Wood Flower Carving

media release: We’re excited to be partnering with the Center for Design and Material Cultures to host a drop-in wood carving workshop in The Link in Nancy Nicholas Hall led by Derek Brabender. In this all-levels workshop, you’ll learn to carve a wooden flower using locally harvested red osier dogwood. Participants will be taught how to carve a wooden flower and will leave with the skills necessary to create more on their own.

This is a drop-in workshop, so feel free to come by for as long as you like between 3:00pm and 4:30pm. The event is free, open to the public, and no registration is required. Light refreshments will be served.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Design and Material Cultures, the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, and the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic+ to celebrate 150 years of Scandinavian Studies on campus.

Derek Brabender, an artisan green woodworker from Stoughton, Wisconsin, specializes in crafting beautiful and functional woodenware using hand tools and a foot-powered pole lathe. He sources freshly felled wood from arborists or fallen trees due to storms, utilizing its softer fibers for effective shaping with traditional techniques. By working with this material and employing traditional techniques, Derek has been exploring the extensive common wood culture found throughout human history in Europe, while fostering a deeper connection with our environment. In 2024 Derek was awarded an artist fellowship by the American Scandinavian Foundation to study advanced turning techniques and pole lathe turning, explore the historical context of the pole lathe in Nordic countries, and build a set of lathes to increase public awareness and engagement with this craft and its importance to Nordic folk art.