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MaderaVerde Project
2006 by Scott Landis, Executive Director  In May of 2006, GreenWood hired Don Weber, a Welsh chair bodger now living near Brian Boggs in Kentucky, to conduct a two-week workshop on bowl turning and tool making. Ten artisans from more than six different communities in Honduras (El Carbón, Jocomico y Sangro, Oláncho; Las Delicias, Mezapita, y La Ceiba, Atlántida) participated in the workshop, which was conducted at our La Ceiba facility. Foot-powered pole lathes were adapted with a bicycle-chain device, to provide the additional power required for faceplate bowl turning. Students also acquired the skills to fabricate their own specialized turning tools-using a charcoal forge and salvaged spring steel. All students completed the workshop with a wooden bowl and at least two turning tools. According to our most experienced artisans, this was one of the best workshops GreenWood has ever sponsored. (Don ran one training session for us about eight years ago, and he has remained very popular ever since.) In addition to the new bicycle-chain lathe, Don also introduced an improved bow spring for use with our standard pole lathes; this is less prone to wear than the bungee cords we've been using. Alexis Andrade (one of our most accomplished artisans) was so impressed with these new tool-making skills that he asked us to bring Don back soon to show them how to make drawknives-an essential chairmaking tool that is utterly unavailable in Honduras (except through our own second-hand tool inventory, imported from the States). On this trip I also discovered a local woodcarver and some local toolmakers. It would be great to incorporate these folks in a future tool-making workshop and perhaps stimulate a specialized market for turning tools and drawknives.  Ironically, the original purpose of the workshop-the introduction of turned wooden bowls-may prove to be more of a long-range investment, when compared with the immediate benefits provided by the tool-making component. Challenges to bowl production include the fact that we have only two chain-drive lathes capable of bowl turning. Problems with wood splitting and warped bowls turned from green wood will have to be addressed. (Don is gathering information on the latter, as a follow-up to his workshop.) And, as in furniture production, artisans need to maintain sharp chisels and gouges if they aspire to quality production. Nonetheless, we've opened the door to exciting new products and methods, which should lead to greater production and sales options in the future.  About three-quarters of the funding for Don's workshop came from a private, anonymous donation that was earmarked for this purpose. Don is also working on several magazine articles about his experience, and he and GreenWood board member, Curtis Buchanan, have been discussing a possible video shoot with Roy Underhill of Colonial Williamsburg, whose popular program, "The Woodwright's Shop" has been promoting pre-industrial trades on PBS for more than twenty years.
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