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Exsided!!!! #frogwater #whidbeyisland #sketchitout #whatawinterday!

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I got to spend a couple of days being inspired by the hard work of the new 5th year students of Rural Studio.... Check it out!

5th-year Studio Workshop 3 with Jake LaBarre

They said that God was in the details.

And it’s true, as we came to discover during the two full days of the most intense workshop yet. The illustrious Jake LaBarre had made his way down from Seattle to share his preachings and teachings about construction detailing, and we were eager to know what we didn’t know we hadn’t known.

Earlier that week, our previously scheduled workshop with Mike and Katrina had been postponed. We used our time off to regroup, recollect, and refine the details of our workbook - so we were ready and rested that Thursday morning when we met Jake. After presenting a short overview of the work we had accomplished so far, we shared initial thoughts about detailing and its many functions.

For our first assignment, we made our way to Dave’s, Mac’s, and Joanne’s 20K model homes. We were instructed to draw accurately-scaled threshold sections of the homes, and after an hour or so of sketching and measuring, we placed our sketchbooks on a makeshift sawhorse table on Joanne’s classroom-sized front porch. Jake gave us his first round of expert advice, and we began to get an idea of just how much we would learn in the next few days.

After lunch, Jake hit us with the first of many iterations of various corner details from the model homes. At a 1:1 scale, we were tasked with sussing out that which we could not see within the wall and craft a plan and axonometric of the area. Some of us had not picked up a lead-holder in years, much less used a parallel bar since December of 1963. Somehow, though, we put graphite to trace paper and did our best to recall the importance of line weights and the angles of an axonometric drawing. Hours passed too quickly before we pinned up for Jake’s review: he challenged us to consider the fasteners that held everything together, as well as the order of operations of construction. We went back to the drawing board to tidy up our mistakes as best we could before that evening’s lecture, and after another round of critiques, Jake assigned us a final axon and plan drawing.

The next morning, many of us drowsy from the late night and early morning in Red Barn, we pinned up our second take at 1:1 details. Jake, Xavier, Steve, Emily, and surprise guest, Christian Dagg helped us fix mistakes and find possible solutions for our corner details. In light of our newfound familiarity with wood-frame construction, we journeyed to the Newbern Library to learn from a Rural Studio project notorious for its stringent and historic brick detailing. Jake divvied out twelve pieces of the building he found pertinent to the projects we would soon be detailing and put us to work. We measured and debated and continued drawing fretfully until lunch rolled around. Afterward, Jake critiqued us and directed us to draw yet another version of these details two more times before the sun began setting. For a dramatic conclusion to the workshop, we met up in the Library’s courtyard and double-checked some of the questionable details that had managed to still elude us. Jake imparted us final detailing wisdom before heading back to Red Barn for his lecture.

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Short lines big roof

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Enough about you Nate, what about Fay?

11.5 Months: Signing 'Milk', 'More', 'All Done', Enjoying putting things in boxes and Stacking rings, Trying to climb chairs and shelves, Favorite activities: looking at books and banging

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