HANOVER — Besides crafting something useful from wood, eighth grader Gabriel Lizcano had another reason for taking Cliff Harriman’s woodworking class at Richmond Middle School: the joy his work brings others.

“It is nice after you work so hard on something then seeing the final product and giving it to someone else and seeing them really happy with it,” Gabriel said while working on the top of a table of black walnut and maple he is making for his mother. “I gave my first cutting board to my grandmother for our little summer home in Maine and she loved it so much and that made me happy.”

Harriman’s morning woodworking class for 12 seventh and eighth graders is a typical wood shop scene with the din of sanders and other machines. There’s also a prevailing scent of wood, coming from lumber everywhere. Shelves packed with finished work included chess boards and cutting boards. All around the room, students are focused on projects in various stages of completion.

Seventh grader Zoey Jenney gently sanded the back side of her wooden spoon with an oscillating spindle sander to get the proper shape under the watchful eye of substitute teacher Tim Sullivan.

“I just like woodworking and making stuff,” Zoey said about why she took the elective course. “I’m also a very artsy person.”

Harriman, who returned to Richmond in mid-October after ankle surgery, took over the program four years ago, after longtime teacher Richard Starr, who relied primarily on hand tools for instruction, retired after 40 years with the district.

Harriman added new equipment, including jigsaws, a jointer, a table saw, sanders and lathes for wood turning.

“So it is a combination of classic woodworking as well as turning (on lathes),” Harriman said.

A lot of wood turning, which is not common in school woodworking classes, and the move to more furniture building including tables and chairs is what makes the course unique, Harriman said as he scrolled through photos on his phone of chairs and Shaker tables made by students last year..

To start, all students make wooden spoons of various sizes because they are simple and easy to make before moving on to more challenging projects.

“Normally they go through a design process,” Harriman said. That includes sketching out dimensions, deciding what type of wood to use and compiling a materials list.

“The whole goal is for the kids to make something that is beautiful and functional,” Harriman said.

Visual arts at Richmond are elective courses except for a required semester in sixth grade.  Sara Ellis teaches all three grades. including a class called Paint on Canvas. In her class last month, several students were working on their black and white paintings for the course.

Students begin working in black and white during the first semester before moving on to color and color theory. Their year-end assignment is to complete a color painting. Those who commit to Paint on Canvas are hoping to get into a Hanover High School design class, a prerequisite for all other high school art classes, Ellis said.

“My thought is to get them exposed to a bunch of different art making mediums,” Ellis said. “Some may like painting but not drawing while others like drawing but not sculpture.

Ellis also teaches ceramics, jewelry making, sketching and watercolor classes.

The freedom of creative expression to develop her own ideas is why eighth grader Scarlett Addante-Holstrom takes art classes

“I feel like you have a lot of freedom with art in general. You are given a project but you are allowed to add your own touch and be more creative,” Scarlett said while carefully painting white lines on her painting of a zebra head and neck.

She has also found artistic freedom in ceramics, sketching and water colors.

“I really liked ceramics because you definitely could do what you wanted and I made a really big bowl,” Scarlett said. “It was very self-guided.”

Nearby, eighth grader Evelyn Swanwick used different shades of black pencils to sketch a model of a small wooden stick figure.

“I’m using different shades to make it look more realistic,” Evelyn said, adding that she enjoyed a previous project of color sunflowers and looked forward to taking a sculpture class.

Ellis wants her students to have fun in class as she introduces them to different art forms but also to give their best effort.

“Some kids are high fliers,” she said. “For others it can be hard, but as long as they are trying to do their best, it is more about the process and how to use things so they can take it and make it what they want.”

Back at the woodshop, eighth grader Izzy Calsbeek, took a break from using a chisel and mallet to begin digging out the bowl portion of her spoon and focused her attention to turning on a lathe to work on her wood turning skills. Izzy locked into the lathe a bowl she made last year of resin with pine cones embedded in it. She then slowly moved a carbide scraper along the inside edge of the bowl to shave away the interior.

“It is really fun to see how different things are made,” Izzy said. “I made another bowl, a spoon, candlestick holders and also have done wood burning.”

With enrollment limited, Harriman said he has arranged to open the shop a half-hour early for kids who could not sign up for the regular class period. Some will come in four or five days a week.

“It’s extra time for me, but the kids that come in, like those that sign up for regular classes, want to be here and want to make great things for themselves and/or family members,” Harriman said.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.