Summer 2025
August 25-29

This five-day class is for everyone looking to make creative hand-shaped & carved objects loosely rooted in function. Folks who are new to woodworking and established makers alike will hone their hand-shaping skills as they practice designing and shaping utensils and spoons, sculptural brushes, and knife handles. The focus of the last two days of class will be ‘mess around and find out’ as we combine and challenge all our new skills gained in the first half of class. in other words more of an open studio environment where creative exploration will be encouraged and supported.

In this five-day design and build course, you will be guided through a creative practice around producing small-scale functional objects. The safe and effective use of hand tools will be emphasized to produce pieces that are unique, sculptural, and rooted in function. We will gain comfort with straight knives, carving gouges, rasps, drawknives, and spokeshaves as we explore form, surface texture, and the beauty and challenges of hand shaping & carving. 

This class offers the unique chance to be guided and taught design and hand tool competency through a series of intentional sculptural projects. The second half of the class allows dedicated time to explore and play; pushing design concepts and new skills in a supported ‘open shop’ format.

Although this class will mainly focus on hand tools, machine tools, and their safe use will be taught. These include the band saw and drill press. Others may be introduced depending on the projects.

Tools

All required tooling will be provided, however below are links to tools that will be helpful to you in class and in other work similar to this.

Recommend:

• Shallow radius hook knife 

• Straight knife (Like Mora 120)

• Spokeshaves

• Drawknife

• Carving gouges

• Spoon carving tools

Prerequisites

Open to all.

Class Information and Registration

Class is 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday in Building 304 at Fort Worden. Map
Please read our What to Expect page for general information about the School.
Please also read our Registration Policy.
Please sign up for the waitlist if the course is full.

Class size: 10
Cost: $940
Materials Charge: $75