 Furniture Students Find Pleasure in Invention
Sarah Hastings had never worked construction. She'd never built a chair for the family dinner table at Shepherd.
But there she was, wearing safety goggles and ear plugs, shoving
wood through a planer.
"I've never done anything like this before," said Hastings, a
fifth-year architecture student at Montana State
University-Bozeman.
Neither had some of the other students in the fall
furniture-building class at MSU, but that didn't matter.
"I work with students at all levels," said instructor Richard
Penziner. "Within a class will be some people who have more
advanced techniques. Others are absolutely green. Even though
it's a group, I do work with them somewhat independently."
Penziner is in his fifth year of teaching upper-level architect
students how to make furniture. A sculptor who evolved into
furniture building, he suggested the course as a way to teach
design. The class is optional and held in Cheever Hall twice a
week in the evenings. By the time the semester-long course is
over, students have done everything from designing to building
their own furniture. Projects during the fall semester included
tables, a headboard and miscellaneous other items. Wood ranged
from fir and alder to an exotic variety from South America.
"I hope to go into architecture design," Sean Goodrick said as he
sanded the combination bench and bookshelf he was making for his
parents. "I hope I can use the information I learned from this
project to further my design career."
He originally thought he would fashion the alder wood into
furniture with a router connected to a computer, but he changed
his mind and decided to make it by hand.
"I thought it would be a lot better learning experience,"
Goodrick explained.
John Sauder was incorporating an intricately-designed screen from
India into a walnut panel he could hang in front of a window or
light.
"It's more a piece of art than a piece of furniture," said the
graduate student who likes the hands-on format of the class.
Erin Curtis was combining white ash and padauk (wood that smells
like "scratch and sniff chocolate") into an entryway table. A
fifth-year architect student who hopes to own a winery one day,
she didn't have enough time to build the wine rack she originally
wanted.
"I think a lot of students were surprised at how much was
involved in building a really custom piece of furniture,"
Penziner said as he went from student to student in the MSU
workshop. "But I think they got a really strong understanding of
the qualities of wood and also what's involved in actually
working with the materials."
Penziner favors domestic woods for his own work. In his personal
studio, he builds furniture that can be used, as well as entered
in art exhibitions. He carries that same philosophy over into the
classroom, encouraging students to build furniture that has
function and artistic value alike.
He also wants students to enjoy his class.
"There are grades," he said. "But grades are based on the process
more than the final product. ... I really want the course to be
fun. That's a big part of it, and pleasure in the invention of
things."
That's an approach that seems to work for his students.
"It's great," Sauder said about the course.
"After taking this class, I kind of want to build more furniture
as a hobby," Curtis added.
Hastings, who hopes to work for a mid-size architecture firm
after graduation, said she learned two important things from
Penziner.
"Have a little patience and don't be nervous with the machines."
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