Form, Function & the CNC

Anderson Ranch’s Studio Session approach provides artists the opportunity to work on independent projects while receiving regular one-on-one mentoring and critique sessions with Anderson Ranch artistic staff and interns. Each participant receives an assigned studio space, orientation and access to equipment, as well as five hours of weekly technical guidance in the Ranch’s state-of-the-art facilities. This program affords artists the experience enjoyed by national and international artists who access our state-of-the-art studios. Participants may expand their practices, take artistic risks, try new media or complete works for exhibition. *Bench and gluing rooms open 24 hours a day. LIMITED machine tool room access from 9am – 5pm and evening open tool room hours 7pm – 9pm Monday through Thursday. Studio Sessions are available to artists with prior experience in woodworking, tools, and safety. All participants will be required to attend safety orientations for the facilities and specific tools they will use. they will use. TO APPLY: Portfolios will be accepted on a rolling basis. Instructions on how to submit your portfolio are as follows: Submit digital images of your work via email directly to Lane Preston, Studio Coordinator of Woodworking & Furniture Design, at [email protected] Include 3-5 images of your work with image identification that lists the title, media, dimensions and year of each image. While not required, it is helpful to see an artist statement addressing the images you send. Include “Advanced Portfolio Review” in the subject line of your email, as well as the studio session you are applying for. Please provide a phone number where you can be reached and a link to your website. Please contact Lane Preston with any questions: [email protected] or via phone at 970-924-5053

This unique and dynamic woodworking class explores the Japanese art of making secret opening boxes in three stages. Students begin by creating a box infrastructure, then cut plates of wood, which slide in a sequence and stay attached to the framework. Finally, the box is assembled and a finish is applied. After each student completes an initial warm-up puzzle box, they explore a number of other wooden mechanisms and decorative inlays meant to disguise and hide moving parts. Students are encouraged to design and build their own custom puzzle box variation, focusing primarily on hand tool use with the aid of miniature router table set-ups that assist in cutting notches for moving parts and joinery.

This class is open to students who have taken the basic puzzle box workshop and want to go further, dreaming up their own mechanism for a unique box. Students work with precut milled woods and have access to a variety of specific hardware like springs, magnets, and ball bearings to prototype a more thematic puzzle concept. Time is spent testing and making a puzzle mechanism work before moving towards building a box that is locked with a puzzle mechanism.