It's easy to have too much of a good thing when it comes to inspiration as a woodworker. What should inform and encourage our craft can leave us stuck, discouraged, and even bitter if we're not careful. I have a few thoughts to help us keep working, and it starts with putting inspiration in its proper place.
Read MoreKnowing our task isn’t easy is nice (like a cliche coffee-cup saying is nice), but it leads us to our next truth and my secret hard-day theory: the bad days, no matter how distinctly crippling they are, are not wasted. Even the protracted pain of a zero-production day isn’t really a zero-production day. Sure, you didn’t cut your 16 mortise and tenons like you thought, or mill your pile of ash or walnut or whatever tropical carnival-colored species you’re rocking with, but consider what you did do. And you did do something, and this may sound like a cop-out but I assure you it is not: you showed up and you thought–a lot.
Read MoreThe goal for me in exploring the varied seasons of my career is…to try and discern some themes that developed through them that led me as inextricably into the industry as out of it.
Read MoreBefore I jumped into making with my hands full-time, I had spent over a decade with ‘making’ of a different sort, in the world of advertising. I had made it to the level of being a Senior Art Director before that industry saw my exit, with tenures in two of the finest agencies in my state, a few awards, some amazing work and a handful of now-defunct websites, and a great deal of experience and friends to show for it. I had made a living at being creative, but it wasn’t the sort of living that really made me feel alive.
Read MoreIn-between is not where I like to be.
I like to be done. I like to be finished, wrapped up, and on to the next one.
Yet I have begun to learn this lesson over the years – to trust the in-between. The uncomfortable liminal spaces between beginning and ending, starting and finishing.
Read MoreIt felt good to stretch my woodworking legs with these small projects for my own home rather than client work. After being awash in my porch’s miters and edge trim and brad nails, I was satisfied to top things off with a truly challenging hand-made affair.
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