Their very first assignment is hand carving the utensil out of a block of poplar. But there is a reason that Katie Hudnall — the director of UW’s woodworking and furniture program — calls it the “not a spoon” assignment.
“If the project was just shaping a perfect wooden spoon, they wouldn’t really get the chance to design something for themselves,” says Hudnall. “The assignment is really to create not just a spoon. The design element is what gets them to unlock their art brains.”