Rest, Peace and Joy
Just a minute! This time last year I had just finished building the oak baby cot for a new series. My granddaughter was born by just a few days and an unbelievable gift she was to us all. Hard to believe in a year now passed that she’s walking and saying things and making us happy with laughter because she’s funny, cute and affectionate.
As it is with many things, making a cot by a grandad is amazingly pleasurable. Making two is all the better and the prototype in pine now resides at my house where on overnight sleepovers and daytime naps my granddaughter rests i the solidity of its frame. This is the way I enjoy the fruits of my labour all the more; the designing first, the making and fitting then, and then the comfort it gives my granddaughter as she calmly sleeps upstairs.
This year has been much work to pull everything together and keep the schedule running on time, but yet again it has been full of so many surprises. The house came together nicely in the end but not until we thought we had lost the purchase and even said goodbye to it.
It’s a year since we first saw the house for sale and arranged to view it. As we followed up to buy it it all seemed destined to fall through. Two weeks passed and then suddenly everything came together for us to move ahead.
The builders moved in and started the remedial work – plumbers, electricians, carpenters and plasterers and tilers gutted two key areas and gave us two beautifully finished living sections for me to design for. A new canvass if you will. I snook in my new design in the wine rack to decorate for the Christmas gathering.
Personally I have been taking advantage a few days break. We all worked hard to be able to do this so that there were no glitches over the holidays. I am thankful for such a caring team that always take every issue and becomes the solution for anything outstanding. We celebrated together on the Friday night before Christmas by sharing a meal together at one big table for eleven people. The food was lovely but the company made everything exceptional. Needless to say I have missed them over the holidays.
Dwelling on all that we accomplished last year is humbling to say the least, it made me mindful of how much effort it takes to create the kind of content we do. The interfacing of two-world creativity can be more difficult than one might imagine. On my side of the camera I live in the making zones of wood, workbench and tools. Looking out I see the cameras and the people who man them as they too search to build their footage by capturing my moves and anticipating where I will go on the bench. Remember the plywood workbench? It was definitely the Marmite experience for everyone including me. Actually, I had planned this at the very least a decade or so ago — making one, I mean. I had kept putting it off but the planning had all been going on in my head, on and off. It was a year ago when I made the prototype.
I added the finishing touches off camera including the under-shelf, the drawer and such. Having used it now for a year there is nothing I would change because all that I added was taken from my original wooden ones that have evolved over the past 40 or so years.
So it is with all that I do. I take a chance and then wonder at the outcome.
Thank you, Paul, for a great 2019!
Thanks Paul and the team for a wonderful time watching in 2019 and looking forwards to a very busy 2020 with my woodworking journey. I cannot wait for what lies ahead.
Thanks Paul for your willingness to share so much of your knowledge and talent on film. I have learnt so much from watching your videos. I was part on an outdoor ministry for 10 years, filming and producing DVD’s, so I know a little about all that goes on behind the scenes to make a good video come together. Wishing you and all your wonderful team a very successful new year. I’ll be watching to see what you share next. Happy New Year.
Thank you Paul for all you do for us woodworkers. Merry Christmas and the best the new year has to offer
Thanks for all you do Paul and Team. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I’m sure that 2020 will be a good year for all of you and for all those of us that follow your work. I’m actually making a workbench for my garden shed, and it is being a very interesting work. Thank you very much and have a happy new year!
Thanks, Paul for your good guidance. You have influenced my wood-working out here in North Vancouver British Columbia and as an old guy, 8 years your senior, I still enjoy learning better techniques. I hope you have a super-good year and keep on blogging !
Thanks, Paul.
Happy New Year to you, your family and crew.
Wow she is a year old already! Almost ready for her first spokeshave! Is that Harry Potter’s door there under the stairs? The grandkids will love that when they get older. Happy Holidays!
Thanks, Paul and the team, for your brilliant work. May 2020 be a good year for us all.
Any chance of a video showing how you built the shelving unit on the wall behind you? it would be useful for me and, I suspect, for a good many more of your followers.
Happy New year to you all.
Thanks Paul.
I can’t think,of anything more joyous than the addition of a baby to a family. Sitting around the table with family is a close second. Before I met my wife, anyone I dated that didn’t feel the same about spending time with family was simply deemed incompatible with me. Last night we had a low pressure gathering at our home of family. Such joy. Glad yours was the same.
