Michelle Holzapfel acknowledges that she has some talent for whittling wood, but she credits as much of her artistic success to sheer chance. “You go along almost following your nose, following some feeling that you can’t even put words to,” she says in the latest episode of the PBS series Craft in America. “And that aspect of things cannot be overlooked. It’s very important to take your chances.”

The new “Nature” episode of the series, which celebrates handcrafted creativity across the country, included Holzapfel among five artists who pull their inspiration, materials, and medium from the natural world. Holzapfel embraces every knot in the pine, every twist of burlwood, every fissure that she works into a design.

Her work is technically astute yet thematically whimsical. Her trompe l’oeil pieces include a remarkable rendition of a knitting basket, detailed down to every wrap of yarn, and book ends that themselves look like stacks of books, one with a Raggedy Ann doll seated atop. Some of her vases and bowls hold intricate carvings of leaves, faces, coiled snakes, and even a “knitted” wooden sweater. In other sculptures, such as an apple with its stem still attached to a branch with leaves, the wood appears as sleek and impenetrable as marble.

Michelle Holzapfel, Vermont Spoons

Holzapfel grew up in rural North Smithfield, Rhode Island, learning to make things by hand—from a fort of branches in the woods to clothing stitched with needle and thread. Her mother made dresses. Her father was a machinist who did carpentry and metal work. “As a kid, as long as I can remember being alive, I loved to manipulate my world,” Holzapfel says. “I just grew up sort of immersed in a culture of fixing things, making things.”

In high school, she tried printmaking, using tools to cut wood for block prints. “I discovered that I really liked the carving part better than the printing part.” For her first commissioned work, she whittled name plaques for neighbors to hang at their front doors.

Her family took regular trips to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence to see shows and the museum. Today, the RISD museum collection includes her work, as does the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; and the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Michelle Holzapfel, Rage Correctly

Holzapfel came to Vermont to attend Marlboro College, where she met her husband, fellow woodworker David Holzapfel. They started selling their creations at craft shows and to travelers passing on Route 9 in the summer.

After their two sons were born, the Holzapfels realized that sending them to college and providing them health insurance required the financial anchor of a full-time job. David set aside woodworking and became an elementary school art teacher in Marlboro.

By the 1990s, galleries in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia had picked up Michelle’s work, fetching her prices upwards of $12,000 for a piece. After 30 years of relentless paring, her pace has slowed now, but she still sells to patrons and picks up commissions.

Yale University recently asked her to create the mace—a ceremonial staff representing each of its colleges—for a new residential college named for civil and women’s rights activist Pauli Murray. And this month, a show of Holzapfel’s work opens at The Gallery at Rhodes Arts Center at Northfield Mount Hermon prep school in Massachusetts.

Michelle Holzaphel–woodworker
Applewood Studio and Gallery
Marlboro, Vermont
Website
Craft in America “Nature” episode featuring Michelle Holzapfel

The post Going With The Grain appeared first on Take Magazine.

No matter your trade, Port City Makerspace in downtown Portsmouth has the resources and community atmosphere that make it a perfect incubator for creating, fixing, and tinkering. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran in your discipline or are looking to pick up a hobby, Port City Makerspace is “where we turn sticks into sawdust for the sake of art,” as their woodworking homepage candidly puts it. Break out the elbow grease and slap on a pair of closed-toe shoes you don’t mind getting covered with random debris, and go make something.

“The Makerspace was founded by Zak Robinson, Ross Beane, and Clint Crosbie in 2012. They heard the idea of a ‘shared workspace’ and thought about doing one for a long time,” says Alex Nunn, general manager of Port City Makerspace. “The rest is history.” PCM is a member- and volunteer-driven space with a friendly atmosphere. “Today there is only one regular staff member, and lots of members and volunteers that help run things. We have also grown in size, both member-wise and actual space. We have approximately 8,000 square feet of space.”

