Olympia Woodworkers Guild - February Presentation
Presentation Topic: Hand Cut Dovetails
Presenter: Maddie Morgan, Local Woodworker
Brief Description
Madeline Morgan is a 4th generation professional artisan woodworker and teacher known primarily for her work as a designer/maker of furniture. In a career spanning more than 40 years, her creative journey has taken many paths, but the North Star that has always guided her has been the craft practice that governs the classical traditions of European cabinetmaking and Japanese temple carpentry.
Maddie's furniture has been described by critics as "architecture made small," which speaks not only to her unique adaptation of complex Japanese architectural joinery techniques to the making of furniture but also to her recognition that, though each of her pieces is an individually composed structure occupying space in a particular way, it will be sharing space with other structures and they will together form a larger composition. As is almost always true, the success or failure of the effort has depended on achieving a proper balance of line, form, and volume in the design, on a profound respect for the material, and on impeccable technique. After so many years in the trade Maddie is happy to report that the successes have outnumbered the failures, if only slightly.
Her visit to the Guild will be focusing on an aspect of artisan woodworking that will seem meaningful to many members---Joinery. And specifically, hand-cut dovetail joinery. But rather than simply demonstrating the method she uses to fabricate the various versions of the joint, she'll be offering instead a wealth of practical tips and tricks on layout, tools, jigs, and fabrication that will make it possible to finally crack the code on this lovely but sometimes mysterious joint.
Maddie's Comments
HAND CUT DOVETAIL JOINTS.docx
Jigs Maddie described for cutting dove tails, among other things
