This is the story of a hunter that was lured into primitive archery, and that accepted a different set of challenges, such as making his own weaponry, by hand, out of a hunk of wood, and using it to get his family through the winter… well, OK, that might be a stretch. This story is also about the pros (in my view) and the cons of such “primitive” approaches to getting meat in the freezer. It is also a comparison of what the vast majority of bow hunters nowadays do and use, hunting philosophy, and the challenges and fun of creating a functional bow... in other words, the works. It will be less a formal presentation and more of chat, a sharing of experiences and thoughts, with a show and tell component. Finally, this is also a story of how the attitudes of bow-making and traditional archery are passed down to a new generation of bowyer-wannabes. With me, there will be (at least) two of my recent bow-making students, Sarah and Madeline. They will be sharing their experiences in making and shooting “primitive” bows, as they are working on their second bow. I still wonder if they will get the hunting “bug”. Will they stick to destroying paper targets only? Will their bows become wall-hanging pieces? Hard to say… we shall see how committed they are.

Maurizio Murru has taught natural sciences at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design since 2002. Though teaching “the dreaded science” to future artists and designers has been complicated and fun, at some point he found myself teaching more than natural sciences. Writes Murru: “I started making bows in 2005, maybe. Not sure, it is a blur when the whole thing started. There have been so many bows made since, so many failures (aka broken bows) and so many successes. Just for the fun of it, I started teaching bow-making classes at MIAD in 2009, if not earlier, for students and faculty. That became a hit, and I have been teaching it as an extracurricular activity since, every semester. [It’s been a] very rewarding way to spend my own personal time.”

Sarah and Madeline are in their junior year. Sarah is soon to become an interior architect and designer, while Madeline is pursuing her degree in industrial design.