WOOD WORKS

Remember that trivet you so lovingly made in high school wood shop?

Be ashamed. Be very ashamed.

As nice as your trivet was -- and we're sure your mother treasures it still -- there's just no way it can stack up against the pieces created by finalists in the 2007 Fresh Wood Student Competition.

The annual contest, sponsored by the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers, this year drew 210 entries from high school and college students in 41 schools throughout the United States and Canada.

Judges then selected 58 finalists whose works were shipped to Las Vegas for final judging last week during the association's annual trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

And make no mistake: These weren't the wooden doodads, trinkets and tchotchkes you remember from your high school, or even your college, shop class.

Instead, the finalists crafted ornate nightstands, fancy tables, striking dressers and classy armoires that featured intricate inlays and multiple wood construction, in designs that brought to mind the 1800s, 1950s and '60s, and even some future epoch still to come.

There were rocking chairs -- as well as one chair that wasn't technically a rocker but was designed to make sitting a decidedly springy experience -- handmade guitars and a stylish pool table. Among the most unusual entries were a full-sized door with wrought-iron accents and a music stand that looked sort of like -- it sounds weird, but it really does work -- an archer.

In a word: impressive. And, hoped Dale Silverman, executive vice president of the association, maybe an incentive for these and other young artisans to consider careers in woodworking, furniture-making and allied careers.

This is the fourth year the association has sponsored the competition, which also serves as a way to promote high school and postsecondary educational programs in woodworking and furniture-making.

On Wednesday, judges gave the finalist pieces the wood shop equivalent of a road test, opening dresser drawers to see how easily they glided, rocking in rocking chairs to see how smoothly they rocked, and peering deep inside cabinets to evaluate the young woodworker's technique.

One of the finalists, John Kizer, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C., just earned an associate's degree in fine and creative woodworking, and hopes to pursue a career doing commissioned pieces. His entry in the show was a reproduction of a Boston bombe chest, based on a style popular in the United States during the 1800s.

Kizer said he fashioned the chest out of a piece of mahogany 23 inches wide, 3 inches thick and 12 feet long.

With its swollen sides and curves, the chest is "beautiful," he said. "And it's mahogany, which is one of the most beautiful woods."

What's the appeal of woodworking? "I've always been interested in nature, so the beauty I get to represent through the natural-grain wood is something I've always enjoyed about it," he said.

There's also the creativity such work requires and the satisfaction of crafting something with one's own hands. "It's like you kind of have a relationship with a piece because you spend so many hours with it," he said.

Catherine Zachas, 23, just received a bachelor's degree in industrial design from Georgia Tech University. During her final semester, she took a furniture design course to augment her studies in product design.

"I didn't really go to school to become a woodworker," she admitted.

Nonetheless, the Aerri dresser she designed made her a finalist in the competition. It's a "very simple, very contemporary design," she said, with clean lines and an appealing simplicity.

Now, her interest in woodworking has been piqued.

"I'd like to get into either interior design and space planning, but I also love furniture designing," she said. "I'd like to bridge the gap between the two -- design spaces, but also design furniture to go into those spaces."

But Andrew Prioli might have been the most surprised finalist in the competition. His piece -- a walnut-and-maple table that features an intricate, Celtic-inspired inlay -- belied the fact that he has taken exactly one woodworking class in high school.

Prioli, 16, is a student at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, N.C. When he returns in the fall for his junior year, he plans to continue his woodworking studies while also pursuing a college preparatory course of study.

Woodworking is "difficult in some ways," he said. "It's the only class I know of that you come out of it physically tired and mentally tired."

But, he added, "I love designing and being able to just work with your two hands and building artwork. The end product you can look at and (say), 'Yeah, I did that,' because, all the other classes, you can write a paper but it's still a piece of paper."

On Wednesday, Prioli watched nervously as a judge gave his piece the once-over. Now, he said, a career in woodworking is "definitely an option. I would really enjoy going further with it."