Watching the closing of Prince Philips’s life this week has been both sad and joyous for me. Seldom do we hear of men of stature without some disheartening event in their lives that tarnished what should have been exemplary. Here, in the life of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, we have of a man…

Becoming a maker does not always or need to mean that you make your living from making things to sell. Sometimes we see selling as a validation to our efforts, a sort of badge of merit if you will. Look, I just sold a chunk of wood I had and made £10 for something that…

Though we still have cold starts to the day, my eager anticipation of working never fails to motivate me and indeed keep me warm. Today is no different. I open up the workshop and smell the roses, in this case it’s more the cherry blossom in the wood I’m working with. I recently abandoned a…

I’m almost done with my new coffee table design for the Sellers’ Home living room series seemingly coming together from nowhere piece by piece. By that, I mean that the design is finished in my head and now on paper but as yet not quite fully made. We have videoed the first few episodes though…

I recently let you know that I have regained full control of my first published book Working Wood 1&2 which was originally published by Artisan Media 10 years ago. In the acquisition, I took possession of all existing book stocks. They are taking up valuable space here at my workshop. This book is my foundational…

My greenhouse is in the final throes of completion with both roof sides and three walls fully glazed. I still have opening lites to go in and some flashing to the meeting spars but it gets hot in there even with one wall yet to glaze. The weather definitely made me late for a planned…

As the covid year unfolded, everyone gradually accepted lockdowns, self-isolation in shielding and then a mass of other self-monitoring systems of distancing and safety margins. Mask-wearing for those of us working wood all day long and on a daily basis was not new at all, yet it was those wearing them for the first time…

I think that everyone is questioning what is normal anymore. My year has been very normal and normalcy for me is mostly that life revolves around my making and working on things I make from wood. With a dozen and more decent-sized projects filmed, made, stacked up and under my belt, I remind myself of…

I did an experiment today. I took pieces of cherry and set myself a goal. I had eight pieces of rough-sawn cherry on my bench for a project I am building. I did not look at the wood in any sort of depth first but simply found myself tracing my fingers over the bandsawn surfaces,…

I sometimes think saw sales and the makers shoot themselves in the foot. Whether it is because they fail to change with the times or just plain shortsightedness, I can’t tell. Perhaps that’s a little strong but don’t think it is even strong enough. There is though something about old businesses that are prepared to…