Sumter County
Woodwork (cutting boards)
Stephen Liverman said he had no “special
training” working with wood but learned “along the way” from people he “was
fortunate enough to encounter”. “I grew up learning practical historic
preservation from my folks. They were great teachers, and we had a good reason
to learn – the more we did, the more rooms in our house became inhabitable, and
the more furniture we had to sit on.”
Stephen’s family members are talented in many areas: painting; writing;
drawing; woodworking; and include a landscape architect. “Along the way” as
Stephen said, he worked with a gifted furniture refinisher, and briefly with a compagnon – (unique French artisans) who
still practice incredible craftsmanship and old world arts.” The rewards he
receives from his craft is “hard to explain – kind of a feeling of fulfillment
of purpose; a real keen sense of balance.”
“I use a variety of wood species, all
locally sourced, most from storm-fallen trees; some in ‘scrap’ from
construction/renovation projects. On
some occasions I’ll buy lumber milled in local lumber yards. This lumber is
most often from a fallen tree in someone’s yard. The majority of the woods I
work with, however, comes from the woods I grew up in – storm fallen lumber I
used to climb or swing on.”
“Not counting the years it takes to ‘cure’
the lumber, or days finished pieces must stay in clamps, an average piece like
this will take me a full day to make. I
make them in batches to expedite the process. In reality, it takes me about a
week for each batch. For these cutting boards, I mostly let function and the
wood dictate the design. Just from years of working with these odd Black Belt
species, I have a pretty good idea of how a finished piece will turn out.”
“As far as my creative process goes, I
guess it just…well, goes. It’s kind of
on-going is what I mean. It’s more
apparent in some of my other ‘one-off’ pieces, but I like to think that its
core shines through even in these boards.
I like to problem solve, and to me, design is just a nicer name for that
process. I’m also a bit of a dreamer, so you mix these elements together, put
some time and work behind, and you’ll always end up with something beautiful.”