This has nothing to do with my post here but I thought that this moon would bless you all. I took the picture at 3am as I saw it through my bedroom window this morning.
Imagine learning anything to take a break from stress. It works! The cell phone stops, emails can’t so readily penetrate three-foot thick walls and of course the office phone may be a 200 miles away. Perfect!
A three-day workshop may well be the answer for many I am sure but persuading them to leave the office and sit around a craftsman’s bench may not always be easy. How would you make the break from such a background and yet be creative. How about being recreative in the sense of re-creative. Stepping out of what for you is a normal sphere of work could be the very thing you need to develop an alternative to the ordinary even though your ordinary may not be that ordinary. I think my students have all done that. They work hard towards perfecting their skills and always want good results. It’s important not to bring more stress into your already stressful life and so I am anxious not to apply more pressure than it takes to cause an increased awareness of all of the five senses. For me it’s a question of wakening my students to the reality that they have always been there but that they are all to often unsensed if you will. Today the process began to develop skill, awaken the senses, and create something of quality and it’s working.
My vise was opening and closing all day long and tools were thrust back and forth on diamond plates to prove my methods of sharpening really work. The dovetails were formed with five hand tools costing only a few pounds and suddenly smiles appeared on everyone’s face. Before long we were sweeping the benches of and sweeping the floor before walking out of the door for home. All in all it was a great day all round.
