Lucile

Lucile Worlund 

While living in Neah Bay in the early 1950s, Lucile became fascinated with all the beautiful driftwood and envisioned its artistic potential. Her first tools consisted of

jackknife, a 4-way rasp, chisel, sandpaper and a deer antler, having learned from the Makah women its value in burnishing wood. Upon her return to Seattle in 1958 Lucile developed and refined her method of working wood, calling it the LuRon method, taking the first two letters of her name and and the first three of her son, Ronald Lemire. (At Dr. Lemire’s behest the name was registered as a trademark in 1977.)

She began teaching YWCA driftwood sculpture classes. The first Driftwood Sculpture Show at the Red Barn in Bothell was a big success in 1963, leading to the formation of the Northwest Driftwood Artists later that year.

Lucile continued to be a consistent, driving force with NWDA, teaching classes, training teachers and establishing the LuRon Driftwood Sculpture Teachers in 1977 in order to assure the continuance of the standards of this art form. She is remembered as a wonderful teacher who always insisted on quality work. She urged students to develop their “Seeing Eye” – the ability to choose a suitable piece of wood to work on, to recognize the existence of design inherent in the wood, and to recognize the importance of grain, texture and color.