Students at Missouri Southern have until the end of November to see nearly five feet of Webb City woodworking talent.

Ashley Harvey, a senior from Webb City High School, has temporarily lent her second-place in state Eiffel Tower to Southern for the France Semester. Harvey spent approximately six months creating the walnut tower during her junior year.

“The top is the only part not built to scale,” she said. “At the top of the Eiffel Tower it’s mainly just a bunch of wires, so I just did a cross.”

Harvey said assembling the four-sided project with 23 different pieces was the most difficult process in constructing the tower. However this process only took her two weeks. The most time-consuming process was cutting out the detailed pieces.

“I’ve had a lot of practice, so the cutting out part wasn’t hard,” she said.

The tower is just one of her state-winning creations. A clock and corner shelf both took first in state, as well as her drafting project. Harvey said the clock, completed her freshman and sophomore years, is her favorite so far.

“My clock was a lot better [than the tower] with more details,” Harvey said. “My shop teacher was disappointed I didn’t do something better, so this year it’ll be better.”

In Harvey’s shop class, she said she is playfully ridiculed. However, her skills in woodworking have made her stand out among other students.

“The class is mainly guys, so they were saying ‘a girl can’t do that,’ at first but I proved them wrong,” she said.

Harvey is currently working on her next project, an 8-foot tall and 5-foot wide desk cabinet, along with nine school related clubs and a job at Furniture Rescue.

She has refurnished furniture with two fellow employees for four months and loves seeing the finished projects.

“If you love doing that kind of stuff, then it’s not really a job,” she said. “People bring in stuff from the 1900s wanting them refurnished. It’s messy, but fun.”

Harvey has enjoyed woodworking since seventh grade, but said her family was the main influence on her interest.

“My grandpa’s really into woodworking and my whole family is pretty artistic, so they were excited when I started in junior high,” she said.

According to Harvey, the fun won’t stop after high school.

She plans on attending Pittsburg State University next year for its “amazing” wood technology program as well as a minor in photography.

However, she said if she was majoring in anything else she would come to Southern.

“Eventually, I want to be an industrial art teacher,” Harvey said. “I love woodworking and it’ll keep me in the shop all day where I like to be.”