Photo courtesy of Port City Makerspace

No prior skills or prerequisites are needed to become a member at PCM except for a determined attitude and an openness to meeting good folks from diverse disciplines. This is not a hack-it-up, make-it-up situation—their philosophy is that it’s important to know how to use tools and they’ll help you get to that point safely and effectively. Seeing that the Apocalypse has never seemed more imminent than it does now, that standpoint is easy to agree with.

While Port City Makerspace is a great place to pursue personal projects or take woodworking classes, members have also been involved in more large-scale operations. “We have helped with community projects like the Prescott Park Green Room, and hosted open workspace days for costume-building for the Halloween Parade. Members have also built some amazing things; an interactive sandbox for Bewick Academy, humanoid sculptures for the Dover Children’s Museum, and a few tiny houses on trailers,” says Nunn.

Photo courtesy of Port City Makerspace

“I’ve lived in the seacoast area most of my life, and despite having moved around a lot in my younger days, it feels like home regardless of where I am in the area. The historical and natural appearance of everything is lovely, and makes life seem peaceful—and once you meet someone, you see them around a lot as though the whole state is a small town,” says Nunn. A community-oriented area such as Portsmouth is the ideal place for people to gather from varying areas of expertise into a breeding place of collaboration and learning, and Port City Makerspace seeks to be that hub. If there’s one thing we know about innovation in technology—it grows at an exponential rate.

So, summon upon your inner jewelry maker and craft that line of industrial bolo ties you’ve been fantasizing about, or make a modest but brag-worthy foot stool for the living room. Learn how to code or visit the 3D printing lab and make a memorial of your favorite deceased pop star. Explore microcontrollers and CNC routing with Alex Nunn. Come to repair your bicycle—hell, come to repair your car! The possibilities are limitless.

Port City Makerspace
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Website
Facebook
Twitter

Top photo courtesy Port City Makerspace

The post Turning Sticks Into Sawdust For The Sake Of Art appeared first on Take Magazine.

For Maine sculptor Lin Lisberger, each sculpture represents “a moment in time and space and the life of a tree.” Born in Connecticut, Lin came to summer camp in Maine as a child and decided to move to the Pine Tree State in 1975. “I’ve lived in the woods of Gorham for over 30 years,” she says. “I am very lucky to have this natural environment as a background and a backdrop.”

Lin Lisberger, BLT, Luc Demers photo

While Lisberger has worked in all mediums, including metal and stone, she prefers wood. “Wood is forgiving but not too forgiving,” she says. “It’s heavy but not too heavy. I can carve, construct, take it apart, and put it back together again.”

It was an injury that led Lisberger to sculpture. While studying English and American Literature at The University of California at Santa Cruz, she hurt her hip taking a modern dance class. The injury forced her to drop the class, so she took sculpture to replace it because she couldn’t see herself taking all academic classes. Her childhood memories of watching her mother, who sculpted and called herself a “sometimes carver,” influenced her decision.

Initially, Lisberger spent a few years as a studio potter in Monmouth, Maine, after receiving her BA, but then decided to go to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania to earn her MFA in sculpture. “I loved making pots,” she says, “but really wanted to make sculpture and to carve.”

Lin Lisberger, See Through, Luc Demers photo

Studying sculpture gave Lisberger an understanding of surface, edge, and form. “I would have learned it on my own,” she says, “but I am in favor of education for interaction.”

Using all local wood, Lisberger says her work is “very specific to Maine.” Her sculptures are carved directly from “whole or laminated healthy native wood.” Maine is a wonderful place to be an artist, she says. “Artists in Maine are allies. They aren’t cutthroat or competitive. You are surrounded with supportive people and camaraderie.”

When she’s not in her studio, Lisberger is an instructor of sculpture, drawing, and 3D design at the University of Southern Maine. Her work has been in exhibits throughout New England.

Lin Lisberger- Sculptor
Portland, Maine
Website
Instagram

Photography by Luc Demers

The post Hand in Carving with Wood appeared first on Take Magazine.