Hop workshops offer problem-solving techniques

Posted 09/04/02

Students who want to engage their hands as well as their brains for awhile can take advantage of several craft workshops the College makes available to students.

The offerings include three studios managed by the Hopkins Center-a woodworking shop, the Donald Claflin Jewelry Studio, and a pottery studio. In these well-equipped facilities, students have fashioned wedding rings, designed vases, and even built boats.

Professional craftspeople offer instruction and help the students and faculty who enroll with their projects. No previous experience is necessary, although a power tool safety class is required in the woodshop.

"By making something through their own efforts, students learn the pleasures and rewards of using their judgment, dexterity, and sensory perceptions," says woodshop director Greg Elder. As many as 400 students and faculty use the woodshop each year.

Occasionally, students create objects for their classes in the studios. One archaeology professor brought his students to the pottery workshop so they could learn how ancient Peruvian pots were made. However, Karen William-son, the studio's director, believes one of the program's strengths is that it is open to students of all majors and is not restricted to academic use.

"Human beings are designed to make things; it's part of our creative makeup," she says. "Working with their hands balances the students' education."

Dan Olsen '04 of Grosse Pointe, Mich., spent the winter and spring of his freshman year building a coffee table in the woodshop, in the process learning how to use a lathe and a router. Working in the woodshop is a "relaxing" experience, he says. "If you graduate from Dartmouth without spending at least a little time in the woodshop, you're really missing a great opportunity."

Psychology major Julie Mumford '04 has learned how to make her own jigs and tools in the jewelry studio's machine shop. For her, working in the studio not only offered a break from the books, but also revealed talents she never realized she had.

"I always thought if you can't draw and you can't paint, then you're not artistic. Here I've learned that there's a whole other way to be artistic," she says.

Erling Heistad, director of the jewelry studio, says expanding the students' sense of their capabilities is an important lesson.

"This program offers students the chance to be in charge of their experience and education process," he says. "They define what problems they wish to address and select from the techniques offered by the student workshop."

In addition to the cost of materials, the Hopkins Center charges a minimal fee for students to use the jewelry, wood, and pottery shops. Examples of items created in the workshops can be viewed online : www.hop.dartmouth.edu/Pages/Workshops/workshops.html In addition to the cost of materials, the Hopkins Center charges a minimal fee for students to use the jewelry, wood, and pottery shops. Examples of items created in the workshops can be viewed online : www.hop.dartmouth.edu/Pages/Workshops/workshops.html