Woodworking — alterity.design

So woodworking has been my big obsession in 2024 - it’s an amazing material for a designer to work with. I find that it amplifies many of my existing interests and themes in its natural forms and beauty, sustainable lifecycle, and durable and practical properties. Woodworking also has a rich history of craftsmanship to learn from and be inspired by, and our culture has a deep appreciation for that craft and its story.

Some reclaimed chunks of the “Equator,” the boat Robert Louis Stevenson traveled on around the south pacific, influencing his writing of “Treasure Island.” The boat was eventually dismantled and the wood raffled off, some of which was won by my father and gifted to me! I think this is a good example of when recycling can make things more valuable by imbuing materials with amazing stories

Wood is a renewable resource, it’s biodegradable, and it’s cultivation can be an effective form of carbon sequestration. Reclaimed wood is readily available, and all the same woodworking tools and techniques for its fabrication work for its recycling!

As a designer I love the warm, friendly, grounded sensation that wood brings to a project. I like the way that woods age, darkening and getting polished by our hands. I’ve always loved trees, and climbing them and reading books in their branches - I’ve been surprised how much woodworking has felt like a natural extension of this appreciation.

For my birthday in 2023 I built a CNC machine from a kit which has allowed me to do woodworking with computer-precision. CNC machines are a bit like 3D printers, but they cut instead of add material. This allows me to make wood parts with complex and intricate organic shapes, and to continue to explore generative design techniques in woodworking.

A progress photo from building the CNC! I use a Stepcraft D840. To the right (or below if you’re on a phone) is a slow-mo video of this machine actually cutting some wood

I first used a CNC machine about 7 years ago while setting up a metal prototyping lab in California. I taught myself to program and use them over late nights and sleeping on the office couch. The machines can be a bit intimidating and they’re notorious for cutting themselves apart, so I feel fortunate to have some prior experience. It’s allowed me to think more about the designs and materials, and less about the tools.

Since woodworking has such a rich history of craftsmanship, there are many techniques and subdisciplines branching off in interesting directions. So far I’ve been exploring three of these techniques that all work together in some fun and interesting ways, and I think they compliment my primary interest in generative design.

Engraving and Gilding

My other big tool growth in 2023 was to repair a broken laser cutter that was gifted to me from another Bellingham designer (Thank you Nolan!) Laser Cutters are great fun to use, and enable some very intricate engraving and cutting in any material you can burn with a laser. I’ve been fortunate to have experience with these machines from managing the laser systems for a previous company, and that experience has helped support this creative work (Thanks to Mark, Liz, Dylan, and the rest of that team!)

Lasers are great for making wooden signs and other personalized items

Lasers are also great for branding and engraving your logo into things, as seen here on these pen trays

This video shows how the laser looks like when it’s making a map.

I’ve had to make some repairs to get the laser running, and ultimately I’ve swapped the controller board, laser tube, and power supply. Patrick Wilkie helped me work through some of the trickier aspects of the controller board swap which I really appreciate! That stretched my abilities for electronics work and I’d like to turn it into a longer writeup for anyone tackling similar repairs or upgrades, but I’ll spare you the details here.

One excellent trick I’ve found is to use gold (or other metallic leaf) to gild these laser engravings. This allows all the speed and versatility of laser tools, while resulting in beautiful, intricate metallic inlays. They’re not quite 3D, and the patterns are very sensitive to the scale of the project, but with experimentation the precision can be amazing!

The darker pieces here are all ebonized woods

Dying and Ebonizing

I started researching ebonizing when thinking about darkening wood to look more like water - Ebonizing is a process that uses iron dissolved in vinegar to turn wood black. If you’ve ever seen an old barn, you may have seen ebonizing in the wood around the old nails. I also liked ebonizing as a way to contrast the appearance of the gilding I was experimenting with above.

Since ebonizing soaks into the wood and changes it chemically, it’s a much more durable process than simply painting a wood, meaning it can be used for cutting-boards or other items that get used regularly. It’s also food-safe, since it’s just iron and vinegar in small quantities.

Having more experience with ebonizing made me more comfortable with the idea of using dyes, as dyes also soak beneath the surface, creating a more durable coloration than the usual paints or stains. The thing that really sold me on these techniques was seeing the dying processes for fiddleback maple, as it’s a way to get wonderful chatoyance or iridescence (like you see in tigers-eye stones.)

I think when used well, these dying techniques can highlight the intricate structures and growth-patterns these woods have, and can help foster our appreciation for these amazing natural systems and express the unique personalities of each tree.

Some of my first experiments with dyed maple

A green-blue treasure box made from dyed maple

An orange-red cutting board made from dyed Maple

Veneers

I started thinking more about veneers after seeing the beautiful burl patterns and symmetry in this table I was refinishing!

I’ve only just scratched the surface with veneers - for a while I was opposed to them on principle since I associated veneers with a beautiful layer over something fake, or of lesser craftsmanship. Now I think that’s an issue with design integrity, and not an issue with veneers themselves as a material choice. Veneers also have a long tradition in fine woodworking, they’re often present in the most striking heirloom pieces.

I think veneers can be a way to appreciate the beauty of certain woods and growth patterns, and especially those of species that require more careful and ethical sourcing. Veneers also come with some beautiful techniques, like book-matching and inlaying. I deliberated for a few months, and now where I stand is that I think there are a number of cases where veneers can amplify our appreciation for and responsible usage of these trees.

Some Madrona burl veneer - burl can be difficult and expensive to work with, but veneers can make it more accessible for us to integrate and appreciate these exceptional growth patterns, textures, and chatoyance

Veneers also enable techniques like book-matching, which can create beautiful symmetries like in this serving tray (Seen here unfinished)

Generative Woodworking

Finally, generative woodworking has been my driving motivation behind all of this, as it’s a new space which is only recently possible because of the access we have to modern design and fabrication tools and therefore feels full of novelty.

Ocean surfaces and topographic maps have been my initial proofs-of-concept because they’re such beautiful natural forms and so interesting to integrate into gifts or installations. Being able to create woods with these design and fabrication practices helps move us towards a world where the things in our lives are less sterile and mass-produced, and more personalized and natural.

Our environments and the things inside them affect us, and while industrialization and globalization have given us some incredible gifts (like pineapples and air travel) I think humans will always appreciate nature and its incredible beauty, and I feel good if I can help bring that appreciation to more people.

Stay tuned for more generative woodworking!

My first prototype of a generative wooden box from 2022. This is actually 3D printed from wood pulp mixed with a binder

My first project cutting woods to have complex 3D surfaces - an ebonized piece of pine cut to look like an ocean (for wall decorations)

A treasure box with an ocean surface, made from ebonized maple

Topographic maps are sort of the original generative woodworking, so even though they’ve been around for a while, I’d like to offer to make and economize these, as well as integrate them into other designs - they’re fun decorations and bring out great stories when anyone sees and touches them

Some details of an unfinished topographic map (made from pine) - if you look from an angle, or the light hits it just right, it can feel a little like looking out the window of a plane

Here’s the cutting board made in the above laser video, showing a contour map of the North Cascades

Using Generative Design, Laser Engraving, and Gilding to create intricate golden root-structures in woods

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