Olivia O’Connor has a way of making you pay attention. I was attending her woodcarving class at Wood Play Studio in Coburg and she was giving her preamble before we got stuck in. Only two people cutting themselves in a day’s carving - not bad odds you might think except that there were only six of us in the class!
So, I had a one-third chance of spilling my own blood. The moment to decide whether to commit and brave the terrifying possibility of a gaping spurting wound spraying my workpiece with the embarrassing evidence of my own ineptitude, or to run away. That moment passed too quickly, and I was committed through my own failure to chicken out quickly enough.
Olivia had brought plenty of band-aids.
Two classes were offered - Relief carving in the morning and Woodblock Printmaking in the afternoon. I’d signed up for both. Students did not need to bring anything. Tools were provided and we worked on a communal workbench that had all the necessary work holding fixtures. Olivia keeps her tools beautifully sharp to the point that simply slicing through the wood is in itself a pleasurable act.
The relief carving class was given a couple of easy designs to carve. Most of us had some carving or woodworking experience but I felt that even a complete beginner would have found it easy to get started under Olivia’s calm, measured teaching style. She demonstrated a few basic foundational cuts and pretty soon we were drawing out our designs and happily bringing them to life.
The time flew by - it is such a meditative, centring activity that I felt I could do it forever. Olivia stayed close by, but never intruded or took over. She understood what each student needed at each point and delivered her guidance in a way that was always easy to understand. We all finished our pieces in time and proudly displayed the results to each other. I was impressed at how the medium allowed each of us to express our personalities: some cut deeply and vigorously, some were more cautious. My own effort is displayed at home now. And only one of my kids has asked, “what is it supposed to be, Dad?”
The afternoon found us doing a different kind of carving - woodblock printmaking. This time we were trying to preserve the flat surface of the workpiece in the places we wanted the ink to be. This meant I found myself having to think ‘backwards’, as I had to cut the white out and leave the black.
After the design was cut, we were shown how to print using a roller and some sticky, viscous printing ink. We printed our design onto thick paper of different colours and then cut the prints into components and layered them. A brilliantly simple way of getting a multi-coloured image from one woodblock. Again, Olivia let us get on with it in our own way. Some beavered away diligently, others worked in fits and starts between cups of tea and stimulating conversation.
After a whole day on my feet I was knackered but I felt great. Learning new creative skills in a welcoming, low-pressure atmosphere is a wonderful way to spend a day and the Wood Play Studio fills the brief. You don’t have to have any prior experience to do these classes, or even if you’re already an accomplished maker, there’s always a real benefit to exploring a new mode of expression.
The practical stuff is all straightforward. The studio is easy to find and handy to public transport and there’s plenty of parking. With lots of interesting classes planned for the future, I think Wood Play will have something to offer for a wide range of folks.
Oh… and I didn’t cut myself after all.
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