Making Sawdust

After the block printing workshop tonight (no new scraped knuckles, yay!) I went over to mom's garage to play with the power tools. I transformed two scraps of wood into a hockey puck with a handle:




Tools used: radial arm saw, band saw, drill press, belt sander.

This gadget I created is for block printing. You use it to rub the back of the paper, so that it absorbs the print. The teacher said we could buy a real one, or use the back of a wooden spoon. I brought a wooden spoon, but it didn't work as well as the gadget another student made. So I made my own. (Apparently the art supply store that was supposed to order the gadgets in hasn't received them yet. I was being cheap... I've already spent tons on this class.)

The real gadgets are larger, thinner, and covered in a banana leaf that is twisted around back to make a handle. The other student's gadget was larger, and with a different style handle. My gadget size was limited by the selection of wood in the scrap bin. (I didn't dig very deep either.) Although mine is smaller, it's larger than the back of a wooden spoon. I think it will be fine.

Note: the correct name for the gadget is a baren. (According to that site I link to, what I thought was a banana leaf is actually the sheath from a stem of bamboo.)