In 2020, would it be possible to get a high level overview of your 5ish year plan for furnishing the home? I am sure it will chance and evolve. I know I and surely others would love to hear the thought process that is going on inside your head. Any rough sketches, etc would be appreciated. Though I have what I need to exist, I am trying to flush out my own home with furniture (for example, I want our living room to become a library/reading room). Just hearing your thoughts could help many of us. If your plans change and evolve, that is fine. If it seems complicated to film, maybe just a vblog. Thanks for the consideration.
I’m off to the workshop to finish those small service trays/key holders to give to folks (I fell behind schedule and couldn’t make the 25th). They are certainly a wonderful design.
Black and white tiles never go out of style.
I have a black and white club lounge I reupholstered in 2003 when on work experience from school and it continues to please me.
On a secondary twist.
What country music do you like? I heard u liked it from previous tales when u would load up the station wagon and head north from mesquite country.
Thanks Paul for everything you taught us. Happy new year!
Thank you Paul and Staff for all the great work this year. May God bless you, your crew, and your family this Christmas and New year.
Thank you Paul!! It is always with great pleasure to watch you work and read your thoughts. You are an incredible inspiration to soooooo many people.
I pray GOD bless you and your family this coming year and it is full of happiness and love.
Much love from NC, USA!!
Thanks Paul and work mates. You all continue to inspire me as I learn the craft of woodworking. I find the words difficult to express how you all have opened my mind to new worlds. May all of you. and your loved ones, be blessed for all you do. Thanks from Idaho, USA 🙂
I always enjoy opening my email & hearing from the “Mr. Rogers” of woodworking!
Many thanks Paul for your brilliance on the job. A true master in the craft of woodwork.
May you and your family, friends and viewers have a happy and wonderful year in 2020.
Here’s wishing you and yours a happy and properous new year.
I am a 91 year old man who enjoys your videos- wishing I could somehow have time to develope skill to improve my wood working by watching your videos (and practice, practice practice). Keep up the good work! Gods’ blessings.
Seasons greeting and wishes to you and your amazing crew. Thank you for many hours of enjoyment and education. Here’s to 2020 to all of us and everyone. Peace.
May you have a most Blessed New Year and THANK YOU for sharing your skill and knowledge with us!!!
Wishing you and your colleagues all the best in the new year.
God rest ye merry gentlemen and gentlewomen (you have given us all so much). Looking forward to the upcoming 2020 Happy New Year.
Happy new year Paul and team . I wish you well and hope you had a good rest. I cannot wait for 2020 and the house of furniture project. All the best ideas come after a rest.
Thanks Team Paul for a wonderful and amazing content and footage during 2019 and allowing us into your studio and home. We look forward to what 2020 has install for us all.
Wishing you and your Team and families a blessed holiday season and a Happy New Year !!!!!
God Bless
Happy new year I’m just getting started in carpentry I think it’s an amazing skill would anybody recommend this program shorturl.at/JLMQ2
You need to decide what you want. Carpentry is not a definitive term and can mean anything from shuttering for concrete forms to carving statuettes with fifty other wood related crafts in between. If it’s a UK college course then they mostly teach the industry expectation by people who rarely actually worked in the trade for very long. Don’t know what the cost might be but consider working for a joiner somewhere and volunteer into it for three months. At the end you will at least be able to make an educated decision about where you want to take this. So too a furniture training. Find a furniture maker and simply say you’ll work for free with no commitment and see if you can find a taker. All the furniture schoolsI know of teaching and training cost thousands of pounds a year for the basics of which cqn be learned in a few weeks with a competent crafting artisan. From what I have seen many so called teachers couldn’t actually make a living from making so they teach instead and make a better and more steady income.
Oh, and here in the UK carpentry means construction site and assembling components on building sites. For the main part that is. By that I mean nailing premade trusses to wall plates, fixing pre-hung doors and window frames to brickwork and such. Mostly just chop-sqw work and the use of a sawsall. Not too skilled unless you are on restoration work, not because the men and women aren’t or can’t be skilled but because the owners of the businesses mostly disallow it, which goes all the way back to the Industrial Revolution. To draw any kind of comparison between what we do isn’t really of any practical vallue at all.
When I was in Vermont I went to the Museum of Precision. When in Massachusetts I went to the Springfield Armory. In both places they had exhibits going back to Industrial Revolution for making things (in both cases, it was focused on firearms – both the woodworking and metal working). You are absolutely correct Paul; you can see the removal of need for skilled craftsman labor to perform an operation.
That’s interesting Joe. Thanks for this.