What Are Art Challenges?

Often artists will participate in art challenges for fun. They can be found readily online and are more of a personal challenge than a competition. Nonetheless one can gain art tips and have fun while learning. It is a unique way to gain additional skills or frame the mind into a task.

More often than not you will find these challenges in more traditional art forms such as painting or drawing. Yet I will present here a few challenges for woodworkers in very basic wood art. It will be an interesting way to measure your skills as well as your equipment.

If you participate in the art challenges below feel free to drop me a line or suggest new challenges to add. I am always looking for new things to attempt myself. I will begin with some very basic tasks yet they will measure skill and equipment tuning then progress from there. Keep in mind the purpose of fun and testing then just let go.

Art Challenge 1

The Perfect Square

Take a scrap board which has no straight edge to any side. Don’t cheat on this, no straight edges are allowed in the beginning. The goal here is to create a perfect square with your table saw. The size does not matter yet all sides must be the same length. The first trick is to first create a straight edge on one side. If you are not used to this then it will be a fun challenge.

You can use whatever jigs you have on hand or methods you have developed for this task. Yet in the end not only must every side be the same size in length it must also pass one other test. Once completed a carpenters square must be used and it will need to be square at every corner to each side. It must be a perfect square.

This sounds simple enough but it can be a challenge to many beginners. The purpose of this test measures a few things. First the artists basic skills but additionally the tuning of a table saw. In conjunction to this you will discover how accurate your jigs are to their use in miter slots and blade alignment.

If you find that you cannot achieve this it may be time to tune up some equipment or improvise a bit more with some of your methods. Those of us who often use raw lumber that is cut directly from trees have found different ways to accommodate for these early challenges.

A 4 Square Canvass

Once you have achieved the above repeat the same process three more times but on three different wood species. Pine, Oak, Walnut, Poplar, or whatever you have on hand. Maintain the same size for each piece. Also ensure that each is perfectly square at the corners creating a 90 degree angle.

Once this is accomplished glue them together in order to create one large square. Each piece will meet on two sides and one corner from each piece will form the middle of this new square. If the cuts and joining was done properly then they should perfectly line up with no gaps in the wood. The seams should almost disappear. Your carpenters square will help you determine if the outside is still square at the corners.

The purpose to this task is further measuring of equipment. The carpenters square itself may be slightly off by thousandths of an inch even if your equipment is perfect. For experienced carpenters or wood artists this can be difficult to get right even though it is a simple concept. Often we end up cheating the system to compensate for slight irregularities.

If you find this impossible to achieve there are some bugs in the setup to work out. You can make your equipment better as a result of what you have discovered.

From Square To A Circle

Next find the exact center of the combined square. Mark it. Use a compass to then trace a circle by the measurement of its diameter. Once this is done use a scroll saw or bandsaw to cut the circle from the square. Do your best to make it a perfect circle.

Creating a perfect circle will be more challenging than many believe as typically this is not something general carpentry does often. Wood artists will be better equipped at performing this yet it is always a challenge. A scroll saw is often the easy way out so trying a bandsaw may be fun.

If you cannot freehand an art tip here in achieving this is to create a jig which will anchor within the miter slot. You can drill a small hole at the exact center and then peg in the square to this jig. Ensure it has some freedom to spin and you can then cut with more ease on the bandsaw. Once done if you like fill the small hole which was made.

If there are other methods you have on hand go for it and work towards achieving the best circle you can.

Time To Carve Art

Now you should have a circle made of four different species of wood that have been joined at the center. Take whatever tools you use for carving and pick a design. Carve it into the wood. You can use a dremel, cnc, or hand carving tools.

If you wish you can finish it with stain and sealer. Yet once completed this little art challenge while simple it was a measurement of equipment accuracy and alignment.

Art Challenge 2

6 Inch Long Strips

Once again take some scrap lumber at least 6 inches long. Use either your bandsaw or table saw. Set the width of cut to a comfortable width that you feel safe with. Using a push stick cut a thin strip of wood from between ½ inch to 1 inch in width.

