Here's Why You Need To Be Following The Work Of Ariele Alasko
When you come across a woodworker that is artistic, creative, and produces top level work like Ariele Alasko—stop and take the chance to learn.
Ariele Alasko is a sculptor and woodworker. Ariele went to Pratt institute in Brooklyn, New York, and has a BFA in sculpture. I remember back around 2010/2011 in the early days of Instagram that Ariele was one of the first woodworkers I followed. Her photography skills matched her woodworking skills, and she posted the coolest photos of her functional and artistic creations—all made from lath.
In 2009 after she graduated, Ariele started working with wood and building furniture for her own apartment. Her hobby, which had enveloped her small living room, transformed into a full time job soon after. She saved lath from construction demolition jobs that were destined for landfill and gave it a new lease of life. A hundred years ago lath formed the base for walls to be plastered. Today it is being ripped out during renovation works and being replaced with drywall.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
GEOMETRY
Ariele's early work mostly used lath as the material. Geometric patterns were large features of her work, whether they were a wall hanging or a table. Geometry is one of the most important aspects of any woodworking project—whether you're creating a geometric pattern or not. Geometry affects the legs of a table, or the incline of a chair back. It's clear Ariele carefully considers the layout of each piece. Every line and every angle create interesting shapes, which make her work stand out.
COLOUR
It's impossible to know whether the lath Ariele uses is a different species, or has just weathered differently. But what is clear is that she understands how to mix wood colours. It's rare to see woodwork projects that work so well when wood colours are mixed. A lot of times mixed species clash with each other. However Ariele recognises what pieces of lath will complement each other. This trained eye comes with experience, and trial & error.
DEVELOPMENT
As woodworkers we are all constantly trying to develop our skills. Ariele became extremely accomplished at using lath and creating artistic pieces. But she wasn't afraid to move on from it and develop new styles like this beautifully sculpted side table. The table is expertly balanced in scale and proportion. The legs work extremely well with the top. Developing a style like this is not easy. Ariele appears to have done it with ease (along with a lot of hard work behind-the-scenes— I'm sure).
PROCESS
It's clear Ariele enjoys the process. There is no way she could spend hour upon hour lovingly carving and crafting her works if she didn't. She seems to enjoy her work and take joy from what she does—as is evident from her Instagram posts. This is probably a life lesson as much as it is a woodworking lesson.
CONCLUSION
Ariele Alasko's body of work is so vast, varied, and impressive that it's difficult to even cover a small snippet of it in this piece. But there's so much to be learned from this amazing woodworker, and artist that you should definitely be following her work and learning as much as you can. Even if you never plan to sculpt in this style or create geometric patterns— small elements can trigger a thought that leads to an exciting new creation of your own. It's woodworkers like Ariele that are leading the way. If we want to develop we should be following along for the ride.
https://www.instagram.com/arielealasko/
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