Katherine Edmonds

Kather­ine Edmonds is a craftsper­son, designer, and educa­tor based in Corval­lis, Oregon. She earned a BA in Biology from Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) and an MA in Ecology from the Univer­sity of Georgia (Athens, GA). She also has an exten­sive design educa­tion, having completed a Master’s degree in Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing with a focus in design at Oregon State Univer­sity (Corval­lis, OR). She has honed her tradi­tional craft skills at the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship (Rock­port, ME), complet­ing their furni­ture inten­sive program, in addi­tion to attend­ing contin­u­ing educa­tion classes at Ander­son Ranch (Snow­mass, CO), Florida School of Wood­work (Tampa, FL) and Port Townsend Wood School (Port Townsend, WA). To further her knowl­edge in tradi­tional wood­work­ing, Edmonds appren­ticed with two master furni­ture makers, spend­ing a year working with Richard Shrader in Athens, Georgia and another year working with Pat Megowan in Corval­lis, Oregon. She is also an alumni of the Crew at Oneta Wood­works, where she spent several years build­ing out local bars, restau­rants, and brew­eries in Athens, Georgia. 

Kather­ine has held over thirty-five differ­ent jobs, doing her best to sample all corners of the job market. Primar­ily, she has worked in some form of educa­tion, includ­ing ski instruc­tion, white­wa­ter kayak­ing guide, college profes­sor, preschool teacher, and of course wood­work­ing instruc­tor. Recently, learn­ing to fully embrace her neuro­di­ver­gence and kines­thetic learn­ing and living style, she has once again returned to the phys­i­cal­ity of craft. She has taught in both the Art and Design Program in the College of Forestry and the Design Program in the School of Engi­neer­ing as a grad­u­ate teach­ing assis­tant (Oregon State Univer­sity, Corval­lis, OR). 

Currently, she teaches classes and mentors wood­work­ers at High­land Wood­shop, a commu­nity wood­shop in Corval­lis, OR, which she co-oper­ates with two busi­ness part­ners. She is also a found­ing steer­ing commit­tee member of Tarweed Folk School (Corval­lis, OR), where she teaches classes, helps with program­ming, and designed their website. 

Edmonds loves exper­i­ment­ing with new mate­ri­als and tech­niques, contin­u­ing to expand her knowl­edge base as a craftsper­son. Presently, she finds herself focused on marquetry and pyrog­ra­phy as tech­niques to merge her inspi­ra­tion and skillset. She finds that her phys­i­cal expe­ri­ences with the natural world often find their way into her designs, expand­ing her knowl­edge about ecolog­i­cal and biological processes.