Dos Pueblos Excessive Faculty pupil Zander Doherty, age 17, has earned nationwide recognition for his woodworking expertise and is the primary individual in Santa Barbara historical past to qualify and compete in Freshwood at AWFS (Affiliation of Woodworkers & Furnishings Suppliers). On the nationwide competitors, which came about on the Las Vegas Conference Middle from July 25-28, Doherty’s rocking chair took first place within the seating class and was additionally the recipient of the extremely aggressive “Folks’s Selection Award.”
Within the spring, the Santa Barbara District hosted a pupil woodworking competitors, the place Doherty constructed and submitted a rocking chair produced from walnut as his foremost entry. That chair was awarded “Finest in Present,” in addition to a number of different awards, together with opening the door to nationwide competitors — and, in the end, bragging rights.
Freshwood at AWFS is the largest woodworking truthful in North America, and Doherty was considered one of 20 excessive schoolers within the nation chosen to compete.
He first found woodworking to start with of the seventh grade, when he attended Santa Barbara Junior Excessive and noticed “wooden store” listed as an elective when choosing courses. “I had initially thought that we’d merely be given a chisel and a mallet and can be carving,” stated Doherty. “To my shock, the store was filled with energy instruments and after constructing a pair small initiatives, I quickly realized that I beloved woodworking and I haven’t stopped constructing since.”
Taking pure supplies and utilizing your creativeness to form them into no matter kind you want is Doherty’s favourite half about woodworking: the creativity. Having the ability to say “I constructed that” after ending a challenge is one other facet of woodworking that Doherty enjoys.
“I like to unravel issues that come up whereas constructing a challenge, or change components as I’m going to enhance on a design,” stated Doherty.
With creativeness additionally comes endurance with woodworking. “You may have all of the creativeness on this planet, however with out laborious work and endurance, nothing may be created,” he stated. He defined, “As a way to construct something, you’ll have to have creativeness, however you’ll even have to have the ability to have a look at a bit of wooden and see all of the potential initiatives that may be produced from it. Not each a part of a construct goes to be enjoyable, and also you’ll have to work by means of the laborious components to get to the great ones.”
After highschool, Doherty plans on discovering one of the best commerce faculty potential and studying all of the woodworking data and expertise that he can. He then needs to proceed to develop his enterprise, Zander’s Woodworks, and make customized furnishings items for years to return.
Doherty at present has his personal small woodworking store in Santa Barbara, and he sells works on his web site together with customized orders.
Dos Pueblos pupil Zander Doherty (proper) along with his Development Expertise trainer Chris M. Mollkoy on the competitors | Credit score: Courtesy
