Today Closes the Week

My week was more relaxed in many ways, more than usual. I cleaned up and put up after a hard month since Christmas which I really enjoyed because I love order. Wood got stacked, unusable offcuts sacked and delivered to friends and neighbours for supplementing their winter fuel. The garage workshop I work in and teach from is generally always tidy. In some ways, it’s a place I have refined by distilling down to more the essentials from my experience working and making in the day to day. When I included weekend classes in my workspace I found no need to change what I had and so too the reality of filming where the cameras rarely come into my space to film except for some of the close-up and atmospheric footage they need for you to better understand a practice, technique or procedure.

This has been a prototype week too, where I explore different options until I think up a possibility and make something I feel strongly enough about to fully make. I think through the processes and then the options for the wood. Three pieces come to mind and then fruition. My criteria? It must have a teaching element, a new technique if possible and a design that’s unique to me and all who watch. Mostly this all follows on from a sketch or two.

In this case, I designed the mirror following traditional lines and then I developed the process for making it.

The first mirror in ash worked fine and I decorated it with a simple two-minute leaf serpentine. The actual product took a different twist with mahogany inlay work and a technique I wanted to introduce that gave a little more depth to the mirror making. Anyway, making both left me quite fulfilled.

Today I ripped the material for my next project and hope to pull that together throughout the day. Izzy wanted/needed some images for some work she is doing for commonwoodworking.com so we did that work straight off. It’s nice seeing her work come together knowing that the effort is well received and helpful. We have worked together on CW for two years to date and I am amazed at how much effort she puts into it.

Jack’s in and working on his rocking chair which seems to be going well for him. He has 40 joints to make and has completed just about 10 so far. In fact, it’s quite hard to keep ahead of him just ripping his wood on the bandsaw. He’s made so many things and what’s really nice is seeing him sharpen up without any feeling of inadequacy or intimidation. I know I have succeeded with students and apprentices when I pick up their tools to show them some technique and the tools feel as sharp as mine.

Hannah has been adding many new projects to her portfolio of pieces over the last few weeks and she’s still loving her work with wood. So, all in all, everything is going great.