg decorating, gourd decorating and cedar-strip canoe building.

Now I figured I'd better get this posted while Milo is still around (Just kidding, Milo) - so without further ado...

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As per usual, they got a big tent for the front lawn for us to put our boats under/around and uncharacteristically, we had two days of wonderfully cool, dry weather after a week of hot and oppressive weather. Just enough of a breeze to be pleasant and comfortable. I took the pictures that you see here before we opened the exhibition on the morning of the second day. If I tried to do it with people around, it would be nearly impossible to get pictures!

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My student who had nearly finished his Osprey sea kayak from Newfound Woodworks (http://newfound.com/)at last year's exhibition brought the finished article back for exhibition this year.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bjJwRgTf0rU/TfAcftw3XJI/AAAAAAAACzk/2vdfeJ4X5Cs/s400/Osprey.jpg

For a boat which has really only been recently finished it has quite a bit of history already. The kayak is named Phoenix as we considered it to rise from the ashes of a tragedy - the student, a professional cabinetmaker, lost his workshop to a fire (http://canoez.blogspot.com/2009/01/tragic-weekend.html) while taking the class. The same fire claimed the unfinished Wee Lassie (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MlvfQTkG04Q/SixpQNNg_XI/AAAAAAAABGI/Ab3sGsyAYNA/s1600-h/Viking.JPG) of another student who was doing work in the shop on his canoe outside of class. In addition, the hatch with the inlay of the osprey was lost in an accident last year and had to be re-created. I think he did an excellent job recreating the hatch and matching species, color and grain to the existing kayak:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TD3kK8LPh2Y/TfAcDuXhp6I/AAAAAAAACzU/L29AhssEkEA/s400/Osprey%2BHatch.jpg

Okay, Milo - hold your horses. I know I promised canoes, so...

[Canoez]

Contrary to what some people may think I teach adults how to build canoes on the weekend - a nice diversion from my "regular" job.

Some of my students take quite a while to finish their boats. This is the Root Beer Float - so named because it is a Sassafrass Wee Lassie canoe. It HAS to be one of the longest builds in my class, but then again, this student took a break to build a second decked canoe.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--9pOQ1EKOCA/TfAbY2LqGtI/AAAAAAAACys/EoqKAH8Z4fk/s400/Root%2BBeer%2BFloat.jpg

While she still needs a coat of varnish, she's finally getting her "bling":

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NPVUmg8sRp0/TfAbYl2k7yI/AAAAAAAACyk/OLQ8i--caZU/s400/Bling.jpg

The next canoe is a Wee Lassie II called the Wavy Gravy. The canoe was named for the sinuous feature strip down the side and has been the product of one of my more meticulous students. I can't wait to see the finished product. It was a very popular canoe when visitors started showing up. One of the things that this student got to experience for the first time was answering the questions of visitors about how we do what we do as we build canoes. Most of my students are both critical of their own boats and dismissive of what they've learned until they hear the "oohs" and "aahs" of those people who come to see the canoes. I also believe that answering questions for visitors crystallizes what the students have learned in the process of building their canoe.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xW_bxyEJW00/TfAbYUBrl9I/AAAAAAAACyc/69Zto0Mq8yI/s400/Wavy%2BGravy.jpg

The canoe below is a Wee Lassie called the Cedar Ghost. The canoe was so-named as during the construction, the builder was sanding the hull in the parking lot and was covered in cedar dust. With the low contrast, it looked like he had turned into a ghost. The Cedar Ghost is another canoe that has been a while in coming. The builder took a very demanding job and installed a new kitchen in his home between the start and end of the build. This canoe is an exercise in following the spirit of the Wee Lassie - materials were selected for their light weight and simplicity. While the most unique feature is the hand-sculpted thwart/backrest, the boat has class by virtue of elegance.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hmoS21enfDM/TfAafGb7gvI/AAAAAAAACyU/J2qEYHXXx4k/s400/Cedar%2BGhost.jpg

[Canoez]

This next canoe also holds an interesting tale. She's a Wee Lassie II called Patience and is the product of a boat-builder who started in the class by coming to help her sister fair and sand her own Wee Lassie. Since that time, she has worked diligently and patiently to build this canoe and to continue helping her sister with her canoe.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZysztFgnbK8/TfAaeiBYaxI/AAAAAAAACyM/qr2BEsSGpQk/s400/Patience.jpg

To the left of Patience is our router table that we use to mold cove-and-bead features on the strips. In the foreground, you will see a set of forms that Odyssey came off of only recently. We try to share not only the finished (or nearly finished) products, but also try to show how we accomplish some of the tasks in the class. While Odyssey isn't pictured here, she is a beautiful Wee Lassie with strips of the same color located symmetrically that is being built by an amazingly dedicated student who would travel nearly a total of 400 miles every time he came to class. Consider that he's been coming to class for two years - that's 56 classes for a total of over 22,000 miles - if that's not an odyssey, I don't know what is!

Below is the Tesseract; a Wee Lassie with curved Mahogany decks that is being built by the sister of the builder of Patience. As I mentioned before, this student came to sign up to attend one of the furniture making classes because she wanted to build a table. Finding the class full, she signed up for the canoe-building class instead! The canoe wound up being called Tesseract because the student can't seem to visualize how she went thorough the process - she knows the start and the end but it was like she'd folded time a la Madeline L'Engle's "Wrinkle In Time".

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xyoz5IKkx30/TfAaeLvEdfI/AAAAAAAACyE/T_VfQEFE_cY/s400/Tesseract.jpg

The curved decks on Tesseract came from a fairly thick piece of stock, but they have been back-thinned to keep them light. A coaming will be installed to hide this and the transition from the curved deck to the flat gunwales.

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Last but not least is a picture of the happy builders of the first tandem canoe built in the class. It is a Peterborough Ranger 15' design from Steve Killing (http://www.stevekilling.com/) that was purchased from Bear Mountain Boats (http://bearmountainboats.com/). This is a LARGE canoe to move in and out of the shop every week and has been quite a challenge for that reason. The canoe has beautiful accent stripes and trim in Peruvian Walnut and Basswood with Mesquite decks. This is a boat I'm dying to paddle, actually.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wa3CQUKSwbE/TfAadoE9twI/AAAAAAAACx0/2oFqb_13Dfs/s400/Happy%2BCustomers.jpg

[coelacanth2]

Very handsome indeed and thank you for the pictures

[Paul Pless]

thanks

root beer float is coolY>

[Fitz]

Awesome! Lots of hard work and good stories. Thanks for sharing.

[skuthorp]

Thanks for the excellent pics and for the fine work you teach your students, it enriches everyone. I need to come over for your classes!

[Bruce Hooke]

Beautiful work! Sorry I didn't make it down there to see the boats in person!

[Canoez]

Thanks for the excellent pics and for the fine work you teach your students, it enriches everyone. I need to come over for your classes!

You'd want to stay for a bit. Otherwise, the commute would be killer! :p:D

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