Repeat this process multiple times yet alternating species of wood. Try to mix and match the species as much as possible until you have 10 to 20 strips. Once this is done you are ready for the next step. If you completed the first challenge and needed to make any fine tuning to your machines these strips should be really close to sitting flush to each other when placed together.

Glue Strips Together And Square

Take the strips and glue them together. Join them in alternating species and clamp. Clean the excess glue off then allow them to dry overnight. Once the glue is cured you can run it through a planer if you need to smooth off some roughness.

After this is completed go back to the table saw and square up all the sides to each other. Sand to smooth the wood and continue sanding moving to a finer grit in stages. It would be good to get into the 300 grit range before stopping. Once this is done stain with a natural finish.

After staining place a coat of polyurethane across the surface and allow to dry. Repeat coating this polyurethane for at least 3 more coats and sand in between. You are ready for the next step once this is done and the poly is dry.

Carving The Wood

There will be a slightly different process in completing this piece. Yet just as in the first project choose a design and carve it into the newly finished board. Attempt to keep it clean and neat yet whatever design you carve make it defined.

Once the carving is completed take a dark stain such as Ebony and color the areas which you carved. Have a rag handy with thinner or mineral spirits and wipe off the excess. Allow the stain to dry in then add another coat of polyurethane. This will give a new finished board for display that has a unique and beautiful look.

Art Challenge 3

The Cube

In this art challenge you need a board you are willing to sacrifice to make a cool object. We are going to combine the above two ideas for something new. Take a board and cut it into long strips of the same width. Preferably these strips need to be approximately 4 to 6 inches wide.

Once this is done take each strip and turn them horizontally to make another cut of 4 to 6 inches wide. Essentially you are creating perfect squares again to the width you choose. Once this is done stack these square cut outs on top of each other.

The object here is to make the stack as high as the boards are wide. In this way you will have a perfect cube. The dimensions should be for example 4in x 4in x 4in.

Rotate And Glue

Rotate every other block in the stack so that the end grain alternates with the long grain. This will create a pattern on four sides of the cube. Once this is done glue them together and clamp. Allow to dry overnight.

Once they are dry you can sand, stain, and seal with polyurethane much like you did in the second art challenge. If you use natural colored stain it will help in carving art.

Carving The Cube

After the polyurethane is dry carve in art designs on each side. You can create dice or perhaps turn it into a game item. The possibilities here can be fun. Carving one word per side such as: yes, no, maybe, so what, I dont know, It’s possible, can make fun answer dice as a game.

Whatever you choose the art to be simply have fun doing it. The goal behind this was to take all previous skills and machine tuning to attempt making a perfect cube. It allows one to measure machine and personal skill with very simple designs.

Why Simple Designs For Fun Challenges?

Challenges such as the three above allow for you to see if machines are still within specification or a degree of error that you require. It is a quick and easy way to check while also having fun making something for the kids.

There really is no other way to know for certain that equipment will perform unless they are tested. Too often wood workers fall into two categories. We either do not care enough about accuracy or we obsess over it. Indeed there are tools that we pull out to measure blade wobble, our fence, or miter accuracy. Yet all the tools in the world cannot tell you the whole story.

It is when you put the sum of the parts together requiring the equipment to perform multiple tasks that are interdependent upon each other that you see the truth. Creating a perfect square is a great example. Here the blade and fence must be tuned together along with perhaps a jig of choice.

These simple objects will tell us quickly if something is off or out of alignment allowing for adjustments to be made here rather than on an important project.

Besides It Is Just Fun

The other part of this is just for fun for all in the family. It may seem silly to those of us who have been doing woodworking for a while but going back to basics and changing things up helps us. Do something that you can relax at for a change and let go. Let woodworking be stress free getting back to the roots of what we love to do.

For me it is when I am in this zone doing stupid simple things that I begin to find inspiration for other creations. Maybe it is because my mind is not focused on an outcome for a specific task. Yet as I am playing with these little kid designs my mind is open and just experiencing the moment. My mind can see what could be or maybe what I would want to do rather than have to do.

Too often we set out on a path like wood art because it is fun but it turns into a job. Do not let what was a passion turn into something that drains you. Bring back the kid into your life and explore. Just have fun!