Collaborative art project.
A chest built by a web site.
A chest built by a web site.
What happens when woodworkers get together on the internet? In one case, something special. A group of North Carolina woodworkers formed www.ncwoodworker.net around 2005. Since then over 7600 members from North Carolina and the surrounding States have joined. From its beginnings as a computer network for woodworkers to share and support each other, this group has spilled over into in-person activities on many levels, creating a tremendous sense of collegiality. There are annual picnics with the feel of a large family reunion and hundreds in attendance, shop crawls, learning workshops, the pony express (moving lumber, tools and anything that might need moving from one member to another), tool exchanges, monthly local lunch gatherings in different cities, and many small get-togethers of all kinds.
An Outreach Program was begun in 2011 to teach woodworking skills to groups, beginning with Wounded Warriors and growing to include fire fighters and now children's groups. The board of directors purchased a new enclosed trailer and stocked it with tools and supplies. They asked for volunteers to be trained as instructors in the program. So far, over fifty people have been introduced to the joys of woodworking through the Outreach program.
One longtime member, Mike Davis, a textile artist by day and hobby woodworker in his basement at night, had an idea to get folks together and collaboratively build a chest of drawers with unique drawer fronts, each crafted by a different artist. The chest would be sold to raise funds and awareness of the group’s educational efforts through their Outreach program.
Mike proposed his idea and asked others to join in. Bill Clemmons offered to draw plans in SketchUp and build the carcass, Chris Vickers donated rough cut NC grown black walnut for the chest, Phil Soper donated rough cut poplar for the internal parts, Rick DiNardo donated dimensioned poplar for the twenty-four drawers. Tim Sherwood built the drawers and fitted them to the chest. The drawer fronts were to have a theme celebrating North Carolina; each would be made in a different technique, wood species, image, or other unique aspect.
19 woodworkers committed to build a drawer front; 5 committed to build more than one. These woodworkers and their drawer fronts include:
Jerry Craig tin punch
Mike Davis shadow box
Alan Dewey chess royals (in the shadow box)
Garrett Hack inlay sampler
Steve Honeycut carved and painted mountains
Steve Martin carved and painted canoe scene
Michael Mathews pyrography Native American
Mary May carved dogwood
Rick McQuay dulcimer
Scott Miller (2) floral, musical (both scroll saw)
Pete Mohr carved lighthouse with shells
Roberta Moreton(2) cardinal on pine, dogwood (both scrollsaw)
Tom Moser 100 year old oak
Fred Preston (2) veneer (2)
Jeremy Scuteri burl veneer
Cathy Skipper flower basket (scrollsaw)
Phil Soper (2) Duke Chapel window, Wright bros plane
Charlie Stickney (3) segmented (3)
Robert Webster Wright bros (scrollsaw)
The chest has been displayed at Klingspor’s Extravaganza, the Woodworker’s Gallery at Klingspor in Raleigh and will be featured in the NCWW booth at Woodworking in America in Winston-Salem. Please stop by to see this amazing work of art and meet some of the members of North Carolina Woodworkers.
Last edited: