Saturday and finishing boxes

Today I am finishing the small boxes made with the Gifkins jig, and as you can see in the photo, the shaping of the hinges is almost complete. I will have these ready for final beauty shots on Monday and the article ready for American Woodworker later in the week.

We have a lot to learn from comparisons. American politicians and economists in embracing the global economy have advocated a division of labor based on the same division of labor that takes place in modern corporations. You have the brains at the top, and the mindless, out of the know, labor at the bottom. In this scenario, the corporations would be the smart ones, and those in the third world, the labor, and the rest of us mindless consumers. We have had this idea that it is OK to have other nations providing the labor for our products, while completely ignoring the values inherent in making things for ourselves. As Otto Salomon said, the value of the child's work is not in the object made, but in the child. Can it not also be said with the same level of truth, that the real value of a nation's work is not in the products made but in the nation itself? Its character, will and resiliency?

When people are put to work in mindful labor, the real creation is in the hearts and minds of those people. A young woman at a lathe, shaping wood... is it only the wood that takes new shape?

We have been on a national head trip, and can so clearly see the results. But our economy can be restored when some people are put back to